With ‘Il Fuoco’ (1915) and ‘Tigre Reale’ (1916), Italian director Giovanni Pastrone helped his wife achieve her final breakthrough as a silent movie star. Pina Menichelli became for Italy, what Musidora was for France – a femme fatale, getting men to lie at her feet in droves. In ‘Tigre Reale’ she plays a Russian countess whose only real love had been a Polish rebel, who, in proof of his love, had preferred death to a life without her. From this point onwards, love is but a (stage) play to her. Until she has an affair with an Italian diplomat behind her husband’s back.