Tag Archives: Luchino Visconti—Cinematic Nobility

SENSO AND SANDRA AT THE AERO

The final week of the American Cinematheque’s Luchino Visconti retrospective begins with a rare double bill: SENSO (1954)—screening in a 4K DCP—and SANDRA (1965).

With SENSO—unseen on the big screen in Los Angeles for nearly ten years—Visconti took a decisive step away from neorealism. His first feature in color—a gorgeous palette of fiery reds and pastel blues—SENSO opens in an opera house, a reflection of the grand musical and theatrical productions Visconti directed in Rome and Paris in the 1950s.

Alida Valli and Farley Granger were not the director’s first choices for the roles of the Countess and the Lieutenant—Callas, Ingrid Bergman, and Brando were all in negotiation—but the leads give two of their greatest performances in this extraordinarily lush tale of irredeemable character and unrequited love.

SANDRA extends the mood of aristocratic decline defined by Visconti’s previous film The Leopard. Featuring Claudia Cardinale and Jean Sorel in their prime, this elegant film noir of ghosts, betrayals, and revenge is the director’s take on Electra, as summarized by the poster tagline below.

SENSO and SANDRA

Thursday, March 28, at 7:30 pm.

Aero Theatre

1328 Montana Avenue, Santa Monica.

From top: Alida Valli and Farley Granger in Senso (2); Valli; Count Luchino Visconti di Modrone—in playboy mode, just before Chanel introduced him to Jean Renoir, for whom Visconti worked as an assistant director in the late 1930s—photographed in Tunisia in 1935 by his close friend Horst; Visconti and Claudia Cardinale on set, Sandra; film poster courtesy Vides; Jean Sorel and Cardinale as brother and sister, Sandra.

ROCCO AND HIS BROTHERS

ROCCO AND HIS BROTHERS(1960)—Luchino Visconti’s sixth feature—marked a return to the director’s neo-realist roots while simultaneously advancing the grand style he adopted in the mid-1950s with Senso.

“One of the most sumptuous black-and-white pictures I’ve ever seen.” — Martin Scorsese

This epic story of a southern Italian family transplanted to Milan stars Annie Girardot, Claudia Cardinale, Katina Paxinou, and—on the male side—a veritable Alasdair McLellan portfolio avant la lettre, led by Alain Delon in the title role of Rocco Parondi.*

“Like all migrants, they are in search of opportunity, but instead they find an environment that only magnifies their respective strengths and weaknesses.” — Scott Eyman

As part of the American Cinematheque series Luchino Visconti—Cinematic Nobility—co-presented by Luce CinecittàROCCO will screen twice this month in a DCP restored by Cineteca di Bologna in association with Titanus.

ROCCO AND HIS BROTHERS

Saturday, March 2, at 7:30 pm.

Egyptian Theatre

6712 Hollywood Boulevard, Los Angeles.

Saturday, March 30, at 7:30 pm.

Aero Theatre

1328 Montana Avenue, Santa Monica.

*When a judge with the same name threatened to sue the filmmakers, the family name “Pafundi” in the original negative was changed, post-production, to “Parondi.”

From top: Alain Delon in Rocco and His Brothers; Renato Salvatori as brother Simone and Annie Girardot as Nadia; Luchino Visconti (second from left) on set; Max Cartier, as brother Ciro, and Delon; Salvatori (left), Visconti, Claudia Cardinale as Ginetta, and Delon on set; Delon, with Rocco Vidolazzi as younger brother Luca.

VISCONTI — THE LEOPARD

The American Cinematheque begins its series Luchino Visconti—Cinematic Nobility with the epic masterpiece THE LEOPARD, an apotheosis of the director’s social and aesthetic predilections.

The film stars Burt Lancaster as a Bourbon prince in Risorgimento-era Italy hoping to forestall the end of his aristocratic way of life—under threat by Garibaldi and his redshirts—with the marriage of his nephew (Alain Delon) to a rich merchant’s daughter (Claudia Cardinale).

Based on the classic novel by Giuseppe di Lampedusa, THE LEOPARD will screen twice during the series in a DCP beautifully restored by the Cineteca di Bologna and co-presented by Luce Cinecittà.

THE LEOPARD

Thursday, February 7, at 7:30 pm.

Egyptian Theatre

6712 Hollywood Boulevard, Los Angeles.

Friday, March 29, at 7:30 pm.

Aero Theatre

1328 Montana Avenue, Santa Monica.

From top: Burt Lancaster as Prince Don Fabrizio Salina in The LeopardAlain Delon as Tancredi Falconeri and Claudia Cardinale as Angelica; Lancaster with a tailor on set; Garibaldi’s redshirts; costumes for The Leopard were designed by Piero Tosi and Umberto Tirelli; Lancaster and Cardinale in the film’s ballroom dance scene.