Filibus

Filibus

Christina Ruspoli (Artist)

IT
1915
Feature Film
69’
Finally Back on the Silver Screen

Created during a time when heroic thieves were common in European popular culture, Filibus – the first of thirty films directed by actor Mario Roncoroni – featured as protagonist a roguish female modelled on Ponson du Terail’s anti-hero Rocambole. The Baroness Troixmonde is a respectable member of society but in the guise of »Filibus« she terrorises Sicily from her zeppelin, which is full of technologically advanced equipment. The zeppelin is manned by a staff of mask-wearing male assistants who obey the Baroness’ every command. The zeppelin is her headquarters and her home, and she descends to land only to rob, have a quick affair and or dance with women such as the dandy Count de la Brieve. At the end of the film, she eludes her enemy, Detective Hardy, and flies off into the sunset. Filibus is probably one of the first lesbian characters in the history of film.

Director

Mario Roncoroni

Cast

Mario Mariani, Cristina Ruspoli, Giovanni Spano

Production

Corona Film, Italien

Contact

EYE Film Insitute

Christina Ruspoli (Artist)

Cristina Ruspoli was an Italian actress who notched up no fewer than 30 feature films from 1912 to 1916. In Giovanni Enrico Vidali’s Jone o Gli ultimi giorni di Pompei (1913), she played the role of Jone. In the same year, she took the role of Idamis in Spartacus, again directed by Vidali. In 1914, she could be seen in Domenico Gaido’s Salambo – one of the most famous early Italian epics that marked the transition from short film to full-length feature in the USA.


Films with Cristina Ruspoli (Selection)
Diamanti e documenti 1915 | Morsa della morte 1915 | La confessione 1914 | Salambo 1914 | I due fratelli 1913 | Jone o Gli ultimi giorni di Pompei 1913 | Spartaco 1913 | La miniera di ferro 1912 | Il Carabiniere 1912