Director Carmine Gallone is best known for period epics, but, like his American counterpart Cecil B. DeMille, he was first celebrated for artistically ambitious melodramas. With Flower of Evil, Gallone, scriptwriter Nino Oxilia, and star Lyda Borelli (muse of Gabriele D’Annunzio) created one of the great masterworks of early Italian cinema. Haunting and enigmatic, Flower of Evil distills complex emotions into a purely cinematic language of gesture, movement, light, and space. Presented in a high definition restoration of a tinted 35mm nitrate print held by the EYE Filmmuseum (Amsterdam) that was originally part of the collection of Dutch film exhibitor Jean Desmet. Original score by Cellophon. Subtitles available.