La sfinge (1918)

Italian diva Maria Jacobini starred as a femme fatale in the Italian silent film La sfinge/The Sphinx (Mario Caserini, 1918), produced by Tiber Film. What happens when she meets a homme fatale, played by André Habay? In Spain, a series of cromos for film fans was published to promote the film.


Spanish cromo for Chocolat Imperiale, Card 1 of 6. Photo: J. Verdaguer, Barcelona / Tiber Film. Maria Jacobini (middle), André Habay (right), and Alberto Collo (left) in La sfinge/The Sphinx (Mario Caserini, 1918).


Spanish cromo for Chocolat Imperiale, Card 2 of 6. Photo: J. Verdaguer, Barcelona / Tiber Film. Maria Jacobini and Alberto Collo in La sfinge/The Sphinx (Mario Caserini, 1918).

A likewise unrequited passion

The writer Adriana Simon (Maria Jacobini) is nicknamed 'The Sphinx'. She plays with the passions of men just to inspire her to new artistic creations.

When Poligny (Alberto Collo) ruins himself for her, she doesn't care less.

But using the same arms as Adriana, the sceptic and indifferent Luciano (André Habay) arouses with Adriana a likewise unrequited passion.

When Poligny understands he will never obtain her love, he pushes Adriana into the arms of Luciano.

Only at the very last moment, he revises...


Spanish cromo for Chocolat Imperiale, Card 3 of 6. Photo: J. Verdaguer, Barcelona / Tiber Film. André Habay (left) and Alberto Collo (right) in La sfinge/The Sphinx (Mario Caserini, 1918). The actress in the middle does not seem to be Maria Jacobini.


Spanish cromo for Chocolat Imperiale, Card 4 of 6. Photo: J. Verdaguer, Barcelona / Tiber Film. Maria Jacobini (right), André Habay (middle), and Alberto Collo (left) in La sfinge/The Sphinx (Mario Caserini, 1918).

A pleasant, simple and entertaining film comedy with a warning

From 1916 on Maria Jacobini worked for Tiber Film. There she made four films with director Mario Caserini: the Lev Tolstoy adaptation Resurrezione/Resurrection (1917), Il filo della vita/The Thread of Life (1918), La signora Arlecchino/Mrs Harlequin (1918) and La sfinge/The Sphinx (1918).

La sfinge/The Sphinx (Mario Caserini, 1918) was scripted by Pio Vanzi and cinematographed by Antonio Cufaro.

The film had its Roman premiere on 1 January 1918 and thus was filmed in 1917.

In the Turinese film journal La vita cinematografica, the critic Bertoldo remarked that, although a pleasant, simple and entertaining film comedy, La sfinge/The Sphinx still warns against the useless presumption of the denial of the human instinct.

The only flaw was its length and some useless scenes. Both the actors' performances of Jacobini, Collo and Habay and the mise-en-scene by Caserini were praised, as well as the cinematography by Antonio Cufaro.


Spanish cromo for Chocolat Imperiale, Card 5 of 6. Photo: J. Verdaguer, Barcelona / Tiber Film. Maria Jacobini and André Habay (left of her) in La sfinge/The Sphinx (Mario Caserini, 1918).


Spanish cromo for Chocolat Imperiale, Card 6 of 6. Photo: J. Verdaguer, Barcelona / Tiber Film. Maria Jacobini, Alberto Collo (left) and André Habay (right) in La sfinge/The Sphinx (Mario Caserini, 1918).

Sources: the Cromos, Treccani (Italian), Wikipedia (Italian) and IMDb.