History, Film, Location: Visconti's Period Dramas - five online talks by Dr Pasquale Iannone

This talk will introduce Visconti’s beginnings as a filmmaker and his main formal and thematic traits before exploring, Senso (1954), his fourth feature, a lavish technicolour melodrama set against the turbulent backdrop of Italian unification (the Risorgimento) in northern Italy of the mid-1860s. We will discuss the film’s approach to its historical setting, referencing key moments such as the extended scene in Venice’s La Fenice Opera House.

In 1963, Visconti returned to the period of Italian unification, this time focusing on the fate of an aristocratic Sicilian family headed by Don Fabrizio Salina (Burt Lancaster). One of cinema’s most handsomely-mounted, yet melancholic period dramas, The Leopard also stars Alain Delon and Claudia Cardinale in important early roles. We will examine the famous ball scene (filmed in Palermo’s Palazzo Valguarnera-Gangi) and compare The Leopard with Senso to understand how the near-decade between production of these two Risorgimento-set pictures affected Visconti’s treatment of those turbulent years.

Visconti always had a keen interest in German literature and music and these come together to hypnotic effect in his adaptation of Thomas Mann’s 1912 novella, Death in Venice. The film tells of a middle-aged composer whose decline is precipitated by a vision of almost preternatural beauty. This talk will discuss Visconti’s combination of Mann with the mournful music of Gustav Mahler and his evocation of a decaying belle epoque Venice, including scenes shot in the Grand Hotel des Bains, the setting of Mann’s source novella.

This talk will explores Visconti’s most ambitious historical epic and a project which took an enormous – near-fatal – physical toll on him. Ludwig (1973) covers the reign of Ludwig II of Bavaria between 1864 and 1886 and stars Helmut Berger in the lead role. Ludwig became famous for his obsessive commitment to artistic projects, including the design of opulent castles such as Herrenchiemsee, Linderhof Palace and Neuschwanstein Castle and his patronage of the work of composer Richard Wagner.

For what turned out to be his final film, The Innocent (1976), Visconti returned to an Italian setting for a tale of jealousy and hypocrisy among the Roman aristocracy of the 1890s. Demonstrating the director’s typical visual splendour – with attention paid to the finest details of costume and set design – the film is also one of his most personal works, exploring the twilight world of his parents’ generation. This talk will explore all of these elements, together with Visconti’s scathing and sustained critique of the masculinism espoused by Gabriele D’Annunzio, author of its source novel.