Lina Millefleurs

Italian vaudeville singer of French origin Lina Millefleurs (?-?) was hired in 1914 by the film company Milano Films and appeared in several silent dramas. In 1921, she finished her film career after nearly 30 films.


Italian postcard. Photo: Lina Millefleurs in Il padrone delle ferriere/The Owner of the Ironworks (Eugenio Perego, 1919). Collection: Didier Hanson.


Italian postcard by Ed. A. Traldi, Milano, no. 577. The name is misspelt as Millefleur.

A young lady with a golden throat

Lina Millefleurs was born either as Carla Moneta in France or as Carla Tillosi in Italy (the sources differ). Nor her birthplace, nor her birth date, nor her parents are known.

She started her career as a singer in vaudeville. Reportedly, the great Eleonora Duse called her a "young lady with a golden throat". At the end of 1914, she was hired by the Italian film company Milano Films to star in Fiamme nell'ombra/Flames in the shadows (Baldassarre Negroni, 1915) alongside Hesperia.

She stayed there for years and acted in a series of 'pochades' such as L'appetito vien mangando/Appetite comes with eating (Eugenio Perego, 1915) and Una donna di spirito/A woman with spirit (Guglielmo Zorzi, 1915).

She also starred in dramas, such as Augusto Genina's La farfalla dalle ali d'oro/The butterfly with golden wings (Augusto Genina, 1915) with Ugo Gracci. In the latter film, a critic thought her "too clueless".

In 1915, probably on loan by Milano, she acted at Sabaudo Film in a series of dramas. In one she was the protagonist, Il Vortice/The Vortex (Salvatore Aversano,1915), based on the play by Noël Coward.


Italian postcard by C. Chierichetti, Milano, no. 02. Pina Menichelli and Lina Millefleurs in Il padrone delle ferriere/The Owner of the Ironworks (Eugenio Perego, 1919).


Italian postcard by Ed. Vettori, Bologna. Amleto Novelli, Lina Millefleurs, Pina Menichelli and Luigi Serventi in Il padrone delle ferrriere (Eugenio Perego, 1919), based on 'Le maitre des forges' by Georges Ohnet.

Praise for her naturalness and unaffected, un-diva-like acting

In 1916-1917, Lina Millefleurs was very active at Milano again, mainly under the guidance of Eugenio Perego. She had a notable part in Il vetturale del Moncenisio/The coachman of Mont Cenis (Leopoldo Carlucci, 1916) with Luigi Serventi.

One of her last films at Milano was Tristi amori/Sad loves (Giuseppe Sterni, 1917), based on the play by Giuseppe Giacosa and with actor-director Giuseppe Sterni in the male lead.

In 1917-1918 she acted in two films by another Milanese company, Mercurio. She received praise for her "naturalness and unaffected, un-diva-like acting" in Il Trionfo della morte/Triumph of Death (Domenico Gaido, 1918) based on a novel by Gabriele d'Annunzio.

Between 1919 and 1921 she was part of the cast at Itala Film. Here she played Athenaide in the drama Il padrone delle ferriere/The Railway Owner (Eugenio Perego, 1919). Then she moved to Rome where she worked for Tiber Film and Tespi Film. At Tiber Film she had leads in films by Giulio Antamoro and Alfredo De Antoni.

In 1921 she closed her film career with a supporting part in the serial La scimitarra del Barbarossa/The scimitar of Barbarossa (Mario Corsai, 1921). After that, Lina Millefleurs returned to the stage and continued her singing career.


Vintage postcard, no. 97. Giuseppe Sterni.


Italian postcard by Vettori, Bologna, no. 492. Photo: Pina Menichelli and Lina Millefleurs in Il padrone delle ferriere/The Owner of the Ironworks (Eugenio Perego, 1919).

Source: Aldo Bernardini (Cinema muto italiano protagonisti - Italian), Wikipedia (Italian) and IMDb.