Subscribe to watch - 14-day free trial, then £6.99 a month
Ossessione
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.
Director: Luchino Visconti
Overview
Restless wife Giovanna meets Gino, a rough and handsome drifter. Their passionate affair leads to the murder of Giovanna's boorish husband. Adapted from James M Cain's novel The Postman Always Rings Twice, a suggestion made to Luchino Visconti by Jean Renoir, Ossessione is an electrifying tale of the seductive and destructive power of human sexuality. It heralded a new era of Italian cinema, establishing Visconti as a leading and controversial exponent of neo-realism.
On its release in 1942, Ossessione outraged the Italian Fascist government with its shocking and authentic portrayal of proletarian life and was condemned as immoral and subversive. Heavily censored, it was initially suppressed from international distribution by MGM who subsequently produced their own version four years later. It was only in 1959 that a 112-minute version was played in Paris and a full seventeen years before American audiences finally saw the full 140-minute director's cut.
Related
The Apprentices The Apprentices
Comedy 1995 94 mins Director: Pierre Salvadori
Pierre Salvadori's cult 1995 comedy, starring François Cluzet and Guillaume Depardieu as two young adults searching for love and success.
Hyena Hyena
Crime 2015 112 mins Director: Gerard Johnson
In this stylish, dark crime thriller, a policeman’s complex web of underworld relationships is threatened by an internal affairs investigator.
Project A Project A
Action and Adventure 1983 106 mins Director: Jackie Chan
Jackie Chan’s rip-roaring action-adventure about a coastguard hot on the trail of a ruthless band of pirates in late 19th century Hong Kong.
A Bittersweet Life A Bittersweet Life
Action and Adventure 2005 120 mins Director: Kim Jee-woon and Doo Hong Jung
A hitman becomes the target in this ultra-stylish neo noir from Kim Jee-woon.
The Honeymoon Killers The Honeymoon Killers
Crime 1969 107 mins Director: Leonard Kastle
The disturbing true story of a pair of twisted lovers who posed as siblings to seduce, con and - if necessary - kill.
In Cold Blood In Cold Blood
Crime 1967 135 mins Director: Richard Brooks
Powerful adaptation of Truman Capote’s true-crime novel about the massacre of a family in Kansas, and the manhunt for the killers.
Rocco and His Brothers Rocco and His Brothers
Drama 1960 179 mins Director: 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.
Boccaccio '70 Boccaccio '70
Anthology 1962 204 mins Director: 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'innocente L'innocente
Period drama 1976 130 mins Director: 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 Trema La Terra Trema
Drama 1948 160 mins Director: 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.
Theorem Theorem
Drama 1968 98 mins Director: Pier Paolo Pasolini
Pasolini’s classic about a handsome, enigmatic stranger (Terence Stamp) who arrives at a bourgeois household and seduces an entire family.
Rocco and His Brothers Rocco and His Brothers
Drama 1960 179 mins Director: 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.
La Terra Trema La Terra Trema
Drama 1948 160 mins Director: 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.
Boccaccio '70 Boccaccio '70
Anthology 1962 204 mins Director: 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'innocente L'innocente
Period drama 1976 130 mins Director: Luchino Visconti
Luchino Visconti's final film is a brilliant and disturbing drama set against the opulent backdrop of decadent, late 19th-century aristocracy.
Power Alley Power Alley
Drama 2023 100 mins Director: Lillah Halla
Queer sisterhood and collective power lie at the heart of this arresting Brazilian debut, in which a promising volleyball player faces an unwanted pregnancy.
A Real Job A Real Job
Comedy 2023 101 mins Director: Thomas Lilti
A young, inexperienced substitute teacher is quickly confronted with the trials and tribulations of his job, in this wry tribute to the teaching profession.
All to Play For All to Play For
Drama 2023 112 mins Director: Delphine Deloget
A single mother fights to reclaim her children from foster care, in Delphine Deloget's powerful indictment of the French legal system.
Through the Night Through the Night
Drama 2023 109 mins Director: Delphine Girard
Part gripping thriller, part psychological study, Delphine Girard's debut feature about consent and modern society's attitudes to sexual violence.
The Apprentices The Apprentices
Comedy 1995 94 mins Director: Pierre Salvadori
Pierre Salvadori's cult 1995 comedy, starring François Cluzet and Guillaume Depardieu as two young adults searching for love and success.
The Dreamer The Dreamer
Romance 2023 95 mins Director: Anaïs Tellenne
An heiress returns to her uninhabited family manor to be confronted with the one-eyed caretaker who resides there, in the dreamlike take on La Belle et la Bête.