Everything about Luchino Visconti totally explained
Luchino Visconti di Modrone,
Count of Lonate Pozzolo (
November 2,
1906 -
March 17,
1976) was an
Italian theatre and
cinema director and
writer, best known for films such as
The Leopard (1963). He died in
Rome of a stroke at the age of 69. There is a museum dedicated to the director's work in
Ischia.
Early life
Born into a noble and wealthy family (one of the richest of northern Italy), in
Milan, Visconti's father was the
Duke of Grazzano, and Visconti had six siblings. Due to his upbringing, Visconti was able to be exposed to art, music and theater, and to meet some of the forerunners in each, such as the composer
Giacomo Puccini, the conductor
Arturo Toscanini, and the writer
Gabriele D'Annunzio.
After World War II Visconti joined the
Italian Communist Party.
Visconti in the film industry
In 1936, at the age of 30, he went to
Paris and began his filmmaking career as third assistant director in
Jean Renoir's
Une partie de campagne (1936), thanks to the intercession of a common friend,
Coco Chanel. After a short tour to the
U.S., where he visited
Hollywood, he returned to Italy to be Renoir's assistant again, this time for
La Tosca (1939), a production that was interrupted and later completed by German director
Karl Koch because of the
war.
Together with
Roberto Rossellini, Visconti joined the
salotto of
Vittorio Mussolini (the son of
Benito, at the time the national arbitrator for cinema and other arts) and here presumably met also
Federico Fellini. With Gianni Puccini, Antonio Pietrangeli and Giuseppe De Santis he wrote the screenplay for his first film as director:
Ossessione (
Obsession) (1943), the first
neorealist movie and an adaptation of the novel
The Postman Always Rings Twice. In 1948, he wrote and directed
La Terra trema (
The Earth Trembles), based on the novel
I Malavoglia by
Giovanni Verga.
Visconti was one neo-realist director who was able to continue working throughout the 1950’s, although he veered away from the neorealist path with his 1954 film,
Senso, which was also filmed in
Technicolor. Based on the novella by
Camillo Boito, it's set in Austrian-occupied
Venice in 1866 and in it, Visconti combines
realism and
romanticism as a way to break away from neorealism. However, as one biographer notes, “Visconti without
neorealism is like Lang without
expressionism and Eisenstein without
formalism" and he describes the film the “most Viscontian” of all Visconti’s films.
He returned to neorealism one more time in 1960 with
Rocco and his Brothers, the story of southern Italians who migrate to Milan hoping to find financial stability.
Throughout the 1960’s, Visconti’s films became more personal.
The Leopard (
Il Gattopardo), made in 1963, and based on
Giuseppe Tomasi di Lampedusa’s novel about the decline of the
Sicilian aristocracy. It starred
American actor
Burt Lancaster in the role of Prince Don Fabrizio.
This film was distributed throughout both America and
England, but in the process,
Twentieth-Century Fox scaled it down with important scenes completely deleted. These cuts and the poor dubbing quality ensured that the essence of the film was lost in this version. Visconti repudiated it, and took no responsibility for it whatsoever.
He told an American reporter in 1961, “I believe in life, that's the central point ... I believe in organized society. I think it has a chance”. Even when not focusing on sending a message to his audience about war or poverty, Visconti was still dealing with life and all its glory and hardships.
It wasn't until his 1969 film,
The Damned, that Visconti received a nomination for an
Academy Award, for "Best Screenplay". However, he didn't win. The film, one of Visconti's best-known works, is about a German industrialist family that slowly begins to disintegrate during World War II. The decadence and lavish beauty are characteristic of Visconti's aesthetic.
Visconti's final film was
The Innocent (1976), which has the recurring theme of infidelity and betrayal.
Filmography as film director
- Ossessione (1943, based on James M. Cain's 1934 novel The Postman Always Rings Twice)
- Giorni di Gloria, documentary (1945)
- La Terra trema (1950)
- Appunti su un fatto di cronaca, short film (1951)
- Bellissima (1951)
- Siamo donne (We, the Women) (1953) (episode Anna Magnani)
- Senso (Livia), 1954
- Le notti bianche (White Nights), 1957
- Rocco e i suoi fratelli (Rocco and His Brothers), 1960
- Boccaccio '70 (1961, based on Boccaccio's Decameron). (episode Il lavoro)
- The Leopard (Il Gattopardo), 1963 - based on Giuseppe Tomasi di Lampedusa's novel Il Gattopardo)
- Vaghe stelle dell'Orsa (Sandra of a Thousand Delights), 1965)
- The Stranger (Lo straniero), 1967 - based on Albert Camus' novel L'Étranger)
- Le streghe (The Witches), 1967 (episode La strega bruciata viva)
- The Damned (film) (La caduta degli dei), 1969
- Alla ricerca di Tadzio (TV movie, 1970)
- Death in Venice (Morte a Venezia), 1971 - Based on Thomas Mann's novel)
- Ludwig (1972)
- Conversation Piece (Gruppo di famiglia in un interno, 1974)
- L'Innocente (1976)
Visconti as theatre and opera director
Visconti was also a celebrated theatre and
opera director. During the years 1946-1960 he directed many performances of the
Rina Morelli-
Paolo Stoppa Company, with
Vittorio Gassmann plus many celebrated productions of operas.
In many ways, Visconti's love of opera- and especially the operas of
Giuseppe Verdi - is evidenced in the 1954
Senso, where the beginning of the film shows scenes from the fourth act of
Il trovatore, which were filmed at the famed
Teatro La Fenice in
Venice. Beginning with a production at Milan's
Teatro alla Scala of
La vestale in December 1954, which Visconti directed, his career included a famous revival of
La traviata at La Scala in 1955 with Maria Callas, and an equally famous
Anna Bolena (also at La Scala) in 1957, also with
Maria Callas. A significant 1958
Royal Opera House,
Covent Garden London production of Verdi's five act Italian version of
Don Carlos followed, along with a
Macbeth in
Spoleto in 1958 and a famous black-and-white
Il trovatore (scenery and costumes designed by
Filippo Sanjust) at Covent Garden in 1964. In 1966 Visconti's luscious
Falstaff for the
Vienna State Opera (conducted by
Leonard Bernstein) was critically acclaimed, whereas his austere 1969
Simon Boccanegra with the singers clothed in geometrical costumes caused some controversies.
Opera productions directed by Visconti
La vestale by Gaspare Spontini, 1954, La Scala with Maria Callas
La sonnambula by Vincenzo Bellini, 1955, La Scala with Maria Callas
La traviata by Giuseppe Verdi, 1955, La Scala with Maria Callas, conducted by Carlo Maria Giulini
Anna Bolena by Gaetano Donizetti, 1957, La Scala with Maria Callas
Iphigénie en Tauride by Christoph Willibald Gluck, 1957, La Scala with Maria Callas
Don Carlos by Giuseppe Verdi, 1958, Royal Opera House, Covent Garden
Macbeth by Giuseppe Verdi, 1958, Spoleto Festival
Il duca d'Alba by Gaetano Donizetti, 1959, Spoleto Festival
Salome by Richard Strauss, 1961, Spoleto Festival
Il diavolo in giardino by Franco Mannino with libretto by Visconti, Filippo Sanjust and Enrico Medioli, 1963, Teatro Massimo, Palermo
La traviata by Giuseppe Verdi, 1963, Spoleto Festival
Le nozze di Figaro by Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart, 1964, Teatro dell'Opera di Roma Rome
Il trovatore by Giuseppe Verdi, 1964, Royal Opera House, Covent Garden (Sanjust production); Bolshoi Theatre, Moscow (Carlos Benois production)
Don Carlos by Giuseppe Verdi, 1965, Rome Opera
Falstaff by Giuseppe Verdi, 1966, Staatsoper, Vienna, with Dietrich Fischer-Dieskau, conducted by Leonard Bernstein
Der Rosenkavalier by Richard Strauss, 1966, Royal Opera House, Covent Garden
La traviata by Giuseppe Verdi, 1967, Royal Opera House, Covent Garden with Mirella Freni
Simon Boccanegra by Giuseppe Verdi, 1969, Staatsoper, Vienna, with Eberhard Wächter, conducted by Josef Krips
Manon Lescaut by Giacomo Puccini, 1973, Spoleto Festival
Personal life
Visconti made no secret of his homosexuality. His last partner was the Austrian actor Helmut Berger, who played Martin in The Damned. Berger also appeared in Visconti's Ludwig in 1972 and Conversation Piece in 1974 along with Burt Lancaster.
Other lovers included Franco Zeffirelli.
Bibliographies
Visconti bibliography, showing holdings of the University of California Library, Berkeley
Further Information
Get more info on 'Luchino Visconti'.
|
External Link Exchanges
Do you know how hard it is to get a link from a large encyclopaedia? Well we're different and will prove it. To get a link from us just add the following HTML to your site on a relevant page:
<a href="http://luchino_visconti.totallyexplained.com">Luchino Visconti Totally Explained</a>
Then simply click through this link from your web page. Our crawlers will verify your link, extract the title of your web page and instantly add a link back to it. If you like you can remove the words Totally Explained and embed the link in article text.
As long as your link remains in place, we'll keep our link to you right here. Please play fair - our crawlers are watching. Your site must be closely related to this one's topic. Any kind of spamming, dubious practises or removing the link will result in your link from us being dropped and, potentially, your whole site being banned. |
