Borelli, Lyda

(1884-1959)

   Actress. The most renowned of all the Italian divas of the silent period, Borelli was already one of the most famous theatrical actresses of her day, acclaimed above all for her intense portrayals of the femmes fatales in the plays of Gabriele D'Annunzio (and Oscar Wilde's Salome), before coming to the silver screen in 1913. However, her appearance that year in Ma I'amor mio non muore (But My Love Will Not Die, 1913), a highly charged melodrama directed by Mario Caserini for Gloria Films, immediately launched her to superstardom. Her highly stylized and expressionistic form of acting, which was characterized by exaggerated physical movements and dramatic poses and gestures, led to the creation of the neologism borelleggiare, meaning "to act in the style of Borelli."

   Thanks to a remarkable ability to use her body to mime the torment of a soul in the throes of an overwhelming passion, Borelli was able to command astronomical fees for her appearance in films such as La donna nuda (The Naked Woman, 1914), Rapsodia satanica (Satanic Rhapsody, 1915), Fior di male (Flower of Evil, 1915), Malombra (1916), Carnevalesca (Carnivalesque, 1917), and the 10-minute intermezzo La leggenda di Santa Barbara (The Legend of Saint Barbara, 1918). After having scaled the Olympic heights of stardom and becoming a screen legend in spite of appearing in no more than a dozen films, Borelli brought it all to an abrupt end in 1918 by marrying the Ferrarese nobleman Count Vittorio Cini and retiring from the cinema, never to return.