A feast for the eyes this lush melodrama may be an acquired taste for some but I doubt anyone could say it wasn't visually stunning. Venice is rendered so beautifully you will want to hop the next flight there and with the composition of all the other scenes it is like watching a story take place inside of paintings. However as gorgeous as all that is it also can be distracting and take you out of the story as you study the detail which at times feels a bit surreal. Having only seen Alida Valli in her English language films where she often seemed stiff and ill at ease her performance here is quite a revelation. She is fully in command of the screen and her anguished turmoil is compelling to watch. Farley is not bad although his part really doesn't offer him much more than being a slick and very handsome wastrel.
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jjnxn-15 May 2013
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lasttimeisaw3 October 2013Opens with a lush rendition of Il Trovatore at Teatro La Fenice, SENSO is an ostentatious melodrama imprinted with Visconti's pronounced blue blood opulence, retells an Italian countess' (Valli) vain and poignant attempt to pursue her one-sided affection to an Austrian officer (Granger shines in the rich Technicolor palette as an Adonis), whose misogyny and promiscuity will cause his own doom and mar her mentality up to the hilt.
The film sets its time during the fall of Austrian occupation in Venezia 1866, Valli is wavering between her bureaucratic husband (Moog) and rioting cousin (Girotti), to break loose from the stalemate, she irrevocably falls for a young lieutenant in the opponent camp, but he is no knight in shining armor but a foul and spineless scoundrel with irresistible sheen of deadly charm. Granger's gorgeous lover-boy image is a quintessential smokescreen to veil his despicable innards, but after all, it is a consensual deal despite of Valli's false hope, more significantly its anti-war signals have been forcibly cast by Granger's self-abandonment and the lousy war battlefield experienced by Girotti, which, more plausibly it is an intentional move by Visconti, a distraction from the central turmoil, but done with a tinge of amateurish fecklessness.
Valle shoulders on a profound effort to scrutinize a woman's inscrutable sexual desire which being repressed for too long, both she and Granger align themselves with Visconti's brimful-of- emotion style (again, thanks to Techincolor and the overstuffed score as well) which approximate the OTT threshold in certain degree, although falling out with Visconti eventually, Granger succeeds in bringing about his best screen persona and it was such a great era when a gay man can play an outright straight womanizer on the celluloid.
On the one hand SENSO fails to impress me as my favorite among Visconti's work of art, and scale-wise pales by comparison with LUDWIG (1972, 8/10) and THE LEOPARD (1963, 8/10), but on the other hand, only Visconti can flaunt such an overbearing melodrama with true mettle and without any compromise, a trend-setter would inspire later kindred spirits, for instance Baz Luhrmann's 3D adaption of the bourgeois sumptuosity THE GREAT GATSBY (2013, 8/10). -
Cosmoeticadotcom21 June 2012Overall, Senso is worth watching, simply because it is well made fluff that, while not deep nor great, represents an important milestone in European cinema. There are no good, nice, nor even likable characters, but, on a rudimentary level, one can sense the motives of the two leads, even if neither is a character of depth. Thus the film, at least, has a narrative integrity that many melodramas lack, and, once Mahler betrays Livia, it is inevitable that she will damn him. Its use of red herrings and feints of narrative and character development is well done: such as when Livia is told, upon the Count's wanting to leave Venice, that a man came to call on her, she assumes it is Mahler, is followed by the Count, and, when confronted, confesses to having a lover, only to find out the man who called was Ussoni. The Count thereby assumes her revelation of a lover was a ruse to protect Ussoni, whom the Count has little use nor respect for. It's these sorts of moments that lift Senso above run of the mill melodrama, albeit, like Gone With The Wind, not far enough into real drama. If only Visconti had been able to graft a small bit of his working class affinities by showing a bit more of the struggles of the Italian Resistance, Senso may have hurdled that bar. Sans that, Senso lives up to its titular billing, as but a sensual comfort. And all can use a bit of that from time to time.
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laursene23 November 2001Wonderful movie, and quite unexpected at the time from the neorealist Visconti, finally letting some of the operatic juice flow into his film work. It's also the first of his explorations of Italian history and social change, to be followed by The Leopard and the fantastic Rocco and His Brothers.
One caveat: At a screening a couple of years ago at MoMA, I learned that it was the Italian government that was responsible for the snipping of some crucial scenes near the end of Senso, depicting the Battle of Custozza. These were meant to make his critique of the Italian ruling classes and their failure to pull together during this period of the risorgimento more explicit. But apparently the Italian government, fresh from defeat in WW II, didn't like the idea of a major movie showing an Italian army being beaten. So the episode was truncated, leaving a few people scratching their heads about what the point of it all was. Poor Visconti tended to make long movies, and often had trouble getting them shown at the proper length in the US, but this time it was his own government that stymied him!
As for the rest: Granger is fine, but it's Valli who gives one of the all-time great move star performances. What a great face! The story is written on it, and the director wisely keeps her the focus of attention. -
DAHLRUSSELL13 July 2006I have rated this film 9 because of it's length, there are some ponderous moments, but otherwise it is a 10. Italian cinema was still having growing pains from the war, but this epic succeeds, and skillfully incorporates the war torn landscape into this tale of an earlier war. The music score is very big and melodramatic, but fitting. The film opens with an opera in an enormous opera house, and this is fitting for the grand scale and operatic scope of this romance and the background. This is "Gone With the Wind" - Italian style - with a much more sympathetic heroine.
I am a fan of Alida Valli and have sought out her work. Perhaps because this is in her native Italian, and/or because of her Italian director, she is a full, vital, feminine woman in this film; very different from her more restrained work in America. (Her breathtaking performance in "The Paradine Case" is a study in austerity and an almost masculine stillness.) I had hoped that we would see a more free actress in her native language, and we do! She flutters and tosses her hair, she is a Countess reveling in her earthy affair. This is a full bodied performance.
Farley Granger's performance, whether in response to Valli, or just given a really meaty bad-boy to play, is a total revelation. He is lusty and sexy, provocative, pouty and passionate. In one scene, he greets her by wordlessly grabbing her hand and almost devouring it with kisses. This is a rare film where both the woman AND the man have real powerhouse roles. The confrontation scene at the end is gripping.
A small but pivotal role is played by Marcella Mariani. Her cow-like leadenness, laced with sisterhood, bespeaks a worldliness that, paired with her ethereal youthful beauty is just wrenching. All supporting roles, especially the maids, are interesting and give a sense of intrigue throughout.
A previous reviewer mentioned that the outcome of a major plot point is cut out, which leaves you wondering... "but what happened with that?" Still, the major story is the romance, which I think will be satisfying for men as well as women, because both sides are given such full emotional life. IF YOU CAN FIND IT, it is an enjoyable, big emotion, epic wartime romance. -
ilpohirvonen25 September 2010Senso was Visconti at his most elegant and aesthetic. It opened his series of historical spectacles. The film showed that epics and melodramas can entail political criticism as any other genres. Senso is his intelligent analysis about the Italian unification - Risorgimento. The film's criticism didn't please all the people and it suffered from censorship and it was edited several times. Nonetheless this aesthetically beautiful film still stands out as a fine ironic masterpiece.
The year is 1866 and the moment people have dreamed for decades - centuries - is in our hands. Garibaldi is coming and the Italians are beating the Austrians. In the middle of all this Visconti tells us a story about an Italian woman, who is the cousin of the leader of the underground resistance, who falls in love with an Austrian lieutenant. She is blinded by her romantic illusion and is ready to betray her family, friends, ideals and native land - these are part of the ethical problematics in Senso.
Senso was Visconti's first color film and he obviously had put a lot of effort to it. It's visually gorgeous and meant an aesthetic revolution for Italian cinema. It is no coincidence that it starts in an opera which Visconti did a lot himself too. The opening sequence shows us the basic power of Opera and melodrama - to change life, infrastructure without forgetting the concrete history.
Historical films always tell us about two different ages, intentionally or unintentionally: the one the story takes place in and the time it was made in. It's a film about the Italian unification but also a study about the deepest emotions in Italy during the 1950's. Italy after WWII, filled with neo realism - antifascist battle and hope for democracy. But also about the downside; the victory of the right-wingers and the beginning of the Cold War.
Senso is a gorgeous film which requires patience and love from its viewer. It's a political, ironic, revolutionary and aesthetic film. Truly one of the biggest landmarks in Visconti's career but also in the history of Italian cinema. -
AlsExGal23 January 2023Italian historical melodrama, from Lux Film and director Luchino Visconti is set in Venice in 1866. The Austrian army has occupied the city-state, and will not allow it to unite with Italy. A small but increasingly vocal faction of Venetian revolutionaries are working toward rebellion, aided by the Prussians. It is with this background the main story unfolds, as Venetian countess Livia (Alida Valli), unhappily married to the much older Count (Heinz Moog), begins an affair with arrogant young Austrian officer Franz Mahler (Farley Granger). Mahler is using Livia as a diversion and for her money, but she becomes more and more obsessed with him, even as full-blown war erupts around them.
This torrid romantic melodrama is best appreciated for Visconti's painterly compositions, the excellent location cinematography, and the detailed costumes and set design. The story itself is merely adequate, and the performances are uneven. Valli has some great moments, but in others she's asked to play it too wild-eyed and big. Granger is sneering and self-satisfied, but he loses it a bit in his big breakdown scene near the end. Visconti edited an English-language version which was re-titled The Wanton Countess and ran 30 minutes shorter. That version's English dialogue was written by Tennessee Williams and Paul Bowles. Among Visconti's assistants on this film were future directors Francesco Rosi and Franco Zeffirelli. This is one of the 1001 Movies You Must See Before You Die. -
claudio_carvalho1 October 2006In 1866, in the spring of Venice, an underground rebel movement against the Austrian occupation in Italy is getting stronger. The married Countess Livia Serpieri (Alida Valli) sees her cousin challenging the Austrian Lieutenant Franz Mahler (Farley Granger) for a duel in the opera and being arrested and sent to the exile for one year. When she meets Mahler, she first hates him but after a night together walking along the streets in Venice, she falls deeply in love for him, becoming his mistress. When the war starts, she moves to her property in the country missing Mahler. When he visits her during a night, she forgets her principles, decency and betrayals her cause with cruel and tragic consequences.
I am one of the greatest worldwide fans of IMDb, but sometimes I am disappointed with the ranking of this site. How can a masterpiece like "Senso" be out of any worldwide serious list of the top 250 best movies? The "red noble" Luchino Visconti is one of the best directors ever and this masterpiece explores a wonderful, cruel and tragic romance in times of the Italian "El Risorgimento". Each scene in this movie looks like a picture of the XIX Century, full of details. The cinematography is one of the most beautiful I have ever seen, with a stunning recreation of a period. The story is fantastic, with a gorgeous Alida Valli in the top of her beauty, and Farley Granger splendid as a scum lover. The restored DVD released in Brasil by Versatil distributor is amazing, full of excellent extras. My vote is ten.
Title (Brazil): "Senso Sedução da Carne" ("Senso Seduction of the Flesh") -
valadas27 December 2010But not a love treason. Treason of ideals, treason of your country and treason of the military duty. It's 1866 in northern Italy occupied by the Austrian armed forces. The Italian patriots fight to free their country and unite Italy, supported by French and Prusssian armies. Countess Serpieri (Alida Valli), a Venetian aristocrat married to an older man, falls suddenly deeply in love with an Austrian army officer, Franz Mahler (Farley Granger) who is however nothing more than a philanderer, a crook and a coward who ends up by deserting his army based on a fake and obtained through bribery medical report stating that he is physically unfit for the army. A large sum of money was given to him for that purpose by the Countess. But she had been trusted with that money by the revolutionaries and it was to be used for their cause. When she realizes that he is nothing else than an unscrupulous scoundrel it's already too late and the story ends up tragically. The director Luchino Visconti is above all an aesthetician and this movie has got wonderful images and sceneries both in exteriors and interiors. The critics have already classified his movies as opera cinema. Although he is himself descended from an aristocratic Lombard family, his ideology is much closer to Marxism and in this movie, like in his other beautiful movie, "Il Gattopardo", he depicts the moral and social decadence of the till then dominating aristocracy and the rising to power of another class, the bourgeoisie, like it occurred with most revolutions in Europe during 19th century. So as an aristocrat, Visconti is an aesthetician and that's why his movies are always rich and beautiful in visual terms. But terms of ideology and of his movies message he is closer to Marxism. The only flaw of this movie in my opinion is the performance of Farley Granger a wrong choice for the role of Franz Mahler. He is much inadequate to the character of an elegant, seductive, unscrupulous and libertine officer. In fact he is not very talented and anyway goes better in an American detective movie than in the atmosphere of the Italian Risorgimento. He looks very unrefined for that. On the contrary the beautiful Alida Valli is brilliant as Countess Serpieri. If it weren't for that flaw I'd have rated this movie with an 8 instead of a 7.
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bmacv9 October 2001Whatever Anton Bruckner had in mind when writing his majestic Seventh Symphony, it probably wasn't as the score to a postwar Italian love story set during the Italian-Austrian conflicts of the Risorgiamento. Though the use of pre-existing classical music as backdrop for films is to be discouraged, here it works in surprising ways. Alida Valli is the Countess Livia Serpieri, in a loveless marriage to an older, collaborationist official. At the opera (Venice's La Fenice during Il Trovatore!) she meets up with a dashing young Austrian officer, Farley Granger. (Digression: After a handful of American films -- They Live by Night, Rope, Side Street, Strangers on a Train -- Granger journeyed to Italy to work with Visconti then fell off the screen for years, only to resurface in a few schlock films in the late 60s and early 70s. What happened to him?) They kindle up a clandestine and dangerous affair -- the wealthy older woman and the manipulative wastrel. After wheedling a small fortune out of her to bribe a doctor who declares him unfit to serve, he dumps her. But hell hath no fury....Luchino Visconti, assisted by the young Franco Zeffirelli -- both were opera directors, too -- pulls out all the stops, ending with a finale reminiscent of Tosca (but with a twist). Senso is a shameless and unforgettable wallow in Italianate passion -- unabashed verismo translated to the silver screen.
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gavin694226 April 2016A troubled and neurotic Italian Countess (Alida Valli) betrays her entire country for a self-destructive love affair with an Austrian Lieutenant (Farley Granger).
Originally, Visconti had hoped to cast Ingrid Bergman and Marlon Brando in the lead roles, but Bergman was not interested in the part, and Brando was nixed by the producers who considered Granger a bigger star, at the time. This may be the biggest disappointment in retrospect. Brando would have brought the film more recognition, and Bergman is by far the bigger name than Valli. A shame.
The romance is interesting regardless. We have it going across borders, across languages. And not at the most opportune of times. It makes for an interesting case study, I suppose. -
JuguAbraham1 April 2021Unforgettable performance of Alida Valli, wonderful direction, screenplay and art direction. Definitely one of Visconti's best films. Visconti's assistants on this film is a dream team: Francesco Rosi, Franco Zefferelli, and Jean-Pierre Mocky. The camera team was made-up of G R Aldo (Orson Welles' Othello, Visconti's La Terra Trama, De Sica's Umberto D), Robert Krasker (The Third Man, El Cid, Fall of the Roman Empire) and Giuseppe Rotunno (Zinnemann's Five Days, One Summer, Fellini's Armacord) another dream combination. Finally there was Tennessee Williams working on the dialogues. A believable war sequence that can compete with Kubrick's Barry Lyndon. If there was a flaw, it was the casting of Farley Granger whose scenes towards the end of the film were awful compared to the early sequences. Visconti is a master of depicting the once rich and powerful eventually becoming poor and pathetic.
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christophersarles29 April 2021Unknown fact, Tennessee Williams was the first writer, eventually gave up when Brando backed out and Ingrid Bergman as well.
Was released as "the wonton countess " -
dierregi13 March 2022Alida Valli was only in her thirties and only four years older than Farley Granger, but she looked way older as countess Livia, a frustrated, rich woman who ends up betraying everything and everyone for Franz, a despicable Austrian officer.
The year is 1866, during the Italian independence wars. Venice was occupied by the Austrian army and good Italians were patriots, like countess Livia and her cousin Roberto. Unfortunately, to protect Roberto, Livia ends up madly in love with Franz... Talk about a plan misfiring...
Entrusted with funds to equip Roberto's revolutionary group, Livia ends up giving the money to Franz so that he can corrupt a doctor and avoid fighting. This plan misfires big time, too.
The settings and costumes are opulent since this was a first-class production, which included even some major fighting scenes. Although visually stunning, the problem lies in the despicable nature of the two main characters, both unpleasant and cringe-inducing. Moreover, Valli overacts and more than a middle-aged noblewoman crazily in love (actually, lust) for the first time, she just seems crazy: her face contorts, her eyes seem to bulge out of their sockets while she hysterically begs her lover to love her, degrading herself to the utmost.
Franz is just shallow, greedy, mean... a coward wimp, not even handsome or charming enough to justify such a crazy passion. I disliked the movie the first time I watched it and still disliked it at second sight, possibly even more. The soundtrack is also annoyingly bombastic. -
chaos-rampant27 December 2019Italy is still probably in ruins of war at this point, real or figurative, so what does this filmmaker do, Visconti? By waving his wand, he conjures up an earlier Italy, also in the throes of occupation and war, it's the last days of the Austrian occupation around Venice, but now it can all be placed in the safer distance of history, set up as operatic melodrama on a stage.
You'll see this self-referential waving of the hand in the just the opening scene. We open in an opera house in the middle of a play, with actors on stage valiantly rushing to weapons. As soon as the play is over, patriot viewers rain the place down with revolutionary pamphlets.
It is an operatic play that we see; film as opera. Up on this stage, collaboration with a regime can be safely contained in a love affair, rich countess falling for the dashing Austrian lieutenant. In the usual melodramatic passion, she risks all. The whole point of the story is to have moments like when news reach her of a battle won against the Austrians, but instead of rejoicing at liberation, she must look terrified because her beau might have been on that battlefield.
It's not something I can get excited about, nor would I recommend you go out of your way to find it, except as contrast to other, more pertinent things about how a viewer can be choreographed through space. I mean, here is a cinema of vistas and gestures. When a camera pans around a room that someone walks in, it's just this room that we see. War is suddenly introduced as a series of vistas with crowds rushing about, filmed in a disjointed way in order to convey chaos and mobilization and yet they manage to look placid and painterly.
But how about this? It ends with another self-referential note but now one that waves away illusion, dispels fiction. Having risked all, she finds out he's not the dashing hero of operas that she wanted him to be.
Up on this stage, turning your back on your countrymen is only the innocent fallout of passion, all because you maybe yearned for some of the romance of stories from the past. -
pekinman6 April 2011For some reason Visconti's early film Senso (1954) eluded me until recently. I had heard of it before but it wasn't until I fell under the spell of Visconti's later masterpiece Il Gattopardo (The Leopard) that I became interested Senso.
It's an odd film but not lightweight by any means. The basic story is a tortured potboiler about a passionate, affection-starved Countess, Livia played brilliantly by Alida Valli, and her completely delusional infatuation with a first class cad, a Lieutenant in the Austiran army occupying Venice in the 19th century. This nightmare lover is convincingly done by Farley Granger early in his film career. He had a fascinating face, much more versatile than I remember from his famous Hitchcock performances where he was limited to a naughty baby- face or two. In Senso he looks truly sinister and rapacious.
Granger was fortunate in his leading lady because she wrenches a great performance from him in their intense and heart-rending scenes together. Valli was a volcanic actress in her prime. Very beautiful and clearly the fore-runner to Claudia Cardinale, only a much finer actress.
The camera work of G. R. Aldo and Robert Krasker is gloriously beautiful and natural. It is in early technicolor and not as vividly retina burning as some of the widescreen epics that were to follow.
The only major mistake in Senso is the decision to use Anton Bruckner's 7th Symphony (themes there from) as the ubiquitous melodramatic background. It's not that grand themes aren't apt for this tragic story it's just that grand high classical music (and Bruckner is THE grandest and highest of 19th century romantic composers) doesn't sound right in this film. No expense was spared the sets and costumes so skimping on the all-important, nay, vital musical side seems a little misguided to say the least. Visconti had learned his lesson in this regard by the time he made Il Gattopardo in the early 1960s. Still the same over-heated music but original, well, at least is wasn't Bruckner lifted in chunks from one of his monumental symphonies.
Senso is a winner. It seems a bit long about 90 minutes in with 30 minutes to go but it picks up as Alida Valli's character slowly shreds in the final scenes.
If you're longing to start a love affair with someone you just met I cannot recommend this film. Otherwise do not hesitate to see this.
Granger's voice is dubbed over by the usual Italian voice actor who sounds like a spokesman for detergent. The subtitles seem sensibly translated. But the script is not the main reason to watch this excellent, beautifully filmed minor masterpiece. The photography and Alida Valli's magnificent performance are reasons enough to see this important Italian film.
I deduct one star for the Bruckner and another for the homogenized Farley Granger voice- over. -
avik-basu18897 November 2017'Senso' directed by Italian master Luchino VIsconti marked his first departure from neo-realism. This is a grand operatic romance which manages to tie in a social and political subtext with it. From a visual standpoint, this is one of the most beautiful films I have ever seen. Right from the first shot to the final one, the film remains colourful and visually vibrant which is enhanced by Visconti and his cinematographer's exquisite framing and compositions. The film has a melodramatic/operatic tone to it. 'Senso' falls in line with a number of other films made during this era of the 50s all around the world that came to be known as 'Women's Films'. These movies generally were melodramas with a female protagonist having to go through tough times and even tragedies for the sake of love and romance. 'Senso' with its melodrama and visual flair reminded me of the Douglas Sirk films. But more than Sirk, the name that constantly came across my mind Max Ophüls. I couldn't help but find similarities with 'The Earrings of Madame de ' due to the film revolving around aristocracy, opulence as well as having a protagonist who is an older mature woman engaging in infidelity. 'Senso' has a rich political and social context. It is set at a specific moment in Italian history when the Austrian occupation of Venice was about to face violent rebellion from native Venetians who were fighting for liberation from Austria and merging of Venice with Italy. The central characters and the illicit romance in the film go hand in hand with the politics and nationalist movement which reminded me of Satyajit Ray's 'The Home and the World'. On a broad level, 'Senso' seems to be a sensitive, but at the same time scathing criticism of the aristocracy and the upper class. Livia betraying her rebel cousin Roberto just for the sake of her love/lust for the Austrian officer Franz has to symbolise the rich, upper class and the aristocracy turning their back on the ideals and ideology of the nationalist movement. On the other hand, based on a more personal reading, the film seems to be about identity and the idea of compromising your morals and ideals for selfish desires. There are mirrors visible in many shots of the film and there is a scene where Franz actually talks about how he likes to look at himself in the mirror to see whether he is still the man that he was earlier. We see Livia going through a constant fight within herself to decide whether she to stick to her morals and nationalistic ideals or give in to the charm and her yearning for Franz, the Austrian officer. She gives in to her yearning and betrays her ideals. But in the end, she gets a taste of her own medicine when Franz becomes nothing short of a mirror image of her own betrayal and selfishness.
In a film where the main characters aren't the most likable, the actors have to really rise to the top and make the characters really interesting. Farley Granger is good as the cunning and charming Franz. But the film is carried by Alida Valli. She made me believe Livia's attraction toward Franz. Yes she is exaggerated in some of her expressions, but it fits perfectly with the melodramatic tone of the film. 'Senso' wouldn't completely work without Alida Valli's brilliantly emotive performance.
'Senso' is a lavish, sprawling, epic romance with a political subtext. It is a very well made, well acted and thematically deep film that I'd most certainly recommend. -
elo-equipamentos18 August 2019An Classy picture made by Visconti, on a occupied Italy by Austrian's army, the revolution is about to come, on this environment the Countess Livia Serpiere (Alida Valli) falling in love for a young Austrian Lieutenant Franz Mahler (Farley Granger), initially both keep a secret meetings, the war explodes and she was sent to a family's farmer in countryside, suddenly he appears asking for money to bribe a doctor to declare him inapt to fight, actually the Austrian's officer is a crook, trying to handle the desperate woman in love, later she met him living with a younger girl at the his fancy house, drunk and throwing in her face how she was so foolish to believing in such love, humiliated and bruised so deeply she decides put a final point in this sad facts which disgraced her life, having the Italian revolution as backdrop, many corpses along the way, all this on ruins everywhere, a real tragic picture, Alida Valli has an astonishing action, Farley Granger not quite!!!
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First watch: 2012 / How many: 2 / Source: DVD / Rating: 8.5 -
sun-o224 October 2020"Senso" is an early masterpiece by Luchino Visconti. In layman's terms, the film, set in Venice - Ardeno - Verona at the end of the 19th century, tells the story of an affair between a countess on the defeated side and an Austrian military officer from the occupying power, and the highlights of the film are the opulent sets, art and costumes, the large number of extras and the performances of the two leads. The production, with very few close-ups and mainly fixture shots, is extremely rigorous and precise. From the point of view of the current audience, Visconti uses the mob scene merely as a backdrop to show the process of their "depravity," and in that light, the director's interest may have been more in the individual's state of mind than in the history of the film. It is interesting that the two characters are diametrically opposed in every aspect of their sex, position, and status, yet they take the same poor actions. They are two sides of a coin, if you will.
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theeht28 September 2000This beautifully photographed romance features a great performance by Alida Valli, and Farley Granger in the greatest role of his career. Alida Valli plays a love starved married woman who falls passionately in love with deserter Granger. Like all of Visconti's films, it's emotionally disturbing, but totally superb.
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planktonrules19 April 2015"Sanso" looks nice. It has a nice, sweeping look to it and if the color print received a bit of conservation (cleaning up the print a bit and sharpening it as well), it would be a gorgeous movie. But, it's also a great example of a film which suffers because the main characters are complete moral degenerates and are therefore difficult to relate to or care for during the course of the movie.
This film is set around the time of the Italian independence movement in the late 1860s and into the early 1870s. The Italians, long dominated and ruled by outsiders, are uniting under Garibaldi and are trying to gain self-rule. In the midst of this is a terribly confusing Countess (Alida Valli). On one hand, she supports the independence movement through her cousin and his efforts. Yet, completely inexplicably, she falls for an Austrian officer--who is her sworn enemy. It seems that despite being on opposite sides, they have a common love...him. So, in essence, her ideals mean nothing and she's willing to throw away her opulent life with the Count and her country for some Germanic stud. In fact, at one point, she makes herself a traitor by giving the lover money which was gathered to support the Italian army...and all for love (or at least what this whore thinks is love).
While many reviewers seemed to like this film, I couldn't get past the characters. While there was no obvious reason for the lovers to be together, they were. And, because they were both selfish and nasty, you really don't care what happens to them. After all, she's an adulteress, thief and a traitor. He's a coward, cheats on his new lover and is a deserter. Sounds like a relationship made in heaven, right?!
The bottom line is that no matter how good the film looks and how well it's acted, it's just about some boorish jerks--and that makes it a film I could have just as soon skipped. -
tieman6416 November 2010"Senso" opens at an opera house in Venice. A production of Giuseppe Verdi's "Il trovatore" is on display, director Luchino Visconti hinting that his film will likewise be a sumptuous opera, with big emotions, unashamed melodrama and lavish costumes.
The opera is then interrupted by a demonstration, a group of radical "Italian Patriots" protesting the occupying Austrian army. What follows is an allegorical plot which may baffle those unfamiliar with Italian history. On the surface, the story is about an Italian woman called Livia who finds herself growing apart from her complacent husband (an aristocratic opportunist) and drawn toward an Austrian character called Franz Mahler, but what Visconti is really interested in is demythologising the Italian Risorgimento, the political and social movement which led to the unification of Italy's states.
One must remember that Visconti was influenced by Italian philosopher Antonio Gramsci. Both Marxists, Visconti and Gramsci believed history to be the most powerful ideological tool at the disposal of Italy and Austria's ruling elites, and both believed in creating, not just an organised working class led by grass-roots intellectuals who could challenge hegemonic ideals, but an art form which assisted or transmuted these challenges.
And so when the performers in the opera that opens the film chant "All'armi, all'armi!" ("To arms, to arms!"), it's no surprise that the patriots in the audience and the Italian aristocrats in the boxes take up the chant and unfurl the Italian flag, much to the fright of occupying Austrian officers. During this period of history (roughly the 1860s), the Italian hero Giuseppe Garibaldi and his partisan patriots were busy battling the Austro-Hungarian Empire for Italian independence. It was an extremely volatile period.
But Visconti is not interested in proletariat uprisings. He seems more interested in exploring the myths underlying the unification stories of the Risorgimento in the years leading up to the removal of the Austrian Empire. He shows how the popular movement was, in actuality, denied by those in command of the Italian forces (several key scenes clearly showing this were removed for being too inflammatory) and shows the complicity, compromises, collusion and various other processes which were taking place amongst the fractured ruling elites.
But the film also shows the utter indifference the aristocrats and many members of Italy's poor had toward unification. History, the film implies, unfolds regardless of public opinion. More than this, the film uses the romantic decline and decay between a pair of lovers (one Italian, one Austrian) to show how identities shift. The character of Franz, for example, is no longer appealing to our heroine when he is exempted from the military and loses his position. Not only is this romantic love based in a materiality which is income based and class based, but nationalistic love is itself a kind of parasitic thing, Franz and Livia's selfish romance, collapse and separation echoing Italy's love affair with and rejection of the Austrian Empire.
Of course, the film is also implicitly about the era in which it was made. After WW2, Italy was busy trying to distance itself from Nazi Germany, and was in the process of making sense of the literal and psychic rubble of the war and in search of a new national identity.
So what's most interesting about the film is the way it fits in with "The Damned", "Ludwig", "Death In Venice" and "The Leopard", other films by Visconti about European nationalism, and all of which form a clear "progression". It is clear that Visconti believes that nationalism can still be seen as progressive in the Marxist sense of modernity, ushering in a more dynamic social order. However, films like "The Damned" also show that Visconti was interested in the limits of nationalism and the dead end which it ultimately leads to at a structural level within society.
8/10 – The melodramatic romance at the heart of "Senso" does not work unless one approaches it from an allegorical perspective. Stylistically, though Visconti loves his rich cinematography, his lavish rooms and costumes, the film is very stiff, very dialogue based. Like many of Visconti's colour films, "Senso" plays like a glorified stage production or Victorian novel.
Worth one viewing. -
"Senso" is not widely regarded as a topfilm of Visconti. This is due to the fact that the story is regarded as overly melodramatc. This maybe so, but on the other hand the design and cinematography is superb. By the way, when the film was released it gave rise to political controversy in Italy. The story was not entirely innocent after all.
"Senso" is situated somewhere between the neorealist period of Visconti (from "Ossessione" in 1943 till "Bellissima" in 1951) and the more personal, theatrical period starting with "Le notti bianche" (1957).
Because of this two interpretations are possible. In the neo realist interpretation Franz Mahler is a realist who realizes that in a war soldiers are used as a sort of pawns by the ruling class. He refuses to be abused that way, and does everything possible to evade the battle.
In a more theatrical interpretation (which is more obvious given the prominent role dat opera plays in this film) Franz Mahler is a coward who abuses the love of an older woman to finance his luxury (and safe) life. In this interpretation "Senso"contains elements of "Barry Lyndon" (1975, Stanley Kubrick, abusing the love of an older woman) and "The cranes are flying" (1957, Mikhail Kalatozov, illegaly evading military service).
Maybe it is because these two pssible interpretations that the appreciation of this Visconti movie in general lags behind the other movies of his oeuvre. -
clanciai21 April 2017Luchino Visconti was first of all an opera director, and this was his most opera-like film. Another opera director, Franco Zeffirelli, was one of the co-directors with Francesco Rosi. The film actually begins with an opera performance at the Phoenix Theatre in Venice 1866 with the dramatic climax of Verdi's "Il trovatore", which sets the film flourishing from the start - the opening scenes are cinematographically the best of the whole film, but the realism is absolute all the way in every detail and just worth seeing over and over again for that. At the same time, it's a typical Visconti film, unmasking every human illusion on the way down the abyss of human self-deceit, self-degradation and decay. You can't really sympathize with any of the two leading characters, as they both lose control completely almost from the very beginning and don't hesitate to at every possible moment making it worse. The consequential outrageously brutal reality is horrendously shocking in its totally unemotional outcome. But the players are excellent, and it's no easy parts they are playing. To this comes the gorgeous use of Bruckner's music, particularly his seventh symphony, the second movement, and I don't think Bruckner's music has been used in any other film. Here it is the more perfect, sumptuously illustrating the opera-like melodrama by adding weight and pathos to the doomed romance. This would have been Visconti's most accomplished masterpiece, if he hadn't ten years later made the even finer "The Leopard".
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skepticskeptical21 December 2020What a gorgeous piece of cinema this is. On top of the sheer aesthetic beauty, the story is quite compelling. Alida Valli does a superb job as a Madame Bovary-esque character, and Farley Granger plays the consummate con artist cad--something like a cross between Morris Townsend from The Heiress and Charles Boyer from Gaslight.
I highly recommend this film!!!!