the novel by Alexander Dumas, Jr., La Dame aux Camelias , published in 1848, led right from the start of several cinemas in various adaptations. So, first of all directed in 1907 by Viggo Larsen coincides with the first steps of the Nordisk, or directed by Ugo moth in 1909, with Italian cinema. In 1911 Louis Mercatone conducts first French adaptation with starring Sarah Bernhardt, and Albert 1915 Chaplaincy U.S. conducts first two years before the incarnate Theda Bara. Within the German cinema, Erna Morena and Pola Negri respectively assume the role in 1917 (for Paul Leni) and 1920 (to Paul L. Stein). Already in the 20's, the issue serves a duo showcasing star Rudolph Valentino and Alla Nazimova in 1921, and Norma Talmadge , with the help of Fred Niblo (1926). When ten years later, Greta Garbo the stars, directed by George Cukor, the most famous adaptation, the subject is already more than trite. In the talkies, the novel is that new adaptations (especially more recently, for television), although not as frequently or interest which was in the silent movies. Do not forget either that was the basis for the popular opera La Traviata of Verdi, which has also been the subject of a number of adjustments.
The version of the Dumas novel in 1915 led Gustavo Serena is one of the most memorable. Serena also plays and repeats well, with Francesca Bertini, the duo who starred in the hit Assunta Spina. Despite taking a case from the French literature (although certainly universal themes), the film known to take his spot in the field of melodramas of the divas. Disease and sorrows of love are a good actor a starring vehicle for Bertini, who had very little to deploy their gestures of women affected by love and pain. Chronicles the ups and downs of love between Marguerite Gautier and Armand Duval, who tries to remove the dissipated life and filled it carries costs. It also conflicts with other characters of this relationship is derived: the father of Armand attempt to match her daughter with the son of an aristocrat, who has not welcomed the life of scandal that brings the beloved brother of his future child.
As with Assunta Spina, the film is in the stillness of the camera a premeditated action, but in this case there is some lateral movement, very smooth, almost imperceptible that focus or energize certain scenes. It is a film of many interior scenes, with aristocratic salons and environmental reference (one of the main values \u200b\u200bof the tape), although there is some outside by the sea, similar to what occurred in Assunta Spina, Velcro and a clear background blurred. Within every external part of a cottage, you see a beautiful scene in which two characters (Armand and his future brother) talk with a long road back in a car appears, it is about where the couple is talking, ie, approaches the camera and just stops in the desired plane to talk to them. Are quite isolated levels within a very dynamic theater, which closes with an exaggerated gesture of abating Bertini before a sudden death and the corpse away from Armand Duval (Gustavo Serena), so sudden that it even has a point of comical.
