Lyda Cini, Countess of Monselice (née Borelli, 22 March 1884 – 2 June 1959) was an Italian

actress An actor or actress is a person who portrays a Character (arts), character in a performance. The actor performs "in the flesh" in the traditional medium of the theatre or in modern media such as film, radio, and television. The analogous Greek ...

of cinema and

theatre Theatre or theater is a collaborative form of performing art that uses live performers, usually actors or actresses, to present the experience of a real or imagined event before a live audience in a specific place, often a stage. The perform ...

. Her career in theatre started when she was a child, acting on stage with Paola Pezzaglia in the French drama ''

I due derelitti ''I Due derelitti'' is a 1951 Italian melodrama film directed by Flavio Calzavara. Plot Count George of Kerlor, convinced that his wife has betrayed him and that little Gianni, the boy he raised as a son, is not in reality his own, entrusts th ...

''.

Biography

Lyda Borelli was born on 22 March 1884, the second child to stage actors Napoleone Borelli and Cesira Banti Borelli. She had an older sister, Alda (1879–1964), who also became an actress. Borelli made her stage debut in 1902, and, by the age of 18, she was already receiving lead roles and had become a favorite actress of Gabriele D’Annunzio. In 1904, she starred in D’Annunzio's La Figlia di Jorio, and D'Annunzio dedicated his books ''Il ferro'' and ''Più che l’amore'' to her. By 1908, Borelli was considered a fashion icon; Borellismo and Borelleggiare both became terms used to describe how women tried to pose, dress, and move like Lyda Borelli. In 1913, Borelli made her film debut in '' Ma l'amor mio non muore'', directed by Mario Caserini, who was considered to be the best Italian silent film director, and starring opposite Mario Bonnard. Between 1913 and 1918 Borelli made 14 films and appeared in 2 documentaries. She often portrayed vamps who end up committing suicide via poison. Her acting was mainly based on excessive gestures, painful expressions and languid gazes.

Antonio Gramsci Antonio Francesco Gramsci ( , , ; 22 January 1891 – 27 April 1937) was an Italian Marxist philosopher, journalist, linguist, writer, and politician. He wrote on philosophy, political theory, sociology, history, and linguistics. He was a ...

, who, in 1917 worked as a theatre reviewer, criticised her stating she represented a heightened form of sensuality, "a part of a primordial and prehistoric humanity" that had managed to cast a spell on the audience. Poster for Fior di male

Novelist

Lucio D'Ambra Lucio D'Ambra (1880–1939) was an Italian writer and film director. Born as Renato Manganella, he wrote under the pen name of D'Ambra becoming a celebrated journalist, novelist, and film critic. A noted film enthusiast, D'Ambra became involved ...

wrote about her in 1937: "The new goddess eclipsed with her aesthetic prestige all the others; young Italian women literally moulded themselves on this sinuous statue that, struck by love pangs, harmoniously twisted and turned like a sensual music. Women at the time loved her grand gestures on stage and on the big screen and tried to imitate as much as they could those plastic yet sensual movements. What later on happened with

Greta Garbo Greta Garbo (born Greta Lovisa Gustafsson; 18 September 1905 – 15 April 1990) was a Swedish-American actress. Regarded as one of the greatest screen actresses, she was known for her melancholic, somber persona, her film portrayals of tragedy, ...

, had happened in Italy with Lyda Borelli a few years earlier. It was easy to meet in the literary salons and cafes, at the theatre and in the streets many little Borellis who starved themselves ending up looking like sinuously serpentine shadows, thin, wrapped up and draped in the shortest fabric swatches they could find among the stocks of the silk shops." In 1918, at the height of her career, Borelli retired and married Vittorio Cini, Count of Monselice (1885–1977). The two had four children together - Giorgio, Mynna, and twins Ylda and Yana. Vittorio Cini had a long relationship with the Italian Fascist party, joining in 1926, and had occupied influential positions within government and industry throughout the decades of

Benito Mussolini Benito Amilcare Andrea Mussolini (; 29 July 188328 April 1945) was an Italian politician and journalist who founded and led the National Fascist Party. He was Prime Minister of Italy from the March on Rome in 1922 until his deposition in 194 ...

's rule. In early 1943 he was named to the Ministry of Communication, but soon resigned, publicly castigating the obviously dire state of the national situation. He joined the plotting against Mussolini, and with the Nazi occupation of Northern Italy, he was arrested by the SS and sent to the

Dachau concentration camp , , commandant = List of commandants , known for = , location = Upper Bavaria, Southern Germany , built by = Germany , operated by = ''Schutzstaffel'' (SS) , original use = Political prison , construction ...

. Transferred to a hospital, his son Giorgio was able to get him released by bribing officials with diamonds and jewellery. Giorgio would also lobby successfully against the elder Cini's legal exclusion from political activities, arguing that his final break with Mussolini mitigated his long years of collaboration. Giorgio died in a plane crash near

Cannes Cannes ( , , ; oc, Canas) is a city located on the French Riviera. It is a communes of France, commune located in the Alpes-Maritimes departments of France, department, and host city of the annual Cannes Film Festival, Midem, and Cannes Lions I ...

on 31 August 1949. After his death, Vittorio established the

Cini Foundation The Giorgio Cini Foundation (''Italian: Fondazione Giorgio Cini''), or just Cini Foundation, is a cultural foundation founded 20 April 1951 in memory of Giorgio Cini, an Italian entrepreneur who died in August 1949. History The Foundation is loca ...

in his memory. Lyda Borelli died on 2 June 1959 and was buried at

Ferrara Charterhouse Ferrara Charterhouse ( it, Certosa di Ferrara), of which the present Church of San Cristoforo alla Certosa was previously the monastic church, is a former charterhouse or Carthusian monastery built in Renaissance style, located on Piazza Borso 50 i ...

alongside her son. Her husband, Vittorio, was buried with her upon his death in 1977, as was one of her daughters, Yana, in 1989, along with her husband, Fabrizio, in 2017.

Filmography

* '' Ma l'amor mio non muore'' (1913) * ''La memoria dell'altro'' (1913) * '' La donna nuda'' (1914) * '' Fior di male'' (1915) * '' Rapsodia satanica'' (1915) * '' La marcia nuziale'' (1915) * '' La falena'' (1916) * ''

Madame Tallien Madame may refer to: * Madam, civility title or form of address for women, derived from the French * Madam (prostitution), a term for a woman who is engaged in the business of procuring prostitutes, usually the manager of a brothel * ''Madame'' ( ...

'' (1916) * '' Malombra'' (1917) * ''Carnevalesca'' (1917) * ''Il dramma di una notte'', intitolato anche ''Una notte a Calcutta'', (1917) * '' La storia dei tredici'' (1917) * ''La leggenda di Santa Barbara'' (1918)

Artworks

* Portrait of Lyda Borelli, painting by

Giuseppe Amisani Giuseppe Amisani (7 December 1881 – 8 September 1941) was an Italian portrait painter of the Belle Époque. Life Amisani was born on 7 December 1881 in Piazza Mercato (now Piazza Giuseppe Amisani) in the comune of Mede di Lomellina, near P ...

oil on cardboard, * Portrait of Lyda Borelli, painting by Cesare Tallone oil on canvas

Gallery

Tallone-Lyda-Borelli 2.jpg, Painting by Cesare Tallone Nunes Vais, Mario (1856-1932), Lyda Borelli.jpg, Photograph by Mario Nunes Vais LedaBorelli1907.png, 1907 photograph

References

External links