L'Innocente

I found this a completely gripping and absorbing film - one that really had me almost shouting at the characters or getting out of my chair to try to stop things happening.

It has the kind of intensity that goes with melodrama - extreme situations and events, extreme contrasts of emotion, violent contrasts between good and evil - and also the different, subtler intensity that comes from superb acting by characters who really do seem to be living their parts and whose fates and states of mind one really cares about.

I talked about violent contrasts between good and evil, but in a way the more compelling contrast is between good and perversity. You're kept on the edge of your seat by Tullio because he isn't only brutal and egotistical; he's also a tormented and divided man, sophisticated and capable of real tenderness as well as arrogant thuggery, priding himself on his freedom from superstition and illusion, his sense of complete self-mastery and at the same time a prey to his own passions and to his pride in the opinion of others. He's the aristocrat who has everything, carelessly abundant wealth, status, intelligence and athletic talent, but whose life is fundamentally purposeless and who often seems like a spoilt child as a result.

The film's ravishing beauty is a feast for the eye but it heightens the sense of perversity and waste, and also (because nearly all the scenes are indoors) creates a powerful sense of claustrophobia. In the end all the characters seem pretty trapped. Behind the utterly absorbing story-telling and the concentration on the fate of a few individuals we care about it's also a powerful condemnation of the corruptions of wealth and power, rooted in late nineteenth and early twentieth century Italy but relevant to our divided society today.

Interesting that this was Visconti's last film at the age of 69. Apart from obvious themes of infidelity and jealousy, it also looks at atheism as a justification for Tullio's moral transgressions.

Thinking about the contemporaneous background of Italian feminist protests in 1976 when this film was released, it explores the role of women in a 19th century Italian Catholic aristocratic society: the wife, the mistress, the mother, the nurse-maid ... and talks about the idea of woman as an equal partner in a relationship.

Sumptuous costumes, gorgeous interiors, lavish vases of flowers and artworks, for me the best shots in the film are those when Tullio views his wife on the Villa's terrace walkway ... Fabulous casting of Laura Antonella as Giuliana.

This film produces strong dramatic continuity with barely a raised voice, so effectively understated is the subject treated with largely expression, silence and background sound. An amoralistic playboy Italian aristocrat of the 19th century finds the world rebound on himself when he finds himself duped by his hitherto longsuffering and faithful wife with tragic consequences. The photography is excellent with soft yet well-focused colour though you have to look through a letter-box throughout incurring neckache incessantly nodding reading the subtitles beneath!

I have seen three Visconte films - Death in Venice, The Leopard, and this one. His films combine an amazing stateliness of pace with an intensity of emotion that keeps the watcher totally involved throughout. The reason I think is that he deals with human emotion at its most extreme: pride, jealousy, possessive love, passion for one's country or one's class, lust. There is always tragedy and mournful reflection on the passing of time and happiness. And yet in spite of this, visually his films are so full, so exciting, so gorgeous that one comes back for more.

A good film by Visconti about infidelity and the double standards which existed for men and women at the end of the nineteenth century. Some fine performances from the cast and lavish sets/scenery/costumes. Well worth watching.