What marks the European cinema on the teens and twenties is the explosion of intellectual and cultural influences by which it is powered - naturalism on the one hand and impressionism (a sort of extended naturalism) and a galaxy of non-realist movements on the other - dada and surrealism (especially in France, expressionism (especially in Russia and Germany), futurism (especially in Italy) and then, common to nearly all those non-realist traditions, the post-Romantic movement that embraced art nouveau (later art deco), the pre-Raphaelite movement, the legend-film, the fantastique and the so-called "decadent movement" that converges with symbolism.
It is a very heady mixture and, in terms of cinema history, provided the intellectual motor that, with relatively few subsequent additions, has powered cinema, sometimes weakly, sometimes with renewed force, from that day to this.
Italy in the teens was at the crux of all developments, pioneering the epic film, but playing an equally important role in the areas of naturalistic and non-realist cinema. Febo Mari, about whom one would wish to know so much more, is proof, if proof were needed, of the way all these different streams of sensibility could mix and mingle, combine and alternate. As both actor (Assunta Spina, Cenere) and director (L'Emigrante) he was associated with naturalism. L'Emigrante unfortunately only survives in part but it is one of the most powerfully naturalistic films of the decade (more truly a forerunner of neo-realismo than either Assunta Spina or Cenere).
In this film, on the other hand, and in several others (to judge by the titles), he is much closer to the decadent movement (particularly strong in Italy because of its association with the novelist Gabriel d'Annunzio) and to symbolism. Allegory, fantastique, legend, myth and fairy tale on the one hand, a powerful sensuality on the other.
In fact naturalism and what we can conveniently bundle together as non-realist modes did not preclude each other. This is one of the delightful paradoxes of the cinema of this period. In this film for instance contrast the stylisation of the scenes between the faun and the model and the almost squirm-making naturalism of the scenes where all four members of the love-trapezium are present together in the studio. Compare the evident symbolism of some of the imagery with the scenes at closing-time in the casino where the staff are cleaning the floors for the new day as the last "guests" depart..
I have frequently stated in reviews that the Renaissance of early film we are lucky enough to be living through is a constant voyage of discovery. Febo Mari is a name that all aficionadi should add to their list.