Italian postcard. G.B. Falci, Milano, unnumbered. Maria Carmi as Isabella Inghirami in the Italian silent film Forse che sí, forse che no (Gaston Ravel, 1921), based on Gabriele d'Annunzio's eponymous novel (1910). In 1916 the play had already been adapted to film by Mario Gargiulo, with Tina Xeo in the lead.
Plot: D'Annunzio's novel is set in Mantua, in Palazzo Gonzaga, whose inscription "perhaps that yes, perhaps that no" inspired the title. The protagonist is the noble Paolo Tarsis who lives a loving relationship of passion with Isabella. Unlike the other D'Annunzio supermen, he understands the change of time, and instead of taking refuge in the current of decadence, he rides the new fashion of cars, automobiles and airplanes, partly embracing the current of futurism. However, happiness does not last, because Isabella secretly betrays him with her brother Aldo, reproaching Paolo for his betrayals with Vannina, Isabella's younger sister, who is madly in love with Paolo. When the knots come to a head, Vannina goes to Paolo to reveal the relationship between her brother and her older sister. Paolo, furious, awaits the arrival of Isabella on which he unleashes his anger, beating and insulting her. Vanina commits suicide out of desperation. Isabella, before so self-assured and determined, has become so maddened that her father and stepmother lock her up in an institution. Paolo, unable to help her, also attempts a suicide with a desperate action, to arrive with his plane in Sardinia and return to Italy. The enterprise succeeds, and Paolo is hailed as a hero.
Parts of the novel - such as in the incestuous relationship between sister and brother - would be used by Luchino Visconti for his film Vaghe stelle dell'orsa/Sandra (1965), starring Claudia Cardinale and Jean Sorel.
With her aristocratic air, her severe looks but also her sweet undertones, Italian silent film star and stage actress Maria Carmi (1880-1957) was the cinematic translation of the 19th century Primadonna in Italian and German silent films of the 1910s and early 1920s. She also had an international stage hit with the play The Miracle/ Das Mirakel.
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