Luchino Visconti

[Scharphedin2]

Luchino Visconti (1906-1976)



Perhaps the key to cinematographic rendering . . . is to attempt to feel again and to catch the magic of rhythm, of the vague yearning for the unknown, the realization that things are not right, or that they could be better, which is the poetic substance of that play of destinies which cross . . . without ever encountering [one another]. -Luchino Visconti (from "Il Cinema anthropologico", Cinema, 1943)


Fimography

Ossessione (1943) Image (R1) / BFI (R2 UK) / Films Sans Frontières (R2 FR) / Kinokuniya (R2 JP) included in Luchino Visconti Box, Vol. 3

La terra trema (1948) RHV (R2 IT) / BFI (R2 UK) / Image (R1) / Kinokuniya (R2 JP) included in Luchino Visconti Box, Vol. 1

Appunti su un fatto di cronaca (documentary short, 1951)

Bellissima (1951) Masters of Cinema (R2 UK) / Medusa (R2 IT) / Kinokuniya (R2 JP) included in Luchino Visconti Box, Vol. 3

Siamo donne / We, the Women - segment Anna Magnani (1953) Sony (R2 IT)

Senso (1954) Optimum Releasing (R2 UK) / Kinokuniya (R2 JP) included in Luchino Visconti Box, Vol. 1

Le notti bianche / White Nights) (1957) Criterion (R1) / Kinokuniya (R2 JP) included in Luchino Visconti Box, Vol. 3 / 20th Century Fox (R2 IT)

Rocco e i suoi fratelli / Rocco and His Brothers (1960) Masters of Cinema (R2 UK) / Medusa (R2 IT) / Image (R1) / C'est La Vie (R2 UK) / René Chateau (R2 FR) / Arthaus Kinowelt (R2 DE) / Tohokushinsha (R2 JP)

Boccaccio '70 - segment Il lavoro (1962) NoShame (R1) / Mr. Bongo Films (R2 UK) / Filmax (R2 ES) / Gaumont (R2 FR)

Il Gattopardo / The Leopard (1963) Criterion (R1) / Madman (R4 AU) / BFI (R2 UK) / Medusa (R2 IT) / Fox Pathé (R2 FR) / Koch (R2 DE)

Vaghe stele dell'Orsa... / Sandra of a Thousand Delights) (1965) Kinokuniya (R2 JP) included in Luchino Visconti Box, Vol. 2 / Sony Pictures (R2 IT) tbr 23 June, 2009

Le streghe / The Witches - segment La strega bruciata viva / The Witch Burnt Alive (1967)

Lo straniero (The Stranger) (1967)

La caduta degli dei / The Damned) (1969) Warner Brothers (R1) / Warner Brothers (R2 DE, ES, FR, UK) / Instituto Luce (R2 IT)

Morte a Venezia / Death in Venice) (1971) Warner Brothers (R1) / Warner Brothers (R2 ES, FR, UK)

Ludwig (1972) Kinowelt (R2 DE) / Infinity Arthouse (R2 UK) / Koch Lorber (R1 US) / Medusa (R2 IT) / Kinowelt (R2 DE) / Kinokuniya (R2 JP) included in Luchino Visconti Box, Vol. 2

Gruppo di famiglia in un interno / Conversation Piece (1974) Minerva (R2 IT) / Madman (R4 AU) / Arrow Film (R2 UK) / Kinokuniya (R2 JP) included in Luchino Visconti Box, Vol. 1

L'innocente (1976) Koch Lorber (R1 US) / Nouveaux (R2 UK) / Studio Canal (R2 FR) / Kinokuniya (R2 JP) included in Luchino Visconti Box, Vol. 2


Forum Discussions

Bellissima (Masters of Cinema)

BFI: La terra trema & Ossessione (Visconti)

Dubbing in Italian Cinema - includes some comments relative to Visconti's films

International Cinema Collection (Warner Bros.) - includes Death in Venice and The Damned

Italian Epics

The Leopard (Criterion)

Luchino Visconti on DVD

Melville, Visconti, and Dreyer - mystery Visconti release coming from Masters of Cinema

Le notti bianche (Criterion)

Ossessione (Luchino Visconti, 1943)

Rocco and his Brothers (Visconti, 1960)

The Stranger (Luchino Visconti, 1967)


Web Resources

The Decadent Realist - David Thomson (The Guardian, 2003)

Luchino Visconti (BFI)

Luchino Visconti: The Leopard - Derek Malcolm (The Guardian, 2000)

La terra trema and Ossessione - Gary Morris (Images Journal)

Luchino Visconti (in Italian)

Mahler in Venice - Michael Chanan (Music & Musicians, 2000)

Visconti's Cinema of Twilight - Maximilian Le Cain (Senses of Cinema, 2001)

Visconti in Venice - Hollis Alpert (Saturday Review, 1970)


Books

Luchino Visconti by Geoffrey Nowell-Smith (BFI Publishing, 2003)

Visconti - Explorations of Beauty and Decay by Henry Bacon (Cambridge University Press, 1998)

___________________________________________________________________________________________
Thanks to kinjitsu for providing valuable input, plus several links, the photograph, and the quote that prefaces this topic.

[carax09]

Coming across numerous Brazilian DVDs of Bellissima on ebay, I'm tempted to buy one because a) the only DVDs available for that film b) Visconti c) Magnani d) the deliciously miserable looking girl on the cover.

How's the film? Worth viewing? How's the quality of the transfer? English subtitles?

Michael, I think you might be better off going for this Italian dvd, which people are raving about. I plan on picking this one up myself next month.

It is definitely Magnani's show, and the girl is just tremendous too. Xploitedcinema.com (fast/reliable) will be getting it back in April 6th at around $26---Hope that helps.

[Michael]

Oh wow. Thanks. But neither store has the DVD in stock at this moment. Are there any others that might have it in stock?

The dvdtalk.com review (above) led me to exploitedcinema.com where Bellissima is out of stock until early April. What "in stock" means to me is that the DVD is ready to be shipped anytime now, under 24 hours at least...I guess I've been using Amazon way too much lately.

[Michael]

Has anyone received theirs from xploited yet?

Mine should be here anytime soon. I will keep you posted.

[Michael]

How goosebump-inducing!

Bellissima should be in my mailbox today.

I love Magnani. Possibly my favorite actress ever.

davidhare, would you say that her performance in Bellissima is her crowning achievement? What do you like about her?

[Dylan]

I love Visconti, so I'm sure this film is right up my alley. This is the only feature of his in between "Ossessione" and "The Leopard" that I haven't seen (I do need to catch up on all of his later work, which isn't a cheap task, or easy if I want to see "Sandra" and "The Stranger"...of these post-Leopard films I've only seen "Death in Venice," which is, of course, a masterpiece). The caps David posted look as good as any Criterion disc.

"The Damned" is the only readily available Visconti I haven't seen, and I'll get around to it soon enough, it looks very cool. As far as reasonably priced Visconti goes, "Conversation Piece" is under $10 at Amazon.co.uk, and I'll pick that up one of these days. I'd get "L' Innocente" soon, but the current DVD just doesn't look so hot and I have a lot of hope a better version will surface (who owns the US rights?).

[carax09]

Thanks for the caps, David! That really made my day...

[LonHuber]

...the often gross sentimentality that pervades the deSica/Zavattini pictures ...

I REALLY cringe at the Zavattini/de Sica melodramas, and Bellissima is such a great antidote.)

I'm really curious to know what it is that makes you cringe so in those films. I don't find the de Sica films sentimental at all, much less grossly so. Can you point to specific scenes or threads in them that provoke this extreme reaction in you?

[Michael]

I really enjoy THIS picture.

Me too! And about Bellissima, three words: Oh! My! God! But really, a very refreshing, deeply felt tale of one mother's disillusion and her willing to sell herself to shift the spotlight to her daughter. It also shimmers with brilliant humor that comes from...hmmm I have no idea where. With a story like Bellissimma, you would expect a typical Italian melodrama complete with extreme sentimentality.. maybe in other directors' hands but not Visconti's. He bleaches the story of any speck of sentimentality and turns it into a very lively, painfully humane and hilarious opera of glorious heart and soul.

Visconti's direction is flawless and precise as usual. All the stage mothers are always feverous, sweating, and fanning themselves to death. Is it really from the heat? Or the nerves!? The closing shot shows one single trail of sweat dripping slowly down the girl's head as she sleeps peacefully finally. But that sweat brings out a different meaning. A luminous touch that only Visconti could achieve.

Magnani lets loose completely with the most bravura performance you could ever seen coming from her. Her sheer volcanic beauty jumps out and shakes you, leaving you feeling exhausted and exhilarated as the same time. I think with Visconti's background in opera and Magnani's acting really defining the word "operatic", he brought out Magnani's unique gift better than other directors, Pasolini, Renoir, Rossellini, etc. Look at the close ups of her. They say so much about the love and admiration between the two gods. Look at her moments in the mirror, combing her hair, always debating to herself. Simply ravishing.

I also love how Visconti subtly reveals the "victims" of cinema - the old actress painted in silent-movie pancake and the former starlet now reduced to working in the editing department. Oh god, there's so much more to praise about Bellissima. That little girl absolutely deserves her own thread on this forum. She couldn't be more perfect.

I know Bellissima's going to remain with me for the rest of my life. It is one of Visconti's finest films, much richer than the recent Criterion release Le Notti Bianche. I think that Bellissima is more interesting and richer than Le Notti Bianche. In my opinion, Notti has some flaws. Mastroianni seems miscast. There is a couple of sequences that seem out of place...the beating up of Mastroianni or Calamai.. I can't remember. Call me fussy but how could this poor woman (Natalia) manage to walk a lot in the snow with the type of shoes she has on? Maybe this doesn't really matter but thinking about it every time really leaves me shudder.

I apologize if I made it sound like I was dissing Notti. It's a good film but not among my favorite Visconti films. This film has a healthy number of fans of Notti. Some people don't like Ossessione but I think it's one of the greatest, most emotionally raw films ever made. This one remains my favorite Visconti film. Rocco and His Brothers and now Bellissima come very, very close.

[LonHuber]

I find at least the almost obscenely overdrawn music scores and cues are hugely manipulative. As is the general tone of the Zavattini screenplays.

But let's get into that in another thread. I really enjoy THIS picture.

I'm sure I'll like BELLISIMA a lot, I've not failed to enjoy any Visconti so far. I've had the DVD for a few weeks, and will be watching soon.

I'm not trying to start an argument regarding de Sica; I genuinely do not understand the force and sweep of your reaction. Danny Elfman writes "obscenely overdrawn music scores;" I've never heard anything like that in a de Sica film. I suppose a case could be made for "somewhat" manipulative, but if so then there's no difference between de Sica's use of music and Visconti's or (often) Rossellini's for that matter. As to the "general tone" of the scripts, I don't see it - that's why I asked for specifics in my original question.

[Lino]

I once watched Bellissima on the big screen for the first time some years ago on a Visconti Retrospective and it somehow managed to stay with me ever since.

For me, this is not a Visconti film as say, The Leopard is a truly viscontian film. Magnani completely steals the film away from him and it becomes her, totally. In fact, she manages to do that in every film she stars in. She's way too big for the celuloid, anyway. Lucky us, I guess.

When I watched it, it was preceded by a short feature starring Magnani as well. It was a segment from an omnibus film called Siamo Donne. It was very funny and it was presumably inspired by an anedoctical event of Magnani's life in which she somehow manages to get herself arrested and the lengths she went through to solve the whole damn business. It's available in Italy on DVD without english subs.

Mr. Hare, if you're wondering about the DVD release of Senso, there is one out in Brazil which boasts to be from restored and remastered elements

It's been out for almost two years now and it's puzzling that it's not yet available in its home country. Oh, mais hèlas le DVD ne porte pas des sous-titres anglais. Dommage!

(maintenaint, on sent un trés violent cri venu de l'Australie - "Nom de Dieu!")

[kinjitsu]

I regret Visconti's only other foray into comedy is a few scenes from Conversation piece. I really wish he had spent more time in this mode, and spared us things like - sorry Dylan - Ludwig, l'Innocente and Death in Venice. .

Oh c'mon David, Ludwig may be long and exasperating at times, but you have to admit that it's deliciously Wagnerian and gorgeous to look at, plus Helmut in fine hysterical form. Speaking of long Wagnerian epics, a friend of mine after a screening of Death in Venice, called it the longest cruise film ever made.

[Dylan]

Good God are people are pretty split on the bulk of Visconti. I love "Ossessione," "Senso," "Le Notti Bianche" (my favorite by a mile), "Rocco and His Brothers," "The Leopard," and "Death in Venice" and I really like and respect "La Terra Trema," and I can't wait to see the others. His films have certainly done a lot for me, I consider him a God among directors.

Michael, we just talked about how much you loved "Le Notti Bianche" not too long ago, no? Did you watch it again after that and it didn't hold up or something? It's supposed to be a dreamy romance, so I'm not sure why her walking out at night in a totally expressionistic town would bother you. I love that Visconti wrote in the whore and that sad, uncomfortable scene where Marcello is hit after he fails to be intimate with her. I can't stress enough how perfectly cast I feel Mastroianni is, it's one of my all-time favorite performances. If all else fails, how about his dance scene? That was simply marvelous. And Rotunno's coverage and lighting of the nightclub is absolutely burnished in my memory, as is the song "13 Women." I don't think there's anything remotely wrong with that film, it's as excellent as they come. I'm surprised there isn't more love for it here.

Wish I had seen "Bellissima" as that's the darling of the thread, but I haven't. I most certainly will though, but I'm not sure when. I'm sure it's terrific.

[Michael]

Dylan, Notti has numerous impressive qualities - lighting and editing to name a couple. The dance scene is the absolute highlight of Notti. It is a good film but if looking at the whole Visconti oeuvre, it's still not as stunning as most of his works. Yes, it's a dreamy romance but sadly it's so flat that it failed to maintain my attention during repeated viewings. The characters in Notti are too simple and not as rich or layered in any way as the ones in Ossessione or Bellissima or Rocco. Notti is just not chewy enough for me to want to come back to it again and again. It's pretty much crispy, leaving crumbs to be swept away quickly. I love Mastroianni and yes, he is in davidhare's words "fatally miscast". He didn't seem to really enjoy playing his Notti role as much as his Fellini roles or even the fabulous, delicious one in Divorce Italian Style. Bellissima's little girl is more memorable and interesting to watch than all the Notti characters put together.

I'm not sure why her walking out at night in a totally expressionistic town would bother you.

No, it didn't bother me a bit. I think you misunderstood. In the end when the snow fell overnight, I just couldn't deal with Natalia walking for hours in the thick snow with the type of shoes she had on (and no socks!), like it was nothing. If it was me, my toes would fall off! I know that sounds silly and like you said, everything's supposed to be totally expressionistic.

Dylan, I love the passion that you have for Notti and many other films. And that means the whole world to me.

I hope you will get to watch Bellissima soon. I've watched it twice already and the second viewing was even so much better.

[LonHuber]

I couldn''t agree with you more about a lot of Renzo Rossellini's awful, cue-ey music in a number of bro's pictures.

What I said was:

Danny Elfman writes "obscenely overdrawn music scores;" I've never heard anything like that in a de Sica film. I suppose a case could be made for "somewhat" manipulative, but if so then there's no difference between de Sica's use of music and Visconti's or (often) Rossellini's for that matter.

In other words, de Sica's scores are not "obscenely overdrawn," any more than those in Visconti or Rossellini films. You don't seem to be agreeing with me at all.

But Rossellini's mise-en-scene in things like Germania Anno Zero and Francesco maintains a constant detachment from the action, and his observations even of the devastating suicides of the children in Germania and Europa 51 are NEVER, never sentimental. Indeed in the latter, Rossellini's camera observes Bergman's distraught reaction to the death of her son in a profoundly meditative way, never inviting the audience to become immersed in her character, for the very reason that we must observe the rest of her journey through "society" and human relationships, to that other place of sainthood. Same with Francesco - two scenes always move me to tears - F talking to the birds who are "interrupting" his prayer, and his embrace of the leper and his futile attempt to transfer the man's suffering to himself. These are transcendentally beautiful moments and no amount of emphatic music scoring can touch them.

Aside from the music, your other evidence of the "gross sentimentality that pervades the deSica/Zavattini pictures" was "the general tone of the Zavattini screenplays." I asked for specific examples, and now you're off talking about Rossellini's mise-en-scene and/or directorial style. Is the problem with the de Sica films in the screenplays or not?

I also cry every time I see Flike run away from Umberto. But the tears one sheds in a de Sica are quickly gone, while the tears shed viewing a Rossellini touch the core.

If it affects you that way, then it affects you that way. That's a personal response, and you're welcome to it. Personally, I'm moved by de Sica and Rossellini (and Visconti) about equally, though in different ways in accordance with each director's unique talents.

However, whatever their differences, the differences exist in the context of some remarkable similarities. No one of them is so far from the other in tone as to justify characterizing the work as "gross sentimentality" or "melodrama." If THE BICYCLE THIEF or UMBERTO D. are melodrama, then ALL drama is melodrama, and we might as well erase the all distinctions between the terms.

[Dylan]

I didn't need my mind to be put at ease, I was just surprised how split some of you seemed on him, but thanks for the rundown. You're certainly a fan of his first twenty years and I'm right there with you on the ones you like. However, I don't buy for a split second what you say about "Notti" (I love Rota's score too), but that's never been a very popular film on the boards. All of Visconti's films reach me on a very personal level, and I love that, but I also see him as one of the greatest craftsman and storytellers. I think about his films a lot, and I'd love to read a book on him, he had a fascinating life from the little I've read.

I don't think I should go too much into the De Sica/Rossellini thing, though I do think "The Bicycle Thief" is as beautiful and as important as any film ever made, and "Voyage to Italy" is wonderful.

[LonHuber]

Luchino Visconti by Gaia Servadio the only biography I've found in English. It is very readable, and seems reasonably objective, though it is by a friend and so unflattering material may have been left out or glossed over.

On the NOTTI BIANCHE issue, I can't think of it as literary at all. The striking artifice of the set to me is an announcement of how the film is meant to be taken, as a cinematic exploration of the operatic stage. The rhythms of the film, in dialogue, in narrative tempo, even in the blocking of the actors' movements - operatic in every way. Not to mention the story. I really liked it a lot, it was nice to see something so purely entertaining from a director who had previously been so grimly serious. Whether the characters had depth or not is irrelevant to me, as the film captivates me on an entirely other level. As to whether Mastroianni is miscast or not, I'm not prepared to say at this point. Maybe with more screenings. Certainly the melancholy which is often just below the surface of his expression is used icongraphically here - that may be all Visconti wanted, who knows?

[Michael]

davidhare, thanks for the rundown and I agree with it very much. I'm embarrassed to say that I've not seen Senso yet. For years and years I still have no luck finding the video of Senso in any form.

david, what is your favorite Valli acting piece? Senso? Her Spider's Stratagem work resonates with me the most. She never looked more beautiful in this film. How she walked so dreamily through gardens and hallways. Powerfully gorgeous presence.. face, hair, dress. Reminded me so much of my grandmother. I also love her delicious role as Miss Tanner in Suspiria... my very first Valli experience when I was about 10 years old.

[otis]

I know this is all completely off-topic, and maybe some of these posts need to be relocated on a dedicated Alida Valli thread, but I'll blunder on anyway.

Dame Larry would have been good (has the range) but I keep thinking of Ryan, as Selznick seemed to want to cast an American actor, and I don't think that hurts the picture. But WHO would you have cast as LaTour? It's too early for somone like, say Steve Cochran. Definitely needs butchness, as well as horny hands!

David, I misread your post, and thought you were suggesting Robert Ryan for the Jourdan role, not the lead. Can't really see him myself, although he was obviously a much better actor than Peck. But Hitchcock's comment to Truffaut, "I don't think Gregory Peck can properly represent an English lawyer", goes equally well for Ryan. I think the film requires British actors in both roles, as it's supposed to focus on the class system to which Valli as a foreigner is an outsider. And watching it again the other day I could actually hear Olivier in many of Peck's line readings, especially the early scenes between him and Ann Todd, where he has something of the patronising smugness of Larry's Maxim de Winter, just not half as good. And imagine what Larry could have done with the courtroom scenes, first demolishing LaTour (he was only made French to accomodate Jourdan, of course - in the book and early scripts he's called William Marsh) in court, then publically humiliating himself over Valli. Plus he looked good in a wig.

I love Hitchcock's explanantion of what was wrong with the casting:

The worst flaw in the casting was assigning Louis Jourdan to play the groom. After all, the story of The Paradine Case is about the degradation of a gentleman who becomes enamoured of his client, a woman who is not only a murderess, but also a nymphomaniac. And that degradation reaches its climactic point when he's forced to confront the heroine with one of her lovers, who is a groom. But that groom should have been a manure-smelling stable hand, a man who really reeked of manure.

If only they could have made it in Odorama!

On a more serious note, does anyone know why the original 132-minute release version is no longer available? Both the R1 and R2 DVDs are just under 2 hours. Was it recut by Selznick, who had already taken it out of Hitchcock's hands after he turned in an almost 3-hour rough cut featuring more of the sinuous camera moves made possible by Lee Garmes's crab dolly, as well as a number of close-ups with the characters looking directly at the camera? According to Bill Krohn, the rough-cut was destroyed in a flood in the 80s, but a longer version has recently been discovered with two additional scenes (and no sound). Anyone seen them?

[tryavna]

But there's much more to love, not least Laughton and Ethel Barrymore.

Laughton does have some great lines:

"You're talking more nonsense than usual, my dear."

"Have you ever noticed that the inside of a walnut resembles the contours of the human brain?"

On the whole, though, The Paradine Case is one of those movies that I wish I liked more, but I always find myself nodding off midway through when I try to watch it.

[otis]

Does anyone else's DVD of Bellissima stick for a moment around 1:18:40 in the scene by the river when Magnani tells Walter Chiari she knows he bought the Lambretta with her money?

Initial thoughts:

David, I'm surprised you found this less sentimental than the Zavattini/de Sica films. I didn't really buy the ending: we may be poor, but we've got our prole pride, and for once my husband hasn't beaten the shit of of me. Magnani's great of course, but this is just as melodramatic as Bike Thieves and the ending's a lot more reassuring (or at least tries to be). Reminded me of the rash of self-righteous films attacking reality TV a few years ago. Of course, the queues at Cinecittà these days are to audition for the next series of Grande Fratello...

[Gordon]

Infinity Atrhouse will be releasing a 2-disc of the Count's 1972 biopic of mad, mad, Ludwig on June 19. I'm a bit worried by the 4:3 listing, though; hopefully, it's just misinformation. I mean, a gorgeous 2.35:1 PAL master of the full version exists, as their is an unsubtitled German disc from Kinowelt (?). I'll be gutted if a pan and scan atrocity is commited on this visual feast.

[ellipsis7]

Amazon.co.uk unfortunately also record the screen ratio as 4:3...

[Gordon]

I'll set myself on fire (again) if they pan and scan this one.

[Barmy]

I just might take the CEO of Infinity "Art"house into a field and shoot him.