Casta Diva (1935 film)

Casta Diva
Casta Diva
Directed by	Carmine Gallone
Written by	Walter Reisch ; Corrado Alvaro
Produced by	Giuseppe Amato;
Starring	Mártha Eggerth ; Lamberto Picasso ; Gualtiero Tumiati
Cinematography	Franz Planer; Massimo Terzano
Edited by	Fernando Tropea
Music by	Willy Schmidt-Gentner
Production; company	Alleanza Cinematografica Italiana
Distributed by	Generalcine
Release date	14 June 1935 (France) ; 10 August 1935 (Italy)
Running time	87 minutes
Country	Italy
Language	Italian

Casta Diva is a 1935 Italian musical drama film directed by Carmine Gallone and starring Mártha Eggerth, Lamberto Picasso and Gualtiero Tumiati.^[1] The film won Best Italian Film at the 1935 Venice International Film Festival.^[2] An English-language version The Divine Spark was made at the same time, also directed by Gallone and starring Eggerth.^[3] Gallone remade the film in 1954 in Technicolor.^[4]

The film's sets were designed by the art directors Werner Schlichting and Enrico Verdozzi. Location shooting took place around Catania in Sicily.

Plot[]

The film concerns Italian composer Vincenzo Bellini and his problems with his opera Norma (1831), which itself tells the passionate love story of a Gallican priestess and a Roman proconsul (governor of a province). The film is unique because it uses abstract paintings-in-motion to express the passion between the two main characters.