Luchino Visconti

Source: Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia.
For the Milanese ruler, see Luchino Visconti (died 1349).

opera director

Luchino Visconti di Modrone, Count of Lonate Pozzolo (Italian: [luˈkiːno viˈskonti di moˈdroːne]; 2 November 1906 – 17 March 1976) was an Italian filmmaker, theatre and opera director, and screenwriter. He was one of the fathers of cinematic neorealism, but later moved towards luxurious, sweeping epics dealing with themes of beauty, decadence, death, and European history, especially the decay of the nobility and the bourgeoisie. Critic Jonathan Jones wrote that “no one did as much to shape Italian cinema as Luchino Visconti.”[1]

Born into a

Fascist regime for its unvarnished depictions of working-class characters, but is today renowned as a pioneering work of Italian cinema, generally regarded as the first neorealist film. During World War II, he served in the anti-fascist resistance
, and afterwards was active in left-wing politics.

Visconti’s best-known films include Senso (1954) and The Leopard[2] (1963); historical melodramas adapted from Italian literary classics, the gritty drama Rocco and His Brothers (1960), and his "German Trilogy" – The Damned (1969), Death in Venice (1971) and Ludwig (1973). He was also an accomplished director of operas and stage plays, both in Italy and abroad, and held a close association with La Scala in his hometown of Milan.[3]

Visconti received several notable accolades, including both the

BAFTA Award nominee. Six of Visconti’s films are on the list of 100 Italian films to be saved. Many of his works are regarded as highly-influential to future generations of filmmakers, including Francis Ford Coppola and Martin Scorsese.[4][5]

Early life

Family arms

Luchino Visconti was born into a prominent noble family in

Erba Pharmaceuticals). He was formally known as Count don Luchino Visconti di Modrone, and his family is a branch of the Visconti of Milan
where they ruled from 1277 to 1447, initially as lords, then as dukes.

He grew up in the Milanese family seat, the Palazzo Visconti di Modrone in Via Cerva, as well as on the family estate, Grazzano Visconti Castle near

Victor Emmanuel III of Italy
, also owned a villa in Rome that Luchino later inherited and lived in for decades.

  • Palazzo Visconti di Modrone in Milan
    Palazzo Visconti di Modrone in Milan
  • Grazzano Visconti Castle
    Grazzano Visconti Castle
  • Villa Erba on Lake Como
    Villa Erba on Lake Como

In his early years, he was exposed to art, music and theatre: The Palazzo Visconti di Modrone in Milan, where he grew up, had its own small private theatre and the children participated in its performances. The family also had their own box in the La Scala opera house. Luchino studied cello with the Italian cellist and composer Lorenzo de Paolis (1890–1965) and met the composer Giacomo Puccini, the conductor Arturo Toscanini and the writer Gabriele D'Annunzio.[citation needed] Visconti found literature by reading Proust's In Search of Lost Time, later a lifelong film project that he never realized. Before he started his film career, he was passionate about training racehorses in his own stable. He was engaged to Princess Irma of Windisch-Graetz, but this raised concerns with her father, Prince Hugo, and Visconti broke the engagement off in 1935.[8]

Wartime resistance activity

During

Mussolini regime. He accused the bourgeoisie of treason to tyranny, and following the Badoglio Proclamation, began working with the Italian resistance
. He supported the communists' partisan fight at the risk of death; his villa in Rome became a meeting place for oppositional artists.

After the king's flight in the autumn of 1943 and the intervention of the Germans, he went into hiding in the mountains, at

nom de guerre Alfredo Guidi. Visconti helped English and American prisoners of war hide after they had escaped, and also gave shelter to partisans in his house in Rome, with the help of actress María Denis.[10]

After the German occupation of Rome in April 1944, Visconti was arrested and detained by the anti-partisan Pietro Koch and sentenced to execution by firing squad. He was only saved from death by Denis' last-minute intervention. After the war, Visconti testified against Koch, who was himself convicted and executed.

Career

Luchino Visconti

Films

He began his film-making career as a set dresser on

Karl Koch
.

Together with fellow members of the Milanese film journal Cinema - Gianni Puccini, Antonio Pietrangeli and Giuseppe De Santis - Visconti wrote the screenplay for his first film as director: Ossessione (Obsession, 1943), one of the first examples of neorealist (involving real locations and regular people) movies and an unofficial adaptation of the novel The Postman Always Rings Twice.[12] The premiere of Ossessione took place at a film festival hosted by Vittorio Mussolini (son of Benito), who was the national arbiter for cinema and other arts, and the editor of Cinema.[13] Though prior to the premiere their working relationship was positive, upon viewing the film Vittorio stormed out of the theatre exclaiming: "This is not Italy!", according to the account of Cinema group contributor Aldo Scagnetti. The film was subsequently suppressed by the fascist regime, to the extent that the first public showing of the film in Rome only occurred in May 1945.[14]

In 1948, he wrote and directed

La terra trema (The Earth Trembles), based on the novel I Malavoglia by Giovanni Verga
. Visconti continued working throughout the 1950s, but he veered away from the neorealist path with his 1954 film, Senso, shot in colour. Based on the novella by Camillo Boito, it is set in Austrian-occupied Venice in 1866. In this film, 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".[15] He describes the film as the "most Viscontian" of all Visconti's films. Visconti returned to neorealism once more with Rocco e i suoi fratelli (Rocco and His Brothers, 1960), the story of Southern Italians who migrate to Milan hoping to find financial stability. In 1961, he was a member of the jury at the 2nd Moscow International Film Festival.[16]

Throughout the 1960s, Visconti's films became more personal.

Twentieth-Century Fox, which deleted important scenes. Visconti repudiated the Twentieth-Century Fox version.[citation needed
]

It was not until The Damned (1969) that Visconti received a nomination for an Academy Award for Best Original Screenplay. The film, one of Visconti's better-known works, concerns a German industrialist's family which begins to disintegrate during the Nazi consolidation of power in the 1930s. The film opened to widespread critical acclaim, but also faced controversy from rating boards for its sexual content, including depictions of homosexuality, pedophilia, rape, and incest. In the United States, the film was given an X rating. The avant-garde filmmaker Rainer Werner Fassbinder praised it as his favourite movie. Its decadence and lavish beauty are characteristic of Visconti's aesthetic − very visible also in the movie Death in Venice (1971) that processed the daring novella Death in Venice published in 1912 by Thomas Mann.

Visconti's final film was The Innocent (1976), in which he returns to his recurring interest in infidelity and betrayal.

Theatre

Visconti was also a celebrated theatre and opera director. During the years 1946 to 1960, he directed many performances of the Rina Morelli-Paolo Stoppa Company with actor Vittorio Gassman as well as many celebrated productions of operas.

Visconti's love of opera is evident in the 1954 Senso, where the beginning of the film shows scenes from the fourth act of

La vestale in December 1954, 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 with Callas. A significant 1958 Royal Opera House (London) production of Verdi's five-act Italian version of Don Carlos (with Jon Vickers) followed, along with a Macbeth in Spoleto in 1958 and a famous black-and-white Il trovatore with scenery and costumes by Filippo Sanjust at the Royal Opera House in 1964. In 1966 Visconti's luscious Falstaff for the Vienna State Opera conducted by Leonard Bernstein was critically acclaimed. On the other hand, his austere 1969 Simon Boccanegra
with the singers clothed in geometrical costumes provoked controversy.

Filmmaking style and themes

In the aftermath of World War II he became one of the founding fathers of the Italian neorealistic film movement that focused on challenging economic and conditions, and how it affected the psyche of the underclass. Visconti himself came from nobility, was highly educated and was never in financial lack. His films reflected that tension. In fact, Visconti said he felt he came from a world long ago, that of the previous (19th) century.

In the film The Leopard, he addressed the decline of an old social order and the rise of “modern times”. He did not see his opulent flashbacks as an escape into imaginary, lost worlds, but rather as the deciphering of signs. He wanted to put his finger on the signs of profound historical changes which would only become visible later. He searched world literature for relevant works to show the discrepancies between generations and their world views, as a task of realism in art. When he was accused of decadence, he recalled Thomas Mann and his way of creating art.[17]

Personal life

In later years, Visconti made no secret of his homosexuality, though he remained a devout Catholic throughout his life.[18] "I am a Catholic," he commented in 1971. "I was born a Catholic, I was baptized a Catholic. I cannot change what I am, I cannot easily become a Protestant. My ideas may be unorthodox, but I am still a Catholic."[7] While his first 3-year-relationship from 1936, with the photographer Horst P. Horst, remained discreet because of the prejudices of the time, he later showed up openly in the company of his lovers, among them the director and producer Franco Zeffirelli[19] and the actor Udo Kier.[20] His last lover was the Austrian actor Helmut Berger, who played Martin in Visconti's film The Damned.[21] Berger also appeared in Visconti's Ludwig in 1973 and Conversation Piece in 1974, along with Burt Lancaster. Zeffirelli also worked as part of the crew in production design, as assistant director, and other roles in a number of Visconti's films, operas, and theatrical productions. According to Visconti's autobiography, he and Umberto II of Italy had a romantic relationship during their youth in the 1920s.[22]

Visconti was hostile to the

Marx, and Che Guevara. They saw him as a symbol of reaction, a member of the mandarin caste. The emerging radical-left terrorism in Italy frightened him and made him fear the rise of a new fascism.[23]

Health issues and death

Visconti in 1972

Visconti smoked 120

cigarettes a day.[24] He suffered a serious stroke in 1972, but continued to smoke heavily.[citation needed] He died in Rome of another stroke at the age of sixty-nine on 17 March 1976.[citation needed] There is a museum dedicated to the director's work in Ischia where he had his summer residence La Colombaia.[25]

Work

Filmography

Feature films

Year Original title International English title Awards
1943 Ossessione Obsession
1948
La terra trema
 The Earth Will Tremble Special International Award — 9th Venice International Film Festival
Nominated – Grand International Prize of Venice — 9th Venice International Film Festival
1951 Bellissima Bellissima
1954 Senso Senso or The Wanton Countess Nominated – Golden Lion — 15th Venice International Film Festival
1957 Le notti bianche White Nights Silver Lion Prize – 18th Venice International Film Festival
Nominated – Golden Lion — 18th Venice International Film Festival
1960
Rocco e i suoi fratelli
 Rocco and His Brothers Special Prize –
FIPRESCI Prize – 21st Venice International Film Festival
1961 Nastro d'Argento
for Best Director
1961 Nastro d'Argento for Screenplay
Nominated – Golden Lion — 21st Venice International Film Festival
1963 Il gattopardo The Leopard Palme d'Or – 1963 Cannes Film Festival
1965
Vaghe stelle dell'Orsa
 Sandra Golden Lion — 26th Venice International Film Festival
1967 Lo straniero The Stranger Nominated – Golden Lion — 28th Venice International Film Festival
1969
La caduta degli dei
 The Damned 1970 Nastro d'Argento for Best Director
Nominated – Academy Award for Best Original Screenplay — 42nd Academy Awards
1971 Morte a Venezia Death in Venice 25th Anniversary Prize — 1971 Cannes Film Festival
David di Donatello for Best Director — 16th David di Donatello Awards
1972 Nastro d'Argento for Best Director
Nominated — Palme d'Or — 1971 Cannes Film Festival
Nominated — BAFTA Award for Best Film — 25th British Academy Film Awards
Nominated — BAFTA Award for Best Direction — 25th British Academy Film Awards
1973 Ludwig Ludwig David di Donatello for Best Director — 18th David di Donatello Awards
1974 Gruppo di famiglia in un interno Conversation Piece 1975 Nastro d'Argento for Best Director
1976
L'innocente
 The Innocent

Other films

Opera

Year Title and Composer Opera House Principal cast / Conductor
1954
La vestale,
Gaspare Spontini
 La Scala Maria Callas, Franco Corelli, Ebe Stignani, Nicola Zaccaria
Conducted by Antonino Votto[26]
1955 La sonnambula,
Vincenzo Bellini, 		La Scala Maria Callas, Cesare Valletti, Giuseppe Modesti
Conducted by Leonard Bernstein[27]
1955 La traviata,
Giuseppe Verdi 		La Scala Maria Callas, Giuseppe Di Stefano, Ettore Bastianini
Conducted by Carlo Maria Giulini[28]
1957 Anna Bolena,
Gaetano Donizetti 		La Scala Maria Callas, Giulietta Simionato, Nicola Rossi-Lemeni
Conducted by Gianandrea Gavazzeni[29]
1957 Iphigénie en Tauride,
Christoph Willibald Gluck 		La Scala Maria Callas, Franceso Albanese, Anselmo Colzani, Fiorenza Cossotto
Conducted by Nino Sanzogno[30]
1958
Don Carlo
, Verdi 		Royal Opera House,
London 		Jon Vickers, Tito Gobbi, Boris Christoff, Gré Brouwenstijn
Conducted by Carlo Maria Giulini[31]
1958 Macbeth, Verdi
Spoleto Festival
 William Chapman & Dino Dondi; Ferruccio Mazzoli & Ugo Trama;Shakeh Vartenissian.
Conducted by Thomas Schippers[32]
1959
Il duca d'Alba
, Donizetti 		Spoleto Festival[33] Luigi Quilico, Wladimiro Ganzarolli, Franco Ventriglia, Renato Cioni, Ivana Tosini.
Conductor: Thomas Schippers[34]
1961 Salome, Richard Strauss Spoleto Festival[33] George Shirley, Lili Chookasian, Margarei Tynes, Robert Anderson, Paul Arnold.
Conductor: Thomas Schippers[34]
1963 Il diavolo in giardino,
Franco Mannino (1963) 		Teatro Massimo, Palermo[33] Ugo Benelli, Clara Petrella, Gianna Galli, Antonio Annaloro, Antonio Boyer.
Conductor: Enrico Medioli.
Libretto: Visconti & Filippo Sanjust[34]
1963 La traviata, Verdi Spoleto Festival Franca Fabbri, Franco Bonisolli, Mario Basiola
Conducted by Robert La Marchina[35]
1964
Le nozze di Figaro,
Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart
 Teatro dell'Opera di Roma[36] Rolando Panerai, Uva Ligabue, Ugo Trama, Martella Adani, Stefania Malagù.
Conductor: Carlo Maria Giulini[34]
1964 Il trovatore
Bolshoi Opera
, Moscow (September) 		Pietro Cappuccilli, Gabriella Tucci, Giulietta Simionato, Carlo Bergonzi
Conducted by Gianandrea Gavazzeni[37]
1964 Il trovatore, Verdi Royal Opera House, London (November)
(Sanjust production) 		Peter Glossop, Gwyneth Jones & Leontyne Price, Giulietta Simionato, Bruno Prevedi
Conducted by Carlo Maria Giulini[38]
1965 Don Carlo, Verdi Teatro dell'Opera di Roma Cesare Siepi, Gianfranco Cecchele, Kostas Paskalis, Martti Talvela, Suzanne Sarroca, Mirella Boyer.
Conducted by Carlo Maria Giulini.[39]
1966 Falstaff, Verdi
Vienna Staatsoper
 Dietrich Fischer-Dieskau, Rolando Panerai, Murray Dickie, Erich Kunz, Ilva Ligabue, Regina Resnik.
Conducted by Leonard Bernstein[40]
1966 Der Rosenkavalier, Strauss Royal Opera House, London[36] Sena Jurinac, Josephine Veasey, Michael Langdon.
Conductor: Georg Solti[41]
1967 La traviata, Verdi Royal Opera House, London Mirella Freni, Renato Cioni, Piero Cappuccilli.
Conducted by Carlo Maria Giulini[42]
1969 Simon Boccanegra, Verdi
Vienna Staatsoper
Eberhard Wächter, Nicolai Ghiaurov, Gundula Janowitz, Carlo Cossutta
Conducted by Josef Krips[43]
1973 Manon Lescaut,
Giacomo Puccini 		Spoleto Festival[36] Nancy Shade, Harry Theyard, Angelo Romero, Carlo Del Bosco.
Conductor: Thomas Schippers.[34]

References

Notes

  1. ISSN 0261-3077
    . Retrieved 28 November 2023.
  2. ^ 'THE LEOPARD' IN ITS ORIGINAL LAIR: Care and Authenticity Mark screen Version of Modern Classic By HERBERT MITGANG. New York Times 29 July 1962: 69
  3. ^ "Visconti's Verdi – Italian Journal". Retrieved 28 November 2023.
  4. ^ "Where to begin with Luchino Visconti". British Film Institute. Retrieved 4 May 2021.
  5. ^ Kiang, Jessica (8 October 2015). "The Essentials: The 8 Best Luchino Visconti Films". IndieWire. Retrieved 4 May 2021.
  6. ^ "M/M Icon: Luchino Visconti", Manner of Man Magazine online at mannerofman.com, 2 November 2010. Retrieved 18 November 2012
  7. ^ a b Flatley, Guy (27 June 1971). "Yes, He Threw No Tantrum". The New York Times. Archived from the original on 1 October 2021. Retrieved 1 October 2021.
  8. ^ L. Schifano: Luchino Visconti. Fürst des Films, biography (German translation), 1988, p. 141−151
  9. ^ L. Schifano: Luchino Visconti. Fürst des Films, biography (German translation), 1988, p. 208
  10. ^ L. Schifano: Luchino Visconti. Fürst des Films, biography (German translation), 1988, p. 205−230
  11. ISBN 9780521599603
    .
  12. ISBN 9780521599603
    .
  13. OCLC 36884283
    .
  14. OCLC 36884283
    .
  15. ^ Nowell-Smith, p. 9.
  16. ^ "2nd Moscow International Film Festival (1961)". MIFF. Archived from the original on 16 January 2013. Retrieved 4 November 2012.
  17. ^ L. Schifano: Luchino Visconti. Fürst des Films, biography (German translation), 1988, p. 406−408
  18. ^ Carr, Jeremy (22 July 2005). "Visconti, Luchino". Senses of Cinema. Great Directors. Archived from the original on 1 October 2021. Retrieved 1 October 2021.
  19. ^ Silva, Horacio, "The Aristocrat", The New York Times, 17 September 2006. (Overview of Visconti's life and career) Retrieved 7 November 2011
  20. ^ Laurence Schifano: Luchino Visconti. Prince of film, biography, 1988
  21. ^ "The Damned". Retrieved 30 March 2020.
  22. ^ Dall'Oroto, Giovanni "Umberto II" from Who's Who in Contemporary Gay and Lesbian History, London: Psychology Press, 2002 p. 453.
  23. ^ L. Schifano: Luchino Visconti. Fürst des Films, biography (German translation), 1988, p. 412−415
  24. ^ Thomson, David (15 February 2003). "The decadent realist". The Guardian. Retrieved 26 December 2017 – via www.theguardian.com.
  25. ^ Colombaia, La. "Ischia.it english - Colombaia by Luchino Visconti". La Colombaia Museum, Museums, Forio d'Ischia, Isola d'Ischia. It is being designed the museum dedicated to the Master Visconti...
  26. ^ Ardoin 1977, p. 89
  27. ^ Ardoin 1977, p. 93
  28. ^ Ardoin 1977, p. 96
  29. ^ Ardoin 1977, p. 120
  30. ^ Ardoin 1977, p. 123
  31. ^ Viscontiana 2001, p. 113
  32. ^ Viscontiana 2001, pp. 62–63
  33. ^ a b c Viscontiana 2001, p. 142
  34. ^ a b c d e "Lirica": Operas directed by Visconti Archived 3 August 2015 at the Wayback Machine on luchinovisconti.net
  35. ^ Viscontiana 2001, p. 64
  36. ^ a b c Viscontiana 2001, p. 143
  37. ^ Viscontiana 2001, p. 65
  38. ^ Viscontiana 2001, p. 65–66
  39. ^ Viscontiana 2001, p. 66
  40. ^ Viscontiana 2001, pp. 66–67
  41. ^ Royal Opera House performance archive for 21 April 1966 on rohcollections.org.uk
  42. ^ Viscontiana 2001, p. 67
  43. ^ Viscontiana 2001, p. 68

Sources

External links

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