Keywords

• As delight and desire of the appropriation of the image form the base of how the cinema sees the world
• it's not surprising that movie directors fall in love with the actresses and vice versa. In the collective imagery the actress
• objectified by such view
• is the natural cinematographic material that becomes malleable in the hands of her partner and creator. This rigid reduction of gender roles within the creative process is unexpectedly put under question and discussed by an Italian melodrama La ribalta (1912): a noblewoman
• who is in love with a theater actor
• is impelled by him to step on the stage
• just for fun at first
• where she reveals an uncanny talent that will alienate her mentor
• who is unable to deal with the humiliation of a second place. The main actress is Maria Gasparini
• one of the most appreciated Italian intellectual-actress of the first decade of 20th century. The director Mario Caserini
• her husband dedicated a sincere homage to her through this little film
• where the focus on the ambiguous relationship between a man and the congeniality of his partner seems to affirm the superiority of female creativity