Gabriel de Gravone

Gabriel de Gravone (1887-1972) was an actor in the French silent cinema. He is best known as Élie, the son of Sisif (Séverin-Mars) in Abel Gance’s La Roue (1920-1923).


French postcard by Cinémagazine-Edition, no. 224. Photo: G.L. Manuel Frères.


French postcard by Cinémagazine, no. 71. Photo: Studio Rahma.

Capellani and Gance

Gabriel de Gravone was born Antoine Paul André Faggianelli in Ajaccio on the island Corsica, France, in 1887.

He started his career as a film actor in 1909. Probably his first film was Un clair de lune sous Richelieu/A Ray of Moonlight on Richelieu (Albert Capellani, 1909), a period piece starring Paul Capellani.

The film was scripted by Abel Gance, who would later call him back for his masterpiece La Roue. Capellani directed Gravone a few times, most notably in the four-part episode film Les Misérables (Albert Capellani, 1912, released 1913), in the role of Marius opposite Maria Fromet as Cosette.

Between 1912 and 1914 Gravone was the partner of Aimée Campton in the Pathé comedy series with the character 'Maud' and of Cauroy in the 'Papillon' comedies by Gaston Roudès. During the First World War, Gravone hardly acted in film.

In 1919 Louis Mercanton directed him in the feature L’appel du sang/The Call of the Blood, based on the novel by Robert Hichens and co-starring Charles Le Bargy and Ivor Novello.


Gabriel de Gravone as Marius in Les Miserables (1913), with Henry Krauss (left) as Jean Valjean, Léon Lérand as Gillesnormand and Marialise as Cosette. French postcard by E.L.D. Photo: Films Pathé Frères. Publicity still for Les Miserables (Albert Capellani, 1913). Caption: Les fiançailles de Marius et de Cosette (The betrothal of Marius and Cosette).


Italian postcard by Ed. G.B. Falci, Milano. Gabriel de Gravone in the Italian historical film La cavalcata ardente/The Fiery Cavalcade (Carmine Gallone 1925).


Soava Gallone and Gabriel de Gravone in La cavalcata ardente (1925). Italian postcard by Ed. G.B. Falci, Milano. no 318. Publicity still for La cavalcata ardente/The Fiery Cavalcade (Carmine Gallone, 1925).

La roue

The film that gave Gabriel de Gravone lasting fame was the modern tragedy La Roue/The Wheel (Abel Gance, 1920-1923). Gravone played Élie, the son of Sisif (Séverin-Mars) and a passionate violinist. Father and son are both in love with Sisif’s foster daughter Norma (Ivy Close), whom Sisif has once saved from a train wreck. His love for Norma turns Sisif violent and jealous, though, and when she leaves by train with Hersan (Pierre Magnier), an engineer from town, he almost wrecks the train. He is blinded by steam and is reduced to servicing a little funicular at the Mont-Blanc mountain, aided by his son Élie. When Norma returns with her now husband, love between Élie and Norma returns. Hersan, jealous, fights Élie and both men are killed, falling down. Norma stays to help the old and blind Sisif until his death.

After La Roue, Gravone became very active in the French silent cinema, until the mid-1920s. First he starred in the Alphonse Daudet adaptation L’Arlésienne (André Antoine, 1921), then in L’ombre du péché/The Shadow of Sin (Yakov Protazanov, 1922) with Diana Karenne, the Gaston Leroux adaptation Rouletabille chez les bohémiens (Henri Fescourt, 1922) with Édith Jéhanne, and Petit ange et son pantin/Small angel and his marionette (Luitz Morat, 1923).

Gabriel de Gravone also appeared in Le mariage de minuit/The Marriage at Midnight (Armand Du Plessy, 1923) with Rita Jolivet, the Abbé Prevost adaptation Les demi-vierges/The Half-Virgins (Armand Du Plessy, 1924), and the ghost story Le manoir de la peur/The manor house of fear (Alfred Machin, Henri Wulschleger, 1924, released 1927) costarring Romuald Joubé.

His other films include Mimi Pinson (Théo Bergerat, 1922-1924) with Simone Vaudry, L’Ornière (Edouard Chimot, 1924) with Gabriel Signoret, and Michel Strogoff (Victor Tourjansky, 1925) starring Ivan Mozzhukhin.

In Italy, he made La cavalcata ardente/The Fiery Cavalcade (Carmine Gallone, 1925) starring Soava Gallone, and finally de Gravone played the Biblical Abel in Le berceau de dieu/The Cradle of God (Fred Leroy-Granville, 1926). In 1926, he also directed the film Paris, Cabourg, le Caire… et l’amour/Paris, Cabourg, Cairo... and Love (Gabriel de Gravone, 1928). After that, he didn’t perform in films anymore. Gabriel de Gravone died in Marseille in 1972. He was 85.


French postcard. Gabriel de Gravone in La Roue/The Wheel (Abel Gance, 1923).


Scene from La Roue/The Wheel (1920-1923). Source: MoreTen (YouTube).

Sources: James Travers (French Films), Cinema Francais, and IMDb.

This post was last updated on 9 July 2024.

La cavalcata ardente (1925)

The silent Italian film La cavalcata ardente/The Fiery Cavalcade (1925) was a highly successful historical melodrama about the conquest of Naples by Garibaldi. The film was a good example of the cooperation of the husband-and-wife team of writer-director Carmine Gallone and Polish-born film diva Soava Gallone between 1916 and 1927.


Italian postcard by Ed. G.B. Falci, Milano. Photo: Soava Gallone in La cavalcata ardente (1925).


Italian postcard by G.B. Falci Editori, Milano. Photo: Soava Gallone in La cavalcata ardente (1925).


Italian postcard by Ed. G.B. Falci, Milano. Photo: Jeanne Brindeau, Soava Gallone and Gabriel de Gravone in La cavalcata ardente (1925).


Italian postcard by Ed. G.B. Falci, Milano. Soava Gallone and Gabriel de Gravone in La cavalcata ardente/The Fiery Cavalcade (Carmine Gallone, 1925).


Italian postcard by Ed. G.B. Falci, Milano. Photo: Jeanne Brindeau, and Soava Gallone in La cavalcata ardente (1925).


Italian postcard by Ed. G.B. Falci, Milano. Raimondo Van Riel as the bandit Pasquale Noto in La cavalcata ardente/The Fiery Cavalcade (Carmine Gallone, 1925).

A refined, delicate soul

Carmine Gallone had the intelligence to pick films that fully sustained the image of Soava Gallone as a refined, delicate soul, and he limited her performances to no more than two per year.

In La cavalcata ardente/The Fiery Cavalcade (Carmine Gallone, 1925), his wife Soava Gallone plays a beautiful aristocratic girl, who has to hide in a convent.

The photography was by Alfredo Donelli and Emilio Guattari. The costumes were designed by French fashion designer Paul Poiret and the sets by Filippo Folchi.

Director Gallone wrote the script himself. The film had its premiere in the Supercinema (now Teatro Nazionale) in Rome in April 1925. In the audience were many of the old veterans of Giuseppe Garibaldi's volunteer army dressed in their shirts.

The reviewer of the magazine L'epoca praised the combination of the love story and the historical background.


Italian postcard by Ed. G.B. Falci, Milano. Photo: Westi / S.A.I.C. Publicity still of Raimondo Van Riel as Il Brigante (The Bandit) in La cavalcata ardente (1925).


Italian postcard by Ed. G.B. Falci, Milano. Photo: Raimondo Van Riel and Gabriel de Gravone in La cavalcata ardente (1925).


Italian postcard by Ed. G.B. Falci, Milano. Photo: Raimondo Van Riel and Soava Gallone in La cavalcata ardente (1925).


Italian postcard by Ed. G.B. Falci, Milano. Photo: Raimondo Van Riel, Soava Gallone and Gabriel de Gravone in La cavalcata ardente (1925).


Italian postcard by Ed. G.B. Falci, Milano. Photo: Jeanne Brindeau and Soava Gallone in La cavalcata ardente (1925).


Italian postcard by Ed. A. Traldi, Milano. Photo: Westi / SAIC. Gabriel de Gravone and Jeanne Brindeau in La cavalcata ardente/The Fiery Cavalcade (Carmine Gallone, 1925). Caption: The farewell to his mother.


Italian postcard by Ed. G.B. Falci, Milano. Photo: Jeanne Brindeau and Gabriel de Gravone in La cavalcata ardente (1925).


Italian postcard by Ed. G.B. Falci, Milano. Photo: Gabriel de Gravone in La cavalcata ardente (1925).


Italian postcard by Ed. G.B. Falci, Milano. Photo: Soava Gallone in La cavalcata ardente (1925).

Secretly in love

La cavalcata ardente/The Fiery Cavalcade (Carmine Gallone, 1925) is a melodrama set against the background of the conquest of Naples by Giuseppe Garibaldi's volunteers in 1860.

In the ancient Montechiaro family, linked to the Bourbons, Pietro (Amerigo Di Giorgio), the eldest son, is the leader of the royal forces while his sister Grazia (Soava Gallone) is forced into a marriage with the old prince of Santafè (Emilio Ghione). She is secretly in love with Giovanni Artuni (Gabriel de Gravone), a patriot and revolutionary.

Artuni escapes an ambush and hides with the brigand Pasquale Noto (Raimondo Van Riel). Masked together with his companions, he participates in the 'cavalcata ardente', a horse race with torches in the park of the Montechiaro family's villa, where the party for Grazia's official engagement takes place.

A ruthless manhunt ensues. Grazia hides in a convent, while Giovanni tries to join Garibaldi's army (Ciro Galvani). But, recognised by a traitor, he is arrested by the Bourbon police, immediately tried and sentenced to death.

Grazia intercedes for his life, yielding to old Santafé's blackmail. While the wedding between Grazia and the old Prince is being celebrated, Giovanni and his old mother (Jeanne Brindeau) are escorted to the border.

But Garibaldi is now at the gates, the Bourbon army rebels and, in an attempt to stem the advance, Santafé falls in battle. With the entrance of the Red Shirts army into Naples, Grazia and Giovanni are reunited and realise their dream of love.


Italian postcard by Ed. A. Traldi, Milano. Photo: Westi / SAIC. Soava Gallone in the historical film La cavalcata ardente (Carmine Gallone, 1925).


Italian postcard by Eureka. Sent by mail in 1927. Soava Gallone and Emilio Ghione in La cavalcata ardente/The fiery cavalcade (Carmine Gallone, 1925).


Italian postcard by Ed. G.B. Falci, Milano. Photo: Westi / S.A.I.C. Emilio Ghione as the Prince of Santafé in La cavalcata ardente (1925).


Italian postcard by Ed. A Traldi, Milano, no 312. Photo: Soava Gallone and Emilio Ghione in La cavalcata ardente (1925).


Italian postcard by Ed. G.B. Falci, Milano. Photo: Westi / S.A.I.C. Publicity still of Soava Gallone and Emilio Ghione in La cavalcata ardente (1925).


Italian postcard by Ed. G.B. Falci, Milano. Photo: Westi / S.A.I.C. Publicity still of Soava Gallone and Emilio Ghione in La cavalcata ardente (1925). Caption: The death of Santafé.


Italian postcard by Ed. G.B. Falci, Milano, no 318. Photo: Soava Gallone and Gabriel de Gravone in La cavalcata ardente (1925).


Italian postcard by Ed. G.B. Falci, Milano. Photo: Soava Gallone in La cavalcata ardente (1925).


Italian postcard by Ed. G.B. Falci, Milano. Photo: Raimondo Van Riel,Soava Gallone and Gl de Gravone in La cavalcata ardente (1925).


Italian postcard by Ed. G.B. Falci, Milano. Photo: Raimondo Van Riel, and Gabriel de Gravone in La cavalcata ardente/The Fiery Cavalcade (1925).

Sources: Sempre in penombra (Italian), Vittorio Martinelli (Le dive del silenzio), Vittorio Martinelli (Il cinema muto italiano), Wikipedia (Italian) and IMDb.

This post was last updated on 1 December 2023.