Although he was one of the pioneers of
the Italian neo-realist movement of the 1940s, director Luchino
Visconti is far better known for his later films, which are voluptuous,
elegantly stylized epics as far from his humble cinematic beginnings
as possible.
Those two sides of Visconti – and everything in between – are
on display at the BAMCinematek from Nov. 22 to Dec. 14, when
the retrospective "The Films of Luchino Visconti" presents
all 14 of Visconti’s feature films, three of his shorts and an
early documentary he codirected.
Visconti was born in Milan in 1906 into an aristocratic family;
his full name was Count Don Luchino Visconti Di Modrone. Notwithstanding
his wealthy pedigree, Visconti was an ardent Communist and a
member of the Italian resistance movement during World War II.
Perhaps it is those two sides of Visconti the man that made his
directing career so – to use a loaded term – schizophrenic. His
first films were as important to ’40s Italian cinema as were
Rossellini’s "Rome: Open City" and "Paisan."
"Ossessione" (Dec. 8 & 16), made in 1942, is a
brutal and steamy film noir based on James M. Cain’s novel "The
Postman Always Rings Twice" – in fact, Visconti got into
trouble with both Italian dictator Benito Mussolini’s censors
and MGM Studios, which owned the rights to the novel.
Following the Allied victory in Europe, Visconti was one of four
directors to document a postwar trial of Fascists implicated
in the killings of hundreds of innocent prisoners of war. "Days
of Glory," which opens the series on Nov. 22, includes sequences
shot by Visconti of one of the accused who was responsible for
sending Visconti himself to prison the previous year.
Visconti’s reputation as a leader of neo-realism received a boost
when his second feature, "La Terra Trema" (Nov. 29),
was released in 1948. Shot entirely in Sicily with a cast of
amateurs – actually, the real fishermen the film was about –
"La Terra Trema" had among its adherents no less than
critic Pauline Kael, who said that it "achieves a true epic
vision."
After "La Terra Trema," Visconti spent the 1950s working
out his transformation from neo-realistic to expressionistic
director. The comic 1951 film "Bellissima" (Nov. 30)
stars Anna Magnani as a ruthless showbiz mom who’ll do anything
to help her young daughter win an acting contest. The melodramatic
1954 movie "Senso" (Dec. 1 & 2) has dialogue by
Tennessee Williams and music by Anton Bruckner, both fever-pitched
equivalents of Visconti’s overheated direction of a story demonstrating
how love drives one insane. And 1957’s "White Nights"
(Dec. 3), based on Dostoyevsky’s novel, stars Marcello Mastroianni
and cements Visconti’s shift in style: it was shot entirely on
studio sets, enhancing its dream-like aura.
In 1960, "Rocco and His Brothers" (Nov. 25 & 26)
combined both of Visconti’s styles in a sweeping, three-hour
epic study of a family who moves from Sicily to Milan: the boxing
scenes have the verisimilitude of his neo-realist pictures and
the inflamed emotions of the characters’ relationships anticipate
the rarefied air of the films that follow.
Of course, Visconti was also a famous opera director in Europe,
but the term "operatic" as it relates to his films
from "Rocco" onward is simply a shortcut to pinpointing
the visual and emotional extravagances that inform them. In 1963,
"The Leopard" (Nov. 27 & 28) lavishly recreated
19th-century Sicily in a visually arresting if psychologically
thin portrait of the twilight of the aristocracy to which Visconti
himself belonged. Giuseppe Rotunno’s Cinemascope photography
is simply stunning – particularly in the new print now available
– and the film is crammed with sumptuous images, including the
subtle final shot.
Visconti made his most intelligent picture in 1967 with his impressive
adaptation of Albert Camus’ novel "The Stranger" (Dec.
9) starring Marcello Mastroianni. Too bad he bookended this triumph
with two failures, the pseudo-Freudian "Sandra" (1965;
Dec. 6 & 7) and the deadly-dull decadence on display in 1969’s
"The Damned" (Dec. 4 & 5).
The final decade of Visconti’s career, in fact, is best described
as a falling off in quality: the 1971 misadaptation of Thomas
Mann’s novella "Death in Venice" (Dec. 10 & 11);
the exquisite-looking but dramatically empty four-hour 1972 biopic
"Ludwig" (Nov. 23), about the insane 19th-century Bavarian
king; 1974’s more intimate but no more incisive "Conversation
Piece," which closes the series Dec. 14; and his final film,
"The Innocent" (Dec. 12), which was edited and released
after his death in 1976.
The Dec. 13 program of three Visconti short films is quite intriguing:
an extract from "We the Women," starring Anna Magnani;
Visconti’s segment of the omnibus film "Boccaccio ’70"
(which also contains shorts by Fellini and De Sica), entitled
"Il Lavoro"; and the rarely-seen "The Witch Burned
Alive," starring Silvana Magnano.
All in all, "The Films of Luchino Visconti" is a most
welcome overview of one of cinema’s most masterly – and occasionally
misguided – talents.
"The Films of Luchino Visconti"
runs at the BAMcinematek (30 Lafayette Ave. at Ashland Place
in Fort Greene) from Nov. 20 to Dec. 14. Tickets are $10. For
a complete list of films, screening dates and times, call (718)
636-4100 or visit the Web site at www.bam.org.
