LA DIVA GENTILE. SOAVA GALLONE NELLE RIVISTE CINEMATOGRAFICHE ITALIANE DAL 1915 AL 1925
THE “DIVA GENTILE”. THE ACTRESS SOAVA GALLONE IN ITALIAN CINEMA MAGAZINES FROM 1915 TO 1925

Summary/Abstract: Abstract: this article illustrates the critical reception of Soava Gallone; born Stanislava Winawer; according to Italian movie magazines between 1915 and 1925. the career of the Polish actress; who settled in Italy in 1911; developed especially during the golden age of the “Diva-Film”; a proper Italian film genre that focuses attention on female roles and on the characters that they play; of Symbolist and Dannunzian derivation. the actress’ approach to her craft was a far cry from the canons of the “divas” of that time; who were characterised by languid gazes and mannered poses. While Lyda Borelli; Francesca Bertini; Pina Menechelli played mainly “femmes fatales”; Soava Gallone preferred more reassuring characters whose seductive implications were often derived from the cruelty of the male characters. In Avatar (Carmine Gallone; 1915); Gallone played a loyal wife; in Senza Colpa! (Carmine Gallone; 1915); she played an innocent woman forced to defend herself from an attempted rape with homicide; in La Chiamavano Cosetta (eugenio Perego; 1917); she portrayed a womn pushed to false desires for luxury and wrongful wishes; having been ripped from her simple world. Finally; in Il Bacio di Cyrano (1919); Maman Poupée (1919); Amleto e il Suo Clown (1920) and Marcella (1921); she consistently portrayed the same type of character: a gentle woman with angelic features. even the public image she tried to build for herself was that of a reassuring; smart and cultured woman. the photographs depicting her never showed her in poses as seductive as those of Menechelli or Bertini; and for the majority of the columnists of the Italian press of those years; Soava Gallone was described as “the pale blonde creature”; “the beautiful; simple and spontaneous [one]”; the “gentle and pleasing interpreter”.

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