The assessment of this first surrealist oeuvre in film history by the British censorship authorities at the time says it all:  a film that is ‘devoid of any meaning, and if one can be found it is without a doubt offensive.’  While the statement may not fully do justice to the film, it does contain a central moment.  The erotic hallucinations of a clergyman and the shifting play of treacherous surfaces are always aimed at something underneath or behind: the unconscious.

Like a true prima donna or celebrated dancer, Alla Nazimova omitted her first name already in her lifetime and appeared as Nazimova ‘tout court’ in the adaptation of Oscar Wilde’s play ‘Salomé’. Since pressure on the production company was increasing, she provided the idea for the film and produced and in part financed it herself. Moralisers saw it as a decadent and dangerous work, from which the public had to be protected at all cost. It took several years after its completion until the film was first shown; it was badly received and remained the last production of the free-spirited exotic Russian.