Luchino Visconti

Total Page：16

File Type：pdf, Size：1020Kb

G. Nowell-Smith Luchino Visconti Aristocrat and Marxist, master equally of harsh realism and sublime melodrama, Luchino Visconti (1906-1976) was without question one of the greatest European film directors. His career as a film-maker began in the 1930s when he escaped the stifling culture of Fascist Italy to work with Jean Renoir in the France of the Popular Front. Back in his native country in the 40s he was one of the founders of the neo-realist movement. In 1954, with Senso, he turned his hand to a historical spectacular. The result was both glorious to look at and a profound reinterpretation of history. In Rocco and His Brothers (1960) he returned to his neo-realist roots and in The Leopard (1963), with Burt Lancaster, Claudia Cardinale and Alain Delon, he made the first truly international film. He scored a further success with Death in Venice (1971), a sensitive adaptation of Thomas Mann's story about a writer (in the film, a musician) whose world is devastated when he falls in love with a young boy. A similar homo-erotic theme haunts Ludwig (1973), a bio-pic about the King of Bavaria who prefers art to politics and the company of stableboys to the princess he is supposed to marry. Geoffrey Nowell-Smith's classic study of the director was first published in 1967 and revised in 1973. It is now updated to include the last three films that Visconti made 3rd ed. 2003 before his death, together with some reflections on the 'auteur' theory of which the original edition was a key example. Printed book Softcover ISBN 978-0-85170-961-1 ▶ 31,99 € | £27.99 ▶ *34,23 € (D) | 35,19 € (A) | CHF 35.50 The first € price and the £ and $ price are net prices, subject to local VAT. Prices indicated with * include VAT for books; the €(D) includes 7% for Germany, the €(A) includes 10% for Austria. Prices indicated with ** include VAT for electronic products; 19% for Germany, 20% for Austria. All prices exclusive of carriage charges. Prices and other details are subject to change without notice. All errors and omissions excepted. Bloomsbury.

Copy Link

Recommended publications

Sydney Film Festival Announces Essential Scorsese
MEDIA RELEASE THURSDAY 31 MARCH 2016 DAVID STRATTON CURATES SCORSESE RETROSPECTIVE Sydney Film Festival, Australian Centre for the Moving Image (ACMI) and the National Film and Sound Archive of Australia (NFSA) announce that David Stratton will present a program of 10 essential films directed by Martin Scorsese. The curated films will screen as the retrospective program during the 63rd Sydney Film Festival (8-19 June) and in Melbourne at ACMI (27 May-12 June) to coincide with ACMI’s exhibition SCORSESE (26 May-18 September). All 10 films will screen at the NFSA in Canberra (1-23 July) after Sydney Film Festival’s screenings. The retrospective program of ten titles, including specially imported 35mm prints, curated by David Stratton, entitled Essential Scorsese: Selected by David Stratton, features works by one of the most influential directors of our time, including Taxi Driver, Goodfellas, Raging Bull and The Age of Innocence. The renowned critic and broadcaster, was appointed director of the Sydney Film Festival 50 years ago, and held the position from 1966 to 1983. Stratton will introduce selected screenings in the retrospective program. David Stratton says: “Scorsese talks in a rapid-fire style as though he doesn’t have enough time to describe everything he knows. He’s like a character in a 1930s movie. His films are passionate too. His best are explosive in their impact, crammed with information and detail. On the one hand, his Catholic upbringing leads him to tackle religious subjects (The Last Temptation of Christ, Kundun) while the Saturday matinee kid in him revels in the trashy gore of his gangster films.” Essential Scorsese: Selected by David Stratton will screen over two weekends during the Festival (8 – 19 June) at the Art Gallery of NSW.
[Show full text]
And Bernardo Bertolucci's 1900
The “Betrayed Resistance” in Valentino Orsini’s Corbari (1970) and Bernardo Bertolucci’s 1900 (1976) Dominic Gavin The connections between Italian film and history have been the object of renewed attention in recent years. A number of studies have provided re-readings of Italian cinema, especially from the perspective of public memory. Charting the interrelations of cinema, the public use of history, and historiography, these studies include reevaluations of the cinema of the Resistance, the war film, the Holocaust and the Fascist dictatorship.1 The ongoing debates over Resistance memory in particular—the “never-ending liberation,” in the words of one historian—have provided a motive for reconsidering popular cultural productions as vehicles of collective perceptions of the past.2 If Italian film studies came relatively late to the issues of cinema and public memory, this approach has now become mainstream.3 In this essay, I am concerned with films on the Resistance during the 1970s. These belong to a wider grouping of contemporary cinematic productions that deal with the Fascist dictatorship and antifascism. These films raise a series of critical questions. How did the general film field contribute to the wider processing of historical memory, and how did it relate to political violence in Italy?4 To what extent did the work of Italian filmmakers participate in the “new discourse” of international cinema in the 1970s concerning the treatment of Nazism and the occupation,5 or to what extent were filmmakers engaged in reaffirming populist
[Show full text]
14. Costume Design Chapter Review
14. COSTUME DESIGN CHAPTER REVIEW Martin cites Luchino Visconti, the great Italian theater and “You need somebody who film director who began working in the 1940s, who demanded understands contemporary accuracy, even down to the underwear—what you weren’t expression in costuming, seeing on the screen was just as important as what you were expression in dressing. ” seeing in the complete re-creation of the past. Martin also cites —Martin Scorsese director Vincente Minnelli’s costume choices in Madame Bovary (1949). Gustave Flaubert’s novel is set in the 1840s, but Minnelli found the clothes of the 1870s more interesting and elegant, so he SUBCHAPTERS chose to update the story. • Allow for a Touch of Artistry in In The Age of Innocence, Martin’s priority was making the Your Costumes characters’ clothing look lived in. He didn’t want the outfits to look like costumes, especially those of extras. With Gangs of New • Costumes Should Come From the York, Martin and his costume designer were able to take more Character artistic license. They let their imaginations run wild, particularly • Collaborate With Actors on with the individual gangs and their respective uniforms. Costume Mean Streets (1973), Taxi Driver, and After Hours (1985) required • Research to Find the Right costume design that was less theatrical and more in touch Costume with the worlds the characters inhabited. In these kinds of productions, you need a costume designer that has a deep understanding of character. He or she needs to know where a character would shop for clothes and what kind of clothes a character might inherit.
[Show full text]
Matteo Garrone's Reality:The Big Brother Spectacle and Its Rupture
Bucknell University Bucknell Digital Commons Faculty Journal Articles Faculty Scholarship Winter 1-1-2016 Matteo Garrone's Reality:The Big Brother Spectacle and its Rupture Anna Paparcone Bronner Bucknell University, [email protected] Follow this and additional works at: https://digitalcommons.bucknell.edu/fac_journ Part of the Composition Commons, Italian Literature Commons, Music Performance Commons, Television Commons, and the Visual Studies Commons Recommended Citation Bronner, Anna Paparcone. "Matteo Garrone's Reality:The Big Brother Spectacle and its Rupture." MLN (2016) : 270-289. This Article is brought to you for free and open access by the Faculty Scholarship at Bucknell Digital Commons. It has been accepted for inclusion in Faculty Journal Articles by an authorized administrator of Bucknell Digital Commons. For more information, please contact [email protected]. 0DWWHR*DUURQH·V5HDOLW\7KH%LJ%URWKHU6SHFWDFOHDQG,WV5XSWXUH $QQD3DSDUFRQH 0/19ROXPH1XPEHU-DQXDU\ ,WDOLDQ,VVXH SS $UWLFOH 3XEOLVKHGE\-RKQV+RSNLQV8QLYHUVLW\3UHVV '2,POQ )RUDGGLWLRQDOLQIRUPDWLRQDERXWWKLVDUWLFOH KWWSVPXVHMKXHGXDUWLFOH Access provided by Cornell University (4 May 2016 02:10 GMT) Matteo Garrone’s Reality: The Big Brother Spectacle and Its Rupture ❦ Anna Paparcone In his 1967 seminal work The Society of the Spectacle, Guy Debord wrote: “In societies where modern conditions of production prevail, all of life presents itself as an immense accumulation of spectacles. Everything that was directly lived has moved away into representation” (thesis 1). The opening of Debord’s book aptly describes what occurs in Matteo Garrone’s 2012 filmReality whose protagonist, an exuberant fishmonger by the name of Luciano Ciotola, becomes obsessed with his participation in the reality TV show Big Brother to the point that his entire life turns into a spectacle.
[Show full text]
FS 300 from CINECITTÀ STUDIOS to REAL LOCATIONS: a JOURNEY THROUGH ITALIAN CINEMA MADE in ROME IES Abroad Rome – Language & Area Studies
FS 300 FROM CINECITTÀ STUDIOS TO REAL LOCATIONS: A JOURNEY THROUGH ITALIAN CINEMA MADE IN ROME IES Abroad Rome – Language & Area Studies DESCRIPTION: The course offers the unique opportunity to study Italian Cinema from the birth of Cinecittà Studios in 1937 to the present, visiting the settings, studios and real locations where some landmark films were shot. The selected movies share the characteristic of having being all filmed in Rome, which can be considered the capital of the Italian film industry. Therefore, Rome will be explored through the eyes of some of the most influential film directors and revealed as a source of inspiration for directors such as De Sica, Rossellini, Fellini, Scola, Monicelli, Pasolini, Leone, Moretti, Virzì and Sorrentino. The selected films will be discussed in class through an extensive historical analysis and a critical approach in order to understand the contribution of Italian cinema to the development of world cinema and the role of cinema in shaping of Italian society and culture. Students will visit the locations used to shoot the movies analyzed in class in order to understand how they were filmed and to learn the specific elements of film language and film techniques utilized by the different directors. CREDITS: 3 CONTACT HOURS: 45 LANGUAGE OF INSTRUCTION: English PREREQUISITES: None METHOD OF PRESENTATION: Lectures, screenings, individual or group film watching at IES multimedia lab after class, course- related trips, use of multimedia and Internet resources for research purposes, film analysis and class debates on main Italian film directors and their work. REQUIRED WORK AND FORM OF ASSESSMENT: • Class participation - 10% • Film review – 20% • Oral presentation of film review – 10% • Midterm exam – 30% • Final exam – 35% Film Review on movie chosen by the student Students will analyze a chosen film from a technical and critical point of view and will contextualize the movie in its director’s life and artistic career.
[Show full text]
Federico Fellini
Federico Fellini (January 20, 1920 – October 31, 1993) was one of the most influential and widely revered Italian film-makers of the 20th century and is considered to be one of the finest film directors of all time. Fellini's films typically combine memory, dreams, fantasy, and desire. La Strada (film)1954 Neo- Realist Film Considered to be one of the best films of all time-- Deals with Social Realities, on location shooting etc. Gelsomina, sold for few coins by her impoverished mother to carnival strong man Zampano, (Anthony Quinn) who makes a living by drawing a crowd to a square, expanding his chest to break a chain, and then passing the hat. He is physically and emotionally cruel, and viciously trains her as both his sidekick and sexual conquest Italian Neo-Realist Cinema • Luchino Visconti • Roberto Rossellini • Vittorio De Sica • film art of authenticity • reality could be conveyed through created situations • synthesis of documentary and studio techniques • non-professional actors • authentic settings • naturalistic lighting • simple direction • natural dialogue • unobtrusive filmmaking techniques: few close-ups, wipes, little or no added lighting •The auteur theory holds that a film, or an entire body of work, by a director (or, less commonly, a producer) reflects the personal vision and preoccupations of that director, as if she or he were the work's primary "author" (auteur). French New Wave Cinema • Francois Truffaut, Jean-Luc Godard etc. • Cahiers du Cinema • directors should have control over all stages of productions and post Like Cinema
[Show full text]
Neorealism and Magic Realism in Cinema
Neorealism and Magic Realism in Cinema Italian Neorealism is one of the most influential, visually distinctive and thematically challenging wave in the history of cinema. The worldwide turmoil that shaped the neorealistsʼ visions then, can be traced in every aspect of the films produced during the very short time neorealism went on. The revolutionary changes and possibilities this wave emerged led other genres and waves to be born, like French New Wave. This course aims to focus on the Italian Neorealism, the thematic and stylistic aspects of the wave by analysing the films of the most significant directors of the time. Once the roots of the Neorealism is fully established and the means and ways are absorbed, the course will shift to discover the magic realism that replaced realism in the European cinema of 1950s. The course will get to the root of the magical realism and similar tendencies in the cinema and the literature that procreated the magic realism definition in the first place. The course will also feed from Surrealism and Psychological Realism. During the semester, substantial works of literature and painting will be visited in order to get a broader understanding of different approaches of realism. Course Requirements: The course will be carried out with a series of discussions every week and to participate to the discussions in class, every student must watch the film (or films) of the week. Being a participator in the class is the most important requirement of the course. :::Attention::: • The course starts on the first week, and although the first two weeks are ʻadd-dropʼ weeks, if you miss a class even in the beginning of the course, please drop the course, or donʼt take it in the first place.
[Show full text]
This Course Carries the Global Cultures Flag. Global Cultures Courses Are Designed to Increase Your Familiarity with Cultural Groups Outside the United States
ITL 375 (37035) SICILY IN LITERATURE AND FILM Spring 2012 Instructor: Daniela Bini Office Hours: HRH 3.112C: W 10:30-11:00 and by appointment e-mail: [email protected]; phone: 471-5995 Class meetings: TTh: 11:00-12:30, HRH 2.112; Screenings TBA COURSE DESCRIPTION Sicily has always occupied a priviledged place in the Italian literary and cinematic imagination. While such writers as Pirandello, Sciascia, and Verga have created what can legitimately be called a distinctly Sicilian category of Italian literature, such filmmakers as Visconti, Rosi, Tornatore, Giordana have been drawn to the island as a space for cinematic experimentation and artistic self- discovery. From Visconti's 1948 neorealist masterpiece La terra trema to Tornatore's 1988 Oscar- winning Cinema Paradiso, from Verga's late nineteenth century short stories to Sciascia's Mafia-based thrillers, Sicily has become both a mythic space of the mind, as well as a signifier, in extremis for its own, and the rest of Italy's, social, political, and historical concerns. The course will involve close analysis of selected novels, short stories, and films with specific focus on such issues as unification history, the Mafia, and social/sexual mores. Attendance at the screenings is required. This course will be taught in Italian. There will be four short papers (2-3 pages) to be written in Italian, a midterm and a final. Since the course will be conducted as a seminar, a great deal of emphasis will be placed on active class participation. The final grade will be computed as follows: Papers: 40%; Midterm: 20%; Final: 30%; Class Participation: 10% This course carries the Global Cultures flag.
[Show full text]
An Homage to Marcello Mastroianni Saturday, September 22, 2018 Castro Theatre, San Francisco
Ciao, Marcello! An Homage to Marcello Mastroianni Saturday, September 22, 2018 Castro Theatre, San Francisco An overdue homage to a great star 60 years after the making of “La Dolce Vita”, featuring the works of four directors for one actor in one day. Presented in collaboration with The Leonardo da Vinci Society, The Consul General of Italy and The Italian Cultural Institute of San Francisco. With gratitude to Luce Cinecittá, Janus Films, Kino Lorber, and Paramount Pictures. Yesterday, Today and Tomorrow (1963) 119 min. BD 10:00 AM Directed by Vittorio De Sica with Sophia Loren 8½ (1963) 138 min. 35 mm 1:00 PM Directed by Federico Fellini with Claudia Cardinale, Anouk Aimèe, Sandra Milo A Special Day (1977) 106 min. 35 mm 3:30 PM Directed by Ettore Scola with Sophia Loren La Dolce Vita (1960) 173 min. DCP 6:00 PM Directed by Federico Fellini with Anita Ekberg Via Veneto Party 9:00 PM-10:30 PM Divorce Italian Style (1961) 105 min. 35 mm 10:30 PM Directed by Pietro Germi with Daniela Rocca, Stefania Sandrelli Marcello Mastroianni A more intimate Marcello, who after the 10 years in the theater under the artistic wing of Luchino Visconti, arrives to the big success of “La Dolce Vita”, never forgetting the intimate life of the average Italian of the time. He molds and changes according to the director that he works with, giving us a kaleidoscope of images of Italy of the 60s. Marcello said: “Yes! I confess, I prefer cinema to theater. Yes, I prefer it for approximation and improvisations, for its confusion.
[Show full text]
101 Films for Filmmakers
101 (OR SO) FILMS FOR FILMMAKERS The purpose of this list is not to create an exhaustive list of every important film ever made or filmmaker who ever lived. That task would be impossible. The purpose is to create a succinct list of films and filmmakers that have had a major impact on filmmaking. A second purpose is to help contextualize films and filmmakers within the various film movements with which they are associated. The list is organized chronologically, with important film movements (e.g. Italian Neorealism, The French New Wave) inserted at the appropriate time. AFI (American Film Institute) Top 100 films are in blue (green if they were on the original 1998 list but were removed for the 10th anniversary list). Guidelines: 1. The majority of filmmakers will be represented by a single film (or two), often their first or first significant one. This does not mean that they made no other worthy films; rather the films listed tend to be monumental films that helped define a genre or period. For example, Arthur Penn made numerous notable films, but his 1967 Bonnie and Clyde ushered in the New Hollywood and changed filmmaking for the next two decades (or more). 2. Some filmmakers do have multiple films listed, but this tends to be reserved for filmmakers who are truly masters of the craft (e.g. Alfred Hitchcock, Stanley Kubrick) or filmmakers whose careers have had a long span (e.g. Luis Buñuel, 1928-1977). A few filmmakers who re-invented themselves later in their careers (e.g. David Cronenberg–his early body horror and later psychological dramas) will have multiple films listed, representing each period of their careers.
[Show full text]
Calendar of Events
Calendar of Events Film Festival Diva\Divo: Gender in a Generation of Italian Film 1950-1980 SEPTEMBER 26 - NOVEMBER 21 A cinematic journey in postwar Italy through movie genres, history, models, myths, and images of femininity and masculinity. The Directors highlighted in this series are: Vittoria De Sica, Federico Fellini, Luchino Visconti, Dino Risi, Lina Wertmuller and Ettore Scola. SEPTEMBER 26 time: 7:30pm L'oro di Napoli di Vittoria De Sica (Sophia Loren, Vittorio De Sica, Paolo Stoppa, Toto', Silvana Mangano) 1954 - Italy Guest Speaker: Nelson Moe BIO: Nelson Moe is an associate professor of Italian at Barnard College, Columbia University. He recently published “The View from Vesuvius: Italian Culture and the Southern Question” (California University Press, 2002). He is currently writing a book on the representation of the south in Italian cinema, as well as a study of Antonio Gramsci and the Southern Question. OCTOBER 2 time: 7:30pm Lo sciecco bianco di Federicao Fellini (Alberto Sordi, Giulietta Masina) 1951 - Italy Guest Speaker: Alexander Stille BIO: Alexander Stille is a free-lance writer who lives in New York. His latest book, “The Future of the Past” (Farrar, Straus & Giroux) is an exploration of the cultural impact of technological change and its effect on our relation to the historical past. He is also the author of “Benevolence and Betrayal: Five Italian-Jewish Families Under Fascism” (Penguin), which won the 1992 Los Angeles Times Book Award for best work of General Non- Fiction; and “Excellent Cadavers: The Mafia and the Death of the First Italian Republic” (Vintage), which came out in 1995.
[Show full text]
Bamcinématek Presents Under the Influence: Scorsese/Walsh, a 12
BAMcinématek presents Under the Influence: Scorsese/Walsh, a 12-film series pairing Martin Scorsese works with their inspirations from Raoul Walsh’s seminal oeuvre, Mar 12—26 Opens with Walsh’s Regeneration, featuring live piano by acclaimed silent film accompanist Steve Sterner The Wall Street Journal is the title sponsor for BAMcinématek and BAM Rose Cinemas. Brooklyn, NY/Feb 12, 2014—From Wednesday, March 12 through Wednesday, March 26, BAMcinématek presents Under the Influence: Scorsese/Walsh, pairing six Scorsese classics with their inspirations from Raoul Walsh’s seminal oeuvre. The still-undervalued Walsh’s lean, mean portraits of gangsters, knack for evoking gritty urban locales, and assured handling of white- knuckle action provide a virtual template for modern-day maestro (and avowed Walsh admirer) Martin Scorsese’s work. Viewed side by side, the films of these two iconic auteurs reveal a fascinating and ongoing creative dialogue across the generations. One of the great action directors of the Hollywood studio era, Raoul Walsh was the swaggering, manly-man artist behind some of the best movies to star James Cagney, Humphrey Bogart, and Errol Flynn. ―Walsh’s explosive outcast characters were bigger than life,‖ said Martin Scorsese, whose own violent, masculine oeuvre is just as full of explosive outcasts. ―Their lust for life was insatiable, even as their actions precipitated their tragic destiny. The world was too small for them.‖ Walsh was ―probably Scorsese’s single most important influence,‖ wrote critic Dave Kehr (Moving Image Source), even if Scorsese’s debts to Michael Powell, Luchino Visconti, and other filmmakers have been more widely acknowledged over the years.
[Show full text]