SILVER

Based on the Oscar Wilde play, SALOMÉ is the magnum opus of silent film megastar Alla Nazimova. Born Miriam Leventon in Yalta, Crimea, and a major Broadway star in the early 1910s, Nazimova had by the end of the decade signed a lucrative contract with Metro Pictures and moved to Hollywood. She self-produced SALOMÉ in 1922 in close collaboration with the costumer, set designer and scenarist Natacha Rambova (born Winifred Shaughnessy in Salt Lake City, UT), later the wife of Rudolph Valentino. A daring visual aesthetic makes SALOMÉ an object of fascination today, eschewing anything resembling ancient Rome in favor of a mashup of elements drawn from Aubrey Beardsley illustrations and Art Nouveau design, with wildly expressionistic costumes featuring electric-light wigs and seashell-shaped helmets. "A hothouse orchid of decadent passion…You have your warning: this is bizarre stuff." –Photoplay. DIR Charles Bryant; DIR/PROD Alla Nazimova; SCR Natacha Rambova, from the play by Oscar Wilde. U.S., 1923, b&w, 72 min. NOT RATED

No AFI Member passes accepted.