Il Paradiso

Il Paradiso
Directed by	Boris Marsili
Written by	Fabiàn Pío
Produced by	Ronàld Mento
Starring	Astrid Biancalàn Roe Songmin
Cinematography	Timotèo Solòn
Edited by	Telchide Agnèlo
Music by	Samuèl Pagani
Distributed by	Vèlocinema
Release dates	10 June 1936 (1936-06-10)
Running time	93 minutes
Country	Montecara
Languages	Montecaran Chorean

Il Paradiso is a 1936 Montecaran drama film set during the First Great War. It tells the story of an illicit relationship between a married Chorean diplomat and a Montecaran woman, and deals with themes of personal and national loyalties, betrayal, and intrigue.

Plot

As the Namo-Chorean War and other battles of the Volatile Century rage far away, neutral Montecara is booming. It is packed with spies and sailors on liberty, and its nightlife scene is legendary.

Diplomat Ran Sang Chol is stationed in Montecara as a military attaché at the Chorean embassy. He has brought along his wife and their young son. After work one evening, he and his colleagues visit a cabaret, Il Paradiso, where he is enchanted by one of the dancers, a Montecaran woman named Vera. Drunk and urged on by his friends, he orders a bottle of champagne to be sent to her dressing room along with his personal card.

Ran regrets his risky behavior but cannot stop thinking about Vera. He returns to the cabaret alone and finds Vera, striking up a conversation and revealing that it was his gift the other night.

Vera appears interested but tells her dancer friend that she only wants to tease her new admirer and possibly get some money from him. Nevertheless, she phones him late one night and, telling his wife that it is urgent war business, he meets her at a hotel bar. They rent a room and have sex.

The affair continues for months while the Chorean military rampages across Namor. Ran splits his time between the embassy, where he is responsible for organizing Chorean navy ships making port calls in Montecara, and evenings at Il Paradiso followed by late-night trysts with Vera.

Meanwhile, the club owner, an aging communist who fondly remembers the Liberal Revolution, has taken notice of the pair's closeness. He tries to persuade Vera to give him information that Ran leaks. Vera insists she has no interest in politics.

Ran's wife confronts him about the long hours he is working and the uncertainty of the family's future. He assures her that she has nothing to worry about.

At their next tryst, Vera reveals that she is pregnant with his child. They both acknowledge that the pregnancy will make her a pariah and that it will be found out that he is the father when the baby is born and its mixed race is discovered. He gives her money for an abortion, which she refuses.

Ran hears on the radio that a Chorean navy ship en route to Montecara has been torpedoed, with all hands lost. That night, a birthday party for the club owner takes place at Il Paradiso, and Ran stops in to see Vera dance. She sees him in the crowd and calls him backstage after her act, where she confesses that she has borrowed money and had the abortion, and that she has been passing on the valuable information that he slipped during their trysts. Overwhelmed by the guilt of knowing that he is responsible for hundreds of sailors' deaths, he staggers home and looks at his sleeping wife and son, then shoots himself with his pistol.

Cast

Astrid Biancalàn and Roe Songmin

• Astrid Biancalàn as Vera di Santi
• Roe Songmin as Ran Sang Chol

Although he played a Chorean diplomat, Roe Songmin was actually from Senria.

Reception

Il Paradiso was both a scandal and a sensation when it premiered at the first Montecara Film Festival in 1936. It broke all box-office records for a Montecaran film, and its serious depiction of an adulterous interracial relationship is still considered shocking in many parts of the world today.

In the intervening decades, Il Paradiso has acquired a reputation as one of the finest films of the early 20th century and is considered a landmark for its pioneering cinematography, noir style, scandalous plot, and realistic acting.