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Chinese postcard. Björn Andrésen and Dirk Bogarde in Morte a Venezia / Death in Venice (Luchino Visconti, 1971). This year is the commemoration of birth of Luchino Visconti 120 years ago and his death 50 years ago.

Luchino Visconti (1906-1976) was one of the most important film directors of the 20th century. He also established himself as an innovative theatrical and opera director in the years immediately after World War II. Visconti is one of the fathers of Italian neorealism, but he also directed numerous historical films with themes such as beauty, decadence, death and the decline of the nobility and the bourgeoisie.

Luchino Visconti was born Luchino Visconti di Modrone, Count of Lonate Pozzolo, in Milan in 1906, into an ancient noble family. His family is a branch of the Visconti of Milan, who ruled from 1277 to 1447, initially as lords, then as dukes. Luchino was the fourth of seven children of Duke Giuseppe Visconti di Modrone and Carla Erba, heiress of Italy’s largest pharmaceutical company and a talented musician. From a young age, Luchino studied the cello under the guidance of the cellist and composer Lorenzo de Paolis. He was influenced by the world of opera and melodrama, particularly that of Verdi. 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, near their home in Milan. His father was one of the financial backers of La Scala, and the Visconti family’s drawing room was frequented by legendary conductor Arturo Toscanini. After his parents’ separation, Luchino lived with his mother. At 26 years, he managed a stable of horses he owned, achieving excellent results, including a victory in the Milan San Siro Grand Prix with his horse Sanzio. 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. In the 1930s, Luchino frequently visited Paris, where he became a close friend of the fashion designer Coco Chanel. She introduced him to film director Jean Renoir. Thus, Visconti started his film career as a set dresser and assistant director to Renoir on Une Partie de campagne (Jean Renoir, 1936). It was the era of the Popular Front, which brought progressive parties to power in France. In this climate, Visconti came into contact with intellectuals such as Jean Cocteau. Through Renoir, a staunch communist, he met several anti-fascist activists who had fled Italy, and he began to align himself with left-wing views. After a trip to the US, he returned to Italy in 1939 following the death of his mother. There he worked once again as Renoir’s assistant director on the Italian-French co-production Tosca (1941). Due to the outbreak of the Second World War, the film was completed by Renoir’s German co-screenwriter Carl Koch. Visconti would later always acknowledge the influence of Renoir’s realism and 1930s French cinema on his work as a director.

Luchino Visconti settled permanently in Rome, where his encounter with the young intellectuals contributing to the magazine Cinema proved pivotal. From this group emerged a new vision of cinema which moved away from the comedies of the ‘white telephone’ era set in luxurious villas. They wanted to realistically depict the lives and everyday struggles of ordinary people. On this basis, together with Pietro Ingrao, Mario Alicata and Giuseppe De Santis, in 1942, Visconti began work on his first film: Ossessione (Luchino Visconti, 1943), an unofficial adaptation of James Cain’s novel 'The Postman Always Rings Twice'. It was the first film he directed himself. He used natural settings, combined professional actors with locals, experimented with long-travelling camera shots, and incorporated sequences taken with hidden cameras to enhance authenticity. The lead roles are played by Clara Calamai, who stepped in at the last minute for Anna Magnani, who was forced to withdraw due to her advanced pregnancy; Massimo Girotti, as the handsome mechanic Gino; Juan de Landa, as the betrayed husband; and Elio Marcuzzo as ‘The Spaniard’. The film’s editor, Mario Serandrei, first defined the film as ‘Neorealismo' (neorealist). This formalised the birth of the neorealistic film movement, which would enjoy great success in the years to come. The film’s distribution was sporadic and troubled in an Italy ravaged by war. During World War II, Visconti became a member of the Italian Communist Party, which he considered to be the only effective opponent of Italian Fascism. After the armistice of 8 September 1943, Visconti joined the Resistance, adopting the nom de guerre Alfredo Guidi. His house quickly became the operational headquarters and refuge for countless underground activists. He was captured in April 1944 and imprisoned in Rome for several days by the Koch Gang during the German occupation, but Visconti escaped execution. Pietro Koch, the leader of the unit that had taken the director prisoner, was shot at Forte Bravetta in Rome on 5 June 1945. Visconti's testimony carried great weight at the trial that resulted in the death sentence for the notorious fascist. At the end of the war, Visconti worked on the documentary Giorni di gloria / Days of Glory (Giuseppe De Santis, Mario Serandrei, 1945), directed by a collective of filmmakers and dedicated to the Resistance. Visconti filmed the scenes depicting the lynching of Donato Carretta, the former director of Regina Coeli prison, and the scene of Pietro Koch’s execution, while Marcello Pagliero shot the scenes on the massacre of the Fosse Ardeatine. In 1946, Visconti started to direct stage productions for the Rina Morelli-Paolo Stoppa Company, including Tennessee Williams' 'The Glass Menagerie' and 'A Streetcar Named Desire', and Arthur Miller's 'Death of a Salesman'. Visconti also introduced to Italy the work of such French playwrights as Jean Cocteau and Jean-Paul Sartre. In 1948, through Coco Chanel, he came into contact with the Spanish surrealist Salvador Dalí. They collaborated on a stage production of William Shakespeare’s pastoral comedy 'Rosalinda o Come vi piace' (As You Like It). Dalí designed the sets and costumes for this production, which created controversy. Marxist critics saw Salvador Dalí’s choice of set design and costumes as a departure from neorealism. A young Marcello Mastroianni had his stage debut in Visconti's As You Like It and would also act in his plays A Streetcar named Desire and Death of a Salesman.

In the same year 1948, Visconti made a controversial and unflinching film that openly denounced the social conditions of the poorest classes, La terra trema / The Earth Trembles (Luchino Visconti, 1948). He shot this adaptation of Giovanni Verga’s novel 'I Malavoglia' about Sicilian fishermen in a documentary style, entirely on location, without actors and spoken entirely in dialect. In 1950, a second version of the film was released, dubbed into Italian. He based his next film, Bellissima / The Most Beautiful (Luchino Visconti, 1951), on a screenplay by Cesare Zavattini. The film, starring Anna Magnani and Walter Chiari, ruthlessly analyses the ‘behind-the-scenes’ world of cinema. The anthology film, Siamo donne / We the Women (1953), was also based on a screenplay by Zavattini. It depicts episodes from the private lives of four famous actresses (Anna Magnani, Alida Valli, Ingrid Bergman and Isa Miranda). Visconti followed the episode 'Anna'. Then followed his first colour film, Senso (Luchino Visconti, 1954), inspired by a short story by Camillo Boito. The story is set in 1866: Alida Valli plays a Venetian noblewoman who falls in love with an officer in the Austrian occupation army (Farley Granger). She gives him money intended for a patriotic cause. When she discovers his betrayal, she becomes an informer and has him sentenced to be shot. This film marks a turning point in Visconti’s art. It is a departure from neorealism. His attention to set design detail in this baroque-style drama is extreme. Visconti's love of opera is evident at the beginning of the film. He shows scenes from the fourth act of 'Il trovatore', which were filmed at the Teatro La Fenice in Venice. His shots were so impressive they were even used for the restoration of La Fenice after its fire in 1996. On stage, Visconti directed several operas at La Scala. The first opera he directed was Gaspare Spontini's 'La Vestale', which he undertook primarily so he could work with Maria Callas. Legendary are his 1955 productions of 'La Sonnambula' and 'La Traviata ', and the 1957 version of 'Anna Bolena', all starring Callas. In 1956, Visconti was among the communist intellectuals demonstrating against the Soviet invasion of Hungary, but he did not leave the party. His next film, Le notti bianche / White Nights (Luchino Visconti, 1957) was inspired by Dostoevsky’s novel and starred Marcello Mastroianni, Maria Schell and Jean Marais. The black-and-white film had a leaden, misty atmosphere, created by art director Mario Garbuglia. It won the Silver Lion at Venice.

Luchino Visconti returned once more to neorealism, combined with operatic melodrama, with the highly acclaimed Rocco e i suoi fratelli / Rocco and His Brothers (Luchino Visconti, 1960), starring Alain Delon, Renato Salvatori and Annie Girardot. It tells the story of a poor family from southern Italy who move to Milan in search of work. Told in the style of a Greek tragedy, the film sparked considerable controversy due to certain graphic and violent scenes, as well as the political views of ‘the Red Count’. The film nevertheless won the Grand Jury Prize at Venice. Critic Roger Ebert: "The word 'operatic' is often overused, but no other would apply to Rocco and His Brothers. It is a combination that should not work, but does, between operatic melodrama and seamy social realism, which at no point in its 177-minute running time seems to clash, although they should. We buy the whole overwrought package, the quiet truth, the flamboyant excess, even the undercurrent of homoeroticism that Visconti never quite reconciles. The excitement of the film is that so much is happening, in so many different ways, all struggling to find a fusion." The following year, together with Vittorio De Sica, Federico Fellini and Mario Monicelli, Visconti made the anthology film Boccaccio '70 (1962). Visconti’s segment, ‘Il lavoro’, starred Tomas Milian and Romy Schneider. In Venice, Visconti won the Palme d’Or for Il Gattopardo / The Leopard (Luchino Visconti, 1963), adapted from the novel by Giuseppe Tomasi di Lampedusa. The historical epic, starring Burt Lancaster, Alain Delon and Claudia Cardinale, is set during the period of Garibaldi’s landing in Sicily. The film’s climax is the final ball scene, which takes up the last 45 minutes of the film. Roger Ebert: "Visconti, Lancaster and Rotunno collaborate to resolve all of the themes of the movie in this long sequence in which almost none of the dialogue involves what is really happening. The ball is a last glorious celebration of the dying age; Visconti cast members of noble old Sicilian families as the guests, and in their faces, we see a history that cannot be acted out, only embodied. The orchestra plays Verdi. The young people dance on and on, and the older people watch carefully and gauge the futures market in romances and liaisons." Whilst on its initial release in the United States (in a drastically reduced version), the film fared poorly at the box office, Il Gattopardo was a huge success in Europe, won three Nastri d'Argenti for cinematography (Giuseppe Rotunno), scenography (Mario Garbuglia) and costume (Piero Tosi) and won Visconti the Golden Palm in Cannes. Martin Scorsese considers it one of the twelve best films ever made.

Vaghe stelle dell'Orsa / Sandra (Luchino Visconti, 1965) is a story of incest, with references to the Holocaust, mythology and Greek tragedy, starring Claudia Cardinale and Jean Sorel. During the filming, Visconti was introduced to the young Helmut Berger. Berger played a minor role in La strega bruciata viva, an episode of the anthology film Le streghe (Luchino Visconti, a.o., 1966), starring Silvana Mangano. Visconti's next film was Lo straniero / The Stranger (Luchino Visconti, 1967), inspired by Albert Camus’s novel of the same name, and starring Marcello Mastroianni. In the late 1960s, Visconti directed one of his best-known works, La Caduta degli Dei / The Damned (Luchino Visconti, 1969), starring Dirk Bogarde, Helmut Berger and Ingrid Thulin. The story recounts the rise and fall of the family that owned Germany’s most important steelworks at the advent of Nazism. 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. Visconti and Nicola Badalucco received a nomination for an Academy Award for Best Original Screenplay. The Damned forms the first part of what would later be termed the ‘German trilogy’. The other two films were Morte a Venezia / Death in Venice (1971) and Ludwig (1973). For Death in Venice, Visconti and Badalucco adapted Thomas Mann’s novella. Visconti tells the story of the composer Gustav von Aschenbach (Dirk Bogarde), who falls for the beautiful, unattainable boy Tadzio (Bjorn Andresen), in an intense and poetic manner, accompanied by the music of Gustav Mahler. Homosexuality was a theme in Ludwig (Luchino Visconti, 1973), again starring Helmut Berger. It tells the story of the Bavarian monarch Ludwig II and his stormy relationship with Richard Wagner, as well as his gradual withdrawal from reality and the responsibilities of government, leading to his deposition and death in mysterious circumstances. On 27 July 1972, when filming of Ludwig had finished, but editing had not yet begun, the director suffered a stroke that left him paralysed on the left side of his body.

Despite his health, Luchino Visconti returned to work. He curated a famous 1973 production of the opera 'Manon Lescaut' for the Festival dei Due Mondi in Spoleto, starring Nancy Shade as Manon. Despite great difficulties, he managed to direct two final films. In the part autobiographical Gruppo di famiglia in un interno / Conversation Piece (Luchino Visconti, 1974), a reclusive retired professor and art collector (Burt Lancaster) is faced with confronting modernity when a group of young and loud tenants (including Helmut Berger), led by an obnoxious marchesa (Silvana Mangano) take up residence in the old palazzo where he lives and disrupt his peace. The main character was based on art critic and scholar Mario Praz, and the English film title is a nod to Praz's book 'Conversation Pieces: A Survey of the Informal Group Portrait in Europe and America', while copies of many paintings Praz showed in his book hang on the professor's wall. Visconti's final film, L'innocente / The Innocent (Luchino Visconti, 1976), starring Giancarlo Giannini and Laura Antonelli, was based on an early novel by Gabriele D'Annunzio.

Although he never spoke openly about it, Visconti did not hide his mostly homosexual orientation. In many of his films, as well as in some of the theatrical productions he directed over the years, there are references. According to Visconti's biographies, he and Umberto II of Italy may have had a romantic relationship during their youth in the 1920s. In the 1930s, in Paris, he had a relationship with the photographer Horst P. Horst. Between the end of the 1940s and the beginning of the 1950s, he worked and lived with Franco Zeffirelli. After 1965, Visconti had an intense relationship with the Austrian actor Helmut Berger until the director's death. Luchino Visconti died in Rome in 1976, just under eight months before his seventieth birthday. He had suffered a serious form of thrombosis shortly after watching the first cut of the film he was still working on with his closest collaborators. The Innocent was posthumously presented to the public in that guise, apart from some changes made by co-screenwriter Suso Cecchi D'Amico based on suggestions from the director during a work discussion. The funeral took place in the church of Sant'Ignazio di Loyola in Campo Marzio in Rome. His ashes have been kept since 2003 under a rock on the island of Ischia, in his historic summer residence 'La Colombaia', together with those of his sister Uberta. Visconti received several notable accolades, including the David di Donatello for Best Director twice and the Nastro d'Argento for Best Director four times, and was both an Oscar and BAFTA Award nominee. La Colombaia, closed for decades, is set to reopen on 14 April 2026, with an exhibition space dedicated to Visconti, his life and work, and his relationship with the island.

Sources: Roger Ebert (Rogerebert.com), Encyclopaedia Britannica, Wikipedia (Dutch, Italian and English) and IMDb. See also Ivo Blom's monograph, Reframing Luchino Visconti: Film and Art (2018), which can be downloaded for free from his site: ivoblom.wordpress.com/research-visconti-visual-arts/. See also his open access article ‘Unaffectedness and Rare Eurythmics: Carl Koch, Jean Renoir, Luchino Visconti and the production of Tosca (1939/41)‘, The Italianist, 2, 2017, www.tandfonline.com/doi/full/10.1080/02614340.2017.133277...

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