Luchino Visconti: biography, personal life, best films and photos

2024 Author: Leah Sherlock | [email protected]. Last modified: 2023-12-17 05:25

Luchino Visconti is a popular Italian director. By origin, an aristocrat with the title of count. At the same time, according to his views, he was a member of the Communist Party. Among his most famous paintings are the films "Leopard", "The Stranger", "Death in Venice", "Family portrait in the interior".

Childhood and youth

Luchino Visconti was born in Milan in 1906. His father was Duke di Modrone, who was known in the area as a theater patron. The famous director's mother, Carla Erb, came from a family that made a fortune in the pharmaceutical industry.

Luchino Visconti grew up in a large family, in addition to him, his parents raised seven more children. At the same time, none of them was left to himself. They were taught by teachers of foreign languages, music and sports. As a teenager, the hero of our article learned to play the cello for several years.

Parents tried from an early age to invest in their children the understanding that they will have to achieve everything in lifesolely through their work. Therefore, almost immediately after receiving a certificate of secondary education, he got a job as an assistant to the director Jean Renoir, who made the films The Rules of the Game and The Great Illusion. Luchino Visconti was recommended by fashion designer Coco Chanel. Renoir at that time was just filming his painting "Country Walk", the year was 1936 in the yard. It was this work that became the starting point in the career of director Luchino Visconti.

In an anti-fascist organization

However, shortly after the release of the film, Visconti became interested in politics. He ended up in the ranks of the anti-fascist resistance. At home, he sheltered those who were persecuted by the Italian fascists, provided all possible assistance to soldiers from the allied armies, helping them escape from captivity from the Germans.

As a result, Luchino Visconti, whose biography is presented in this article, was arrested by the Gestapo in Rome. Researchers of his life path note that it was only thanks to his high origin that he managed to avoid the death pen alty.

In 1945, together with other cinematographers, the hero of our article took part in the creation of a documentary film dedicated to the anti-fascist Resistance. It was called "Glory Days".

By that time, Visconti was well known as a theater director. From 1945 to 1947, he directed 11 dramatic productions on various stages throughout Italy.

Group at Eliseo Theater

In 1946 Viscontiturns out to be at the head of his own creative association, which constantly gathers on the basis of the Eliseo Theater in Rome. Over time, it becomes the first director's theater in Italy to stand the test of time, as it manages to survive for 12 years.

As Visconti himself emphasized, in his performances, which glorified him in the 40s, the audience constantly had a feeling of something unusual and fundamentally new. The audience was amazed by the unusual realism of the productions, the actors' play simply amazed their imagination.

Debut on the big screen

Melodrama "Obsession" Luchino Visconti 1943 - his first picture. This is a noir melodrama. It was a film adaptation of the famous novel by American James Cain "The Postman Rings Twice", starring Massimo Girotti and Clara Kalamai.

This work was very different from the so-called "ceremonial cinema" that prevailed at that time in Italy. Filmed by Visconti, a love story that develops against the backdrop of crime, betrayal and betrayal shocked viewers who are not used to seeing impoverished Italy in the cinema, inhabited by vagrants and prostitutes.

The second work in the filmography of Luchino Visconti is the drama "The Earth Trembles" with Antonio Arcidiacono in the title role. The film premiered at the Venice Film Festival. This is a story about fishermen who decide to start their own business so that dealers stop profiting from their work. Defeating the system alone is not at all easy. The film is amazinghigh poetic dignity combined with truthfulness and realism.

Starting to work as a film director, Visconti did not leave work in the theater. For example, at the La Scala theater he puts on the opera Vestal Virgin by Gaspard Spontini.

In the 50s, he shoots the drama "The Most Beautiful" with Anna Magnani about a mother who is ready to do anything to arrange her daughter as an actress for filming a movie. In 1954, the costume melodrama "Feeling" was released, the events in which take place in Verona and Venice during and after the end of the second battle of Custotsu during the Prussian-Italian war.

In 1957, Visconti filmed the story of the Russian writer Fyodor Dostoevsky "White Nights". The events of this work are transferred to Italy, and the main roles are played by Marcello Mastroianni and Maria Schell.

In 1960, he shows the modern city in the drama "Rocco and his brothers", filmed in the classic Italian neorealist style. In this picture, Visconti works with Alain Delon, Annie Girardot, Renato Salvatori. The hero of our article raises the topic of social adaptation, which was acute at that time, for immigrants from the south of Italy who come to large industrial cities. Also, using the example of the heroes of this tape, he demonstrates the life of ordinary Italians of that era.

At the same time, Visconti works in short films. He is filming the episode "Work" based on Guy de Maupassant's novel "On the Bed" for the project "Boccaccio-70", the novella "The Sorceress Burned Alive" for the project "The Sorceress".

Leopard

In 1962, one of the best films by Luchino Visconti was released. This is the drama "Leopard" based on the novel of the same name by Giuseppe Tomasi Di Lampedusa. The picture receives the Palme d'Or at the Cannes Film Festival.

The film tells about the decline experienced by the Sicilian aristocrats, who are replaced by cunning representatives of the bourgeoisie. The main roles in this tape are played by Burt Lancaster, Alain Delon, Claudia Cardinale.

The story focuses on the Salina princely family, who, like all other aristocrats, will have to decide how to relate to the fall of the Bourbons. The head of the family, Prince Don Fabrizio Salina, who bears the nickname "Leopard", swears allegiance to the Savoy dynasty. Soon he is forced to face the fact that the world of the aristocracy, to which he himself belongs, goes into oblivion, and clever businessmen come to replace it.

Death of the Gods

In 1965, Visconti demonstrates another version of the death of a family clan in the drama "Misty Stars of the Big Dipper". Starring Jean Sorel and Claudia Cardinale. The picture receives the main prize of the Venice Film Festival.

Two years later, the hero of our article will film the novel by Albert Camus "The Outsider" with Marcello Mastroianni and Anna Karina. The picture got into the main program of the Venice Film Festival, was nominated for the Golden Globe in the nomination "Best Foreign Language Film".

BIn 1969, another landmark picture of the director appeared on the screens - the historical drama "The Death of the Gods" with Dirk Bogarde, Ingrid Thulin and Helmut Berger. The film tells about a family of industrialists from Germany who find the rise of the Nazis to power, the focus of the director is the savagery of the tops of modern society.

In the same year he releases a cinematic collection consisting of five short stories, which, in addition to him, are filmed by Pasolini, Bolognini, de Sica, Rossi.

In many of his works, he demonstrates a brilliant knowledge of German culture. This can be seen in the drama "Death in Venice" with Dirk Bogarde and Bjorn Andersen. This is a film adaptation of the novel of the same name by Thomas Mann, which touches on the themes of same-sex love, life and death.

In 1973, he filmed the historical drama "Ludwig", which tells about the fate of King Ludwig II of Bavaria, who is obsessed with the work of the composer Wagner, builds fairy-tale castles, while himself in an atmosphere of oppressive loneliness. Visconti unexpectedly interprets his personality not as a madman, but as a monarch, born late, who feels himself within the framework of a constitutional monarchy.

Film critics called these works the "German trilogy" of Visconti. The hero of our article dreamed of a tetralogy, but his plans to film the Magic Mountain by Thomas Mann did not come true.

Recent works

From the latest works of Visconti psychological drama "Family portrait in the interior" with BertLancaster, Helmut Berger and Silvana Mangano. The action of the picture takes place in Rome.

The main character is an elderly American professor who collects paintings. Against his will, he rents an apartment to an annoying aristocrat.

Visconti's last film is the drama "Innocent", filmed in 1976.

Family

Personal life Luchino Visconti was constantly in sight of all his fans. He never made a secret of his unconventional sexual orientation.

At different times he had relationships with photographer Horst, actor Helmut Berger, director Franco Zeffirelli. During this short time, he remained engaged to the Austrian noblewoman Irma Windischgrätz.

Recent years

Visconti finished his job after breaking his hip. It turned out that he could not serve himself on his own, relatives and friends were constantly on duty in his apartment. The only consolation for him was music records and books.

Due to a severe cold, his condition worsened. The director died in 1976. He was 69 years old.