They are “Rocco and her brothers”, who returned to several rooms of CABA and La Plata, and “The Innocent”, which can be seen in the Bafici. In both cases, in restored copies.
This does not happen every day. Two of the best films of the exquisite teacher coincide on the billboard Luchino Visconti: “Rocco and his brothers”with Alain Delon, Annie Girardot, Renato Salvatoriin five capital rooms and silver, and “The innocent”with Giannini, Laura Antonelli and Jennifer O’Neill In the BAFICI (but only three functions), both in newly restored copies. One represents its commitment to realism, but stylized realism, the other its vocation for the melodrama and painting of the aristocracy in decline.
Of the latter knew a lot. The family Visconti He was one of the most powerful of the Italian North, with titles of nobility since the 16th century. His father was a duke with fields and abundant properties. His mother came from a rich family of industrialists. To the young man Luchino Visconti He did not miss money, refined education and good contacts. After the military service in the cavalry weapon he dedicated himself to the breeding of career horses. And as cinema liked, at 30 he asked her friend, dressing her Chanel, to introduce him to the best film director in France, to learn by his side. She introduced Jean Renoir, son of the impressionist painter.
Jean Renoir Not only was it the best. He was also a socialist, a member of the Popular Front and author of “Toni”History of an immigrant filmed with authentic workers in natural scenarios, that is, a true antecedent of Neorealism that the Italians would have to develop a few years later. Visconti learned from him in every way, was his assistant in three films, including the beautiful “A field day”where he appears fleetingly, he returned to Italy, he laid his purposes in an anti -fascist film magazine, he collaborated with the resistance, he was imprisoned, in 1942 he made “Ossesione”adaptation of the novel of James Cain “The postman calls twice”.
Hollywood had made a pasteurized version. His had all the realism that the novel requested and that the regime of Mussolini censored. It was difficult to spread it and became theater director, then also director of Opera. In 1948, he finally made the most extreme neo -Real film: “The Terra Trema”, A fishermen’s history played by fishermen in a town on the Sicilian coast. For more reality they did not speak Italian, but the island’s dialect. Of course, it was also difficult for him to spread it. But it soon imposed himself with other films, including “Senso”powerful era melodrama with dazzling display of costumes and color, where a patriot’s sister falls in love awkwardly from an officer of the Austrian occupant army.
Of “The Terra Trema”It will derive later “Rocco and his brothers”drama of a family of Sicilian immigrants trying to acclimatize in the rich and derogatory city of Milan (“Africans”, they are told). They are a widow and their boys. Some will succeed as a boxer, others will adapt to the simple life of workers, and so on. Only one will be the rotten fruit of the drawer. Co -production with France, in the cast they were Alain Delon, Annie Girardotthe Greek Katyna Paxinou like the mother, Renato Salvatori With his face of Machito Malandra, Claudia Cardinale, Suzy Delair, Paolo Stoppa Like the Box manager, and behind the musician the musician Nino brokenthe director of photography Giuseppe Rotunnoand Suso Cecchi d’Amico, Pasquale Festa Campanile and the novelist Basque Pratolini writing with the director a story inspired by both acts of everyday life and in a rugged stories of Giovanni TestorYo. The melodramatic, opeistic, of Visconti I could not be absent.
And of “Senso”with all his deployment, his vision of history and his painting of the aristocracy in Declive, they were going to derive “The catpardo”supreme work, “The fall of the gods”, “Ludwig” And also “Death in Venice” (where the character coexists with the aristocracy without it bothering to register), “Family group” And, the last one, the shudder “The innocent”.
Based on the novel that Gabriele d’Annunzio published in 1892, “The innocent” He develops the story of a marriage of Alcurnia but of little physical love. He enjoys life with a lover, but becomes interested in the wife when she begins to interact with another man. She becomes pregnant and the drama explodes. Will an innocent pay the faults? Curious choice, two picaresque comedies stars, Giannini and Laura Antonellithey head the cast. Right choice, their actions are admirable. Costumes of Piero Tosiphotography of Pasqualino de Santisagain the historical Suso Cecchi d’Amicocoguionista, an incredible woman whose name appears in almost all the best Italian films from 1946 to 2006.
Visconti He died very shortly after rolling “The innocent”. At the beginning of this movie, a hand moves the pages of a book, as used in the movies of other times. The book is that of D’Annunzio. The hand, some say, is that of the own Visconti. Here more than saying was the prestigious critic and translator Emilio Stevanovich, With his imposing voice: “The hand of Luchino Visconti reviews the pages. It may be that of another person, it can be, but it is that of Visconti because I declare it so”. Movies like that are no longer made, nor the statements of critics have that theatrical beauty of other times.
Source: Ambito
I am an author and journalist who has worked in the entertainment industry for over a decade. I currently work as a news editor at a major news website, and my focus is on covering the latest trends in entertainment. I also write occasional pieces for other outlets, and have authored two books about the entertainment industry.
