Malombra (1942)

The young Marchioness Marina di Malombra, left an orphan, is taken in at the home of her uncle, Count D'Ormengo, a gloomy, isolated palace on the lakeshore. The condition is that she may not leave until she marries. In an old spinet, the young woman finds a letter in which one of her ancestors, Cecilia, describes in anguished terms the imprisonment imposed on her by her husband, the count’s father, because of an affair she had with a young officer, and asks to be avenged. Gradually, Marina, chafing at the lack of freedom she must endure—which often leads to bitter clashes with her uncle—comes to identify with Cecilia’s fate. Her obsession (she seems to hear Cecilia’s ghost asking for revenge) is heightened by reading a book entitled Ghosts of the Past. By chance, the author, Corrado Silla, is the son of a long-deceased, much-revered friend of D'Ormengo’s, and the count invites him to the villa to write a historical-political treatise. In reality, the count wants to help the young man, having learned that he is in financial difficulty. Corrado is attracted to Marina, but their relationship is made difficult by her proud, contemptuous temperament and her growing obsession, through which she wants to draw him into her thirst for revenge. Publicly insulted by Marina, Corrado leaves and returns to Milan, where he meets Edith, the young daughter of Steinegge, Count D'Ormengo’s Hungarian secretary. A tender affection develops between them, although Edith hesitates to turn it into a relationship. Meanwhile, the count welcomes his cousin, Countess Fosca Salvador, as a guest at the house. Her son Nepo wants to marry Marina, drawn by the rich dowry she would bring. Although she does not love her suitor, Marina sorrowfully accepts this arrangement, hoping to make Silla jealous and bring him back to the palace. But then her obsession worsens, until, now believing herself to be her ancestor’s reincarnation, she causes her uncle a fatal seizure by appearing in his room at night as Cecilia, come to claim vengeance. The count’s death also puts an end to the planned marriage to her cousin, since Marina is not mentioned in the will. Meanwhile, Silla, who had been summoned back to the palace by a message from Marina saying that the count was gravely ill, falls back into his morbid passion for her. Believing that the young man considers her mad and wants to abandon her, Marina, now in the grip of madness, has a horrifying funeral banquet prepared on the windy loggia. During it, she shoots him in the heart, killing him. Then she flees by boat onto the lake, where, as had happened to her ancestor Cecilia, she will be lost. Later, beside a small cemetery overlooking the lake, Edith confides to the priest that she bitterly regrets having been unable to save Corrado with her love.