Vendetta normanna and Il piccolo garibaldino are two “sadistic” short films from the early years of Cines. A lover is killed on his sweet heart’s doorstep, while her relatives are merrily celebrating around a Christmas tree. In the second film, a young boy leaves his home to join Garibaldi’s army and is shot during his first battle. He reappears to his mother from the grave in a kind of patriotic triumph, lying across the knees of a metaphorical Italy in a recreation of the “Pietà.”