SALA THAÏS
THE BISTROT IN THE HEART OF MYTALE HOTEL

Passing the Reception Hall of the Hotel, on the ground floor, we find the entrance to the "Sala Thaïs" environments and symbols are inspired by the image-futurist icon of the silent film Thaïs, an atmosphere that traces the narrative and a taste of the amazing imagination.

Design of wall and ceiling decorations,
acrylic on enamel treated wall / digital printing on forex
made by Claudio Riefoli and Patrizia Marrocco

THE FILM THAT INSPIRED THE WORKS PAINTED IN SALA THAÏS

The history of avant-garde cinema, of the early twentieth century, gives us a short film, the only surviving futurist, "Thaïs", directed by Anton Giulio Bragaglia, silent movie of the 1917, in the following years will influence the imagination of international artists and filmmakers. It is the story of a femme fatale woman named Thaïs, her nineteenth-century and romantic figure, so antithetical to the futurist spirit, generates a short circuit, and expresses in this contradiction all its creative and destructive force.

In the final sequences (rendered theatrical by the sets of E. Prampolini) we reach the peak of the antithesis: Thaïs triggers a mechanism of death in which she herself is destined to disappear forever, how it is destined to disappear its epoch and therefore marking the advent of a new aesthetic, futurism...

...The action takes place in a surreal futuristic dance with mounting effects, overlapping and optical deception, the details are designed to reveal that all we believe to see is an illusion, a fiction, a dramatic and at the same time magical transposition of reality.

ART CONCEPT

The only preserved version of the film is the one with intratitles in French, of which there is a copy restored to the Cinémathèque Française with two loans of poems by Baudelaire, which, in addition to structuring the narrative, clearly put the two thirds of the work under the sign of the Decadent movement. "Thaïs" is a symbolic and allegorical film, extremely modern and experimental, readable on several levels: its plot; aesthetics; research on Bragaglia’s photodynamism, associated with a wide range of philosophical, esoteric, magical, pictorial and optical influences; the attempt to merge two cultural influences, not in harmony with each other, such as futurism and dannunzianismo. But why dedicate this theme to the Sala Thaïs ?

At our first inspection the location, although furnished by the previous management, appeared to us as a magical place, secret, to be enhanced. We felt the need to give her a soul and, in continuity with the Hotel Reception, we investigated the art of the early twentieth century where the experimentation of the moving image was a laboratory of creativity and revolutionary discoveries. The icon of the femme fatale, its antithesis with the aesthetics of futurism, we immediately felt could inhabit the spaces, an uninterrupted flow, intimate, which finds its way in dialogue with the same Rione Monti, place and crossroads of a thousand transformations.

The offer “RI.ONE” in Sala Thaïs becomes refinement and research, a unique Bistrot, entirely frescoed even the ceiling, where you can let yourself be crossed by the aesthetic taste and that of the palate, the time that marks an era, the end and rebirth, the antithesis that distinguishes each passage.

FOOD & BEVERAGE CONCEPT

The RI.ONE food and beverage concept is inspired by the Mediterranean in its choice of excellent raw materials.

A cuisine that ranges between regional traditions thanks to the expert hands of the Executive Chef Giacomo Zezza, assisted by the Sous chef and his right-hand man Mirko Ceravolo.

Design and cuisine go together: a narrative environment and a well-constructed menu are the ingredients that turn a simple meal into an unforgettable experience.

ART & DESIGN

Ornamental geometries that take inspiration from the structural elements of nature, transform into dynamic forms embellished with exoticism, allusion to past civilizations or projections of the coming future. They are the decorations of the entrance wall, interior and ceiling of the Sala Thaïs: the decorative game of white circles on green background; the big human eyes; Thaïs among the sinuous and filiform shrubs; the owl circumscribes in the perspective of concentric frames positioned above the fireplace; the double geometrical spiral which contrasts the straight lines with the curves, the feline in the act of jumping; the blades and arrows in relief; the toothed largemouth that hides Thaïs's mortal secret.The color palette goes from black, to various shades of iridescent grey, to green. Interior consists of handmade furniture and joineries designed for bench seats finished with black satin and purple velvet upholstery fabrics; vintage tables with black stoneware tops and brass trim, mustard yellow or deep grey velvet chairs with black steel legs. Special attention to the lighting that through various light points and different intensities creates an intimate and welcoming atmosphere.