BLIND LIGHT a film by Pola Rapaport 1 hour, color BACKGROUND Axel Munthe and the Villa San Michele

One of Capri's most visited sites is Swedish author Axel Munthe's Villa San Michele, built on a windswept promontory overlooking the Bay of Naples.

Munthe (1857-1949) was known as a fashionable doctor to Parisian society in the late nineteenth century and had among his clients King Carl Gustav V and his wife, Queen Victoria of Sweden. He was at the same time a helper and protector to the poor and an avid collector of Greek and Roman antiquities, having at various times owned twelve villas on Capri, equal to the number owned centuries earlier by the Roman Emperor Tiberius.

At the age of 52, Munthe lost his vision and fell into a long period of despair - during which he wrote his major work, "The Story of San Michele", a book about his life and the building of the villa. It helped him to emerge from his depression and it became a world-wide best-seller during the two decades after its publication in 1929. After his death at 92, the Villa became the property of the Swedish State. According to Munthe's will, since the 1950's scholars and artists have been invited to stay for periods of time to pursue their work.

All of the casting for BLIND LIGHT except for the Munthe character was done in New York and southern Italy. I had nearly completed the editing of the film using a temporary narration when I went to Stockholm and met the celebrated Swedish actor Per Myrberg, himself a great fan of Munthe. He interpreted the author's voice, reading text from Munthe's book and from his letters.