Borellismo was a word used in Italy in the teens to describe the Lyda Borelli craze. Girls went on diets and strove to imitate her twisted postures. She was like a decadent version of the Pre-Raphaelite beauty—thin, with wavy blond hair and strange but picturesque poses. She portrayed characters who were doomed and otherworldly, often bordering on the supernatural. Her Rapsodia Satanica (1915), a compelling film about an old woman who makes a pact with the Devil for eternal youth, is an splendid
