ASTREA: THE STRONGWOMAN OF ITALIAN SILENT FILMS

ASTREA – One of the most enigmatic figures from the Silent Film Era. No precise birth or death dates are known. Her surname was supposedly Barbieri but not even that is certain.

Astrea’s background is equally murky with some sources claiming she was a circus strongwoman before becoming an actress, but other sources claiming she was a Countess from Venice. In one movie she was credited as “Principessa Astrea.”

What IS known is that from 1919 to 1922 this remarkable lady starred as a butt-kicking heroine of incredible strength. Astrea was called “the female Maciste” in reference to the strongman character in the Italian silent movie Cabiria (1914). I call her “the Gina Carano of the Silent Era.”

Her films: 

JUSTITIA (1919) – Astrea’s most well-known movie. She plays a prim, ladylike noblewoman who becomes a fiery, two-fisted champion of justice when need be.

Astrea totals a half-dozen villains in this 47-minute film, in addition to the Big Bad, Baron Max, who tries to defraud a pair of innocent lovebirds of their inheritance. Ferdinand “Polidor” Guillaume directed and played Birillo, our heroine’s comic relief sidekick.

The Bioscope praised the stunt work and Astrea’s dynamic performance, calling her “a female knight roaming the world to set wrong situations right with the force of her muscles.”

LA RISCOSSA DELLE MASCHERE (1919) – This was Astrea’s first film and some sources claim it came out during World War One, not in 1919.

It certainly bears all the hallmarks of a jingoistic, “rah rah” wartime morale booster of a flick. The title reference to “the rescue of the masks” was an expression regarding the promises of Italy getting back all territory taken or ceded by it in the leadup to World War One.

In the 1915 Treaty of London all of that land was to be taken from Austria-Hungary and restored to Italy by the Allied Powers on the condition that Italy join the Allied side against the Central Powers of Germany, Austria-Hungary, the Ottoman Empire and others.

As for the story, Astrea played an Italian heroine fighting Austria-Hungary for national pride. She was merciless, casually dealing out death by any means necessary, and not just to soldiers in the field.

Astrea also drowned Austrian spies and fed some of her homeland’s enemies to pigs. Now that’s gotta hurt! Gustavo Zaremba de Jaracewski directed.

L’ULTIMA FIABA (1920) – For The Last Fable, Astrea was reunited with director Ferdinand Guillaume.

Very little is known about this 58-minute movie since so little footage has survived. A typically two-fisted Astrea goes into action to save a child who was abducted by an aristocratic villainess and her Gypsy lackey Tuffer.   

I CREATORI DELL’IMPOSSIBILE (1922) – This is one of the many, many silent movies which have not survived. Astrea once again worked with Guillaume directing her.

Nothing is known about The Creators of the Impossible except that Astrea was so displeased with the project that after its completion she retired from acting and disappeared from history.