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Luchino Visconti: Decadence & Decay
Key works from the Italian neorealist pioneer and maestro of luxurious historical drama.
Visconti was a Marxist and old-money aristocrat, and a bisexual and nostalgic subversive who once challenged his leading man to a duel. He was a contradiction in terms both personally and cinematically, and a singular product of a crumbling historical epoch. From his earliest neorealist dramas that dealt with the inequity of Italian society to opulent period pieces, Visconti had an eye for the darkness of dynastic power struggles and the volatility of men obsessed by the past. His work revelled in wry humour and bold sensuality. Beyond the precision of his baroque historical detail and costuming, Visconti was also a filmmaker of psychological acuity, capturing the perversity, despair and cruelty of individuals striving to make or remake meaning in a changing world. Don’t let the painterly elegance fool you – Visconti’s cinema is one of queer desire, hysteria and transgression.
- Christina Newland, season curator
Rocco and His BrothersRocco and His Brothers
Drama1960179 minsDirector: Luchino Visconti
Italian maestro Luchino Visconti’s epic drama follows a mother and her five sons who move from a small town to Milan, changing their lives forever.
OssessioneOssessione
Crime1943140 minsDirector: Luchino Visconti
Luchino Visconti’s adaptation of James M Cain's novel The Postman Always Rings Twice is an electrifying tale of the seductive and destructive power of human sexuality.
Boccaccio '70Boccaccio '70
Anthology1962204 minsDirector: Federico Fellini, Luchino Visconti and 2 more
Four of the greatest Italian directors – Fellini, Visconti, De Sica and Monicelli – join forces with show-stoppers Sophia Loren, Anita Ekberg and Romy Schneider in a carousel of sex and satire mocking the mores of Italian '60s society.
L'innocenteL'innocente
Period drama1976130 minsDirector: Luchino Visconti
Luchino Visconti's final film is a brilliant and disturbing drama set against the opulent backdrop of decadent, late 19th-century aristocracy.
La Terra TremaLa Terra Trema
Drama1948160 minsDirector: Luchino Visconti
A fishing family attempts to escape poverty and exploitation by becoming the owner of its own boat in Luchino Visconti's work of uncompromising realism.