Senso (The Wanton Countess) (1954)

86% of critics liked it
(14 reviews)
77% of users liked it
(758 ratings)

Italian director Luchino Visconti dishes up his usual blend of elegance and decadence in Senso. The international cast includes French film star Alida Valli as a Italian countess married to a Venetian nobleman, and English leading man Farley Granger as an Austrian military officer. The two are swept… More Italian director Luchino Visconti dishes up his usual blend of elegance and decadence in Senso. The international cast includes French film star Alida Valli as a Italian countess married to a Venetian nobleman, and English leading man Farley Granger as an Austrian military officer. The two are swept up in the Austrian empire's evacuation of Italy in 1866. Valli and Granger fall in love, but Valli ultimately realizes that the officer is interested only in her wealth and prestige, whereupon she gives him over to a firing squad. Visconti had wanted Ingrid Bergman and Marlon Brando for his leads, but when Bergman's husband Roberto Rossellini would not permit her to appear in the film, Brando also bowed out. Originally running 166 minutes, Senso was released in a radically cut version in the US in 1968, titled Summer Hurricane; yet another recut version popped up in England as The Wanton Contessa. ~ Hal Erickson, Rovi

Rating, Runtime: Unrated, 2 hr. 5 min.
Directed By: Luchino Visconti
Written By: Luchino Visconti
Genres: Drama, Romance, Art House & International

In Theaters: Jan 1, 1954 Wide
On DVD: Apr 11, 2011

Critic Reviews

A.H. Weiler, New York Times
It is an obvious, rudimentary operatic approach to amour and an illustration of history that is likely to be fuzzy to anyone but a student of Garibaldi's 1866 campaign in and around Venice and Verona.
Dave Kehr, Chicago Reader
A lush, melodramatic portrait of seduction and betrayal, decadence and deceit in the midst of Italy's resistance to Austrian occupation in the mid-19th century.
Michael E. Grost, Classic Film and Television
Lavishly styled historical drama, which opens with one of the most electrifying protest scenes in film history.
Sean Axmaker, Turner Classic Movies Online
A masterpiece of Visconti's career and a magnificent Technicolor production...
James Kendrick, Q Network Film Desk
a Technicolored visual feast in the grandest tradition of historical-epic melodrama
Jeffrey M. Anderson, Combustible Celluloid
The culmination of Visconti's work, the perfect collision of style, themes and look, and perhaps his greatest film.
Sean Gandert, Paste Magazine
Senso isn't the subtlest picture and its writing is frequently cringe-worthy. But as a work of pure film artistry it's wonderful, especially in its less motivated sequences.
Christopher Long, Movie Metropolis
As a chronicle of doomed love, the story gains quite a bit of steam as it bulldozes towards its tragic ending.
Sean Axmaker, Parallax View
... this lush, lavish melodrama of a self-destructive love affair set against the idealistic passions of the Risorgimento is the very definition of cinematic.
Phil Hall, Film Threat
For any student of cinematography, costume design or art direction, Senso is an invaluable source of inspiration.
Bill Weber, Slant Magazine
A near-definitive, personal work of cunning artifice, buffed to a digital sheen and supplemented with persuasive views of its iconoclastic creator.
Tim Brayton, Antagony & Ecstasy
Triumphs on the strength of [Alida Valli's] presence..you'd have to go very far to find a more luscious movie.
Dennis Schwartz, Ozus' World Movie Reviews
Translates as sumptuous, hollow, overlong and dull.
, TV Guide's Movie Guide
Visconti counterposes romance and rebellion in this historical tale of love and betrayal.

Read all 14 critic reviews

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Featured Audience Ratings

Lewis C

Looks beautiful in sumptuous Technicolor, but I found the story to be deathly dull. I could barely finish it. This tale of war, betrayal, and forbidden love might be fine for some, but it's not for me.
Stefanie C

1866 Venice. The Italians are organized to reclaim the province from the Austrian empire. Such is the backdrop for this melodrama. The strength of this film is not in the 'love affair' plot, but in Visconti's operatic direction and unsurpassed ability to recreate… More
1866 Venice. The Italians are organized to reclaim the province from the Austrian empire. Such is the backdrop for this melodrama. The strength of this film is not in the 'love affair' plot, but in Visconti's operatic direction and unsurpassed ability to recreate history. The undertone is decidedly bittersweet because a way of life, with its beauty, elegance and decadence, is absorbed by history with the birth of a new nation. I am annoyed to find, once again, that the U.S. audience is viewing an edited version; most films play better when released in accordance to the artist's vision.
Eric B

If you scanned a plot summary beforehand, you probably could enjoy "Senso" just as much without subtitles. The story is simple, the dialogue is merely functional and visual imagery is easily the film's chief lure. Ever a lover of period pageantry, director Luchino… More
If you scanned a plot summary beforehand, you probably could enjoy "Senso" just as much without subtitles. The story is simple, the dialogue is merely functional and visual imagery is easily the film's chief lure. Ever a lover of period pageantry, director Luchino Visconti takes us back to Venice in 1866. Italy is on the verge of liberating itself from Austrian rule, but this doesn't really matter. For movie purposes, all we need to know is that married countess Livia (Alida Valli) and Austrian officer Franz (Farley Granger, dubbed in Italian) are irresistibly drawn to each other, despite their opposing social class and political background. Except Franz isn't all that he pretends to be, and Livia is a fool. Livia also wishes to help a rebel cousin (Massimo Girotti) who has been banished by the Austrian regime, but his subplot -- apparently not found in the original novella -- is poorly resolved. Neither of the romantic leads are appealing: Valli has a hard face and a melodramatic acting style, while Granger is effete and weaselly. He also wears hoisted-up military pants that give him such an atomic wedgie that I tittered whenever his back was to the camera. "Senso" opens with a striking sequence at an opera performance (Verdi's "Il Trovatore"), but the remaining music (borrowed from Anton Bruckner) is rather mushy. What the film does have is exquisite costumes, locations and colors. Picture rotting stone and verdigris-stained copper -- the film sticks closely to this spectrum, creating a rustic climate of faded splendor. Spacious, deep-focus shots are everywhere, and every inch of the frame is carefully decorated and choreographed. The battle scenes are well-staged, and include some memorable use of haystacks. However, there's no getting past the lovers' charmlessness. With "The Leopard," Visconti was more successful in finding an interesting cast and story to fit his baroque flourishes.
Dimitris S

Passive as time goes by drama.Visconti excels his pace and fragmentary love affairs by lustfully projecting us the disaffection of passion throughout the course of harrowing events.Could be seen as a major precursor to Taviani's Allonsanfan,still maintaining a hidden strength in… More
Passive as time goes by drama.Visconti excels his pace and fragmentary love affairs by lustfully projecting us the disaffection of passion throughout the course of harrowing events.Could be seen as a major precursor to Taviani's Allonsanfan,still maintaining a hidden strength in operatic detail to this very millennium.