1926: While on tour promoting his latest movie "Son Of The Sheik", Rudolph Valentino, the Hollywood silent screen icon, suffers a sudden collapse and is hospitalized at the New York Polyclinic Hospital. After an emergency surgery, Valentino loses his grip on reality and, while hallucinating, reexperiences his life in Hollywood from - as a silent film shown at a movie palace, the magical portal between life and eternity, between reality and illusion. Dubbed "The Great Lover" around the world, Valentino plays dashing and virile Sheiks on the screen and drives his female audience into hysteria. However, his private life is a complete failure - the Sheik cannot satisfy even his own domineering wife. Snapping back to reality, Valentino finds himself abandoned, alone and stricken with illness. Pam, a young deaf-mute Valentino's fan, who works as a nurses' aid at the hospital, will show the God of Love for the first time in his life what love can truly mean.
Acting
Franco Nero's ethereal presence as Valentino's own ghost.
Cinematography
Silent film sequences bleeding into hospital reality.
Production
Isabella Rossellini and Sherilyn Fenn in one unhinged cast.
Director
Vladislav Kozlov
Trivia, insights & behind the scenes
The real 'Lady in Black' was a mysterious woman who left flowers at Valentino's grave annually for decades—her identity remains unknown.
Valentino's 1926 death triggered mass hysteria; one fan allegedly shot herself. The film barely exaggerates his actual mythic status.
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