During the period of silent film, there was a prestigious production company in France called Le Film d’Art. Aimed at a cultivated, demanding public, the works it produced were historical reconstructions, biblical events and literary adaptations – for example, Maman Colibri by Julien Duvivier (1896-1967). Thanks to investment by the Pathé firm, the Italian subsidiary of the Film d’Art was created in 1909. It was the Film d’Arte Italiana (FAI) that produced Salomè, directed in 1910 by Ugo Falena (1875-1931). The colours of this film were obtained by stencil colouring according to the Pathé-Color procedure.

The small role of the slave put to death was entrusted to an actress making her debut and still unknown: Francesca Bertini (1888-1985). Diva of silent Italian film, “la Bertini” had one success after another up until 1920. She appeared in more than one hundred silent films!  Her career ended in 1974 with 1900 by Bernardo Bertolucci (born in 1941).

The biblical event of Salome was the source of inspiration for a number of artists, painters and writers who helped to develop her character.  In the Gospels, Salome is used by her mother, Herodias, to get revenge against the prophet John the Baptist.  The Middle Ages transformed her into the prophet’s rejected love.  It was this variation that Oscar Wilde (1854-1900) chose for the stage play he published in French in 1893. To the figure of Salome, which 19th century artists were obsessed with, the British playwright added the famous dance of the seven veils.   He thus confirmed the romantic image of a passionate, seductive and deadly Salome, whose transgression shocked British censorship.  In 1896, while its author was languishing in prison for “homosexual acts”, Salome was played in Paris for the first time.  Ten years later, it was the turn of Richard Strauss’s opera (1864-1949), whose libretto was adapted from Wilde’s play, to cause a scandal!  The work was forbidden on British stages until 1910, the year of Falena’s film.

The original music for this film was composed by Pablo Pico in 2010 in the context of the call for proposals launched in partnership with the Sacem (Société des auteurs compositeurs et éditeurs de musique – Society of authors, composers and music editors).