Senso

Deeply disturbing tragedy, the countess wears a veil of sorrow through...film in Italian Venice by the canal in the 50's appears nice

Senso has some wonderful production value, bright color, and a storyline that has more disillusionment than the vast majority of period romances. Valli's Countess Livia Serpieri is sexually and romantically unfulfilled, and throws herself without inhibition into the arms of Granger's Franz Maller, a young officer of a foreign military at war with her own, who woos her with honeyed words but ultimately only sees her as a source of wealth and influence. Their doomed affair is based on self-serving interests, neither is sympathetic, and each of them are quite animalistic and crude underneath their thin veneer of respectability. The film does well to present what is initially a rather conventional forbidden affair (the unbridled passion that stereotypically makes it into department store novels for bored housewives), and twisting it into something more macabre and dark, providing real (even exaggerated) consequence to their relationship (which ends up inadvertently resulting in the deaths of dozens of Italian soldiers). However, the development of the masochism associated with the pair (the feature that drives the plot and makes the film interesting) is actually pretty static - Maller's self-interest is evident from very early on, and many of the scenes between them feel padded for time. The visuals of the Italian countryside, period urban life, and warfare are all exceptionally engaging, though. (3.5/5)

High-class melodrama is not my favourite thing (and I think neither was Visconti's) but this is quite the captivating work with beautiful photography.

1001 movies to see before you die. Something different than I have ever seen. It made me nostalgic for Austria and Italy. It shows the benefits and risks of love. Saw on HBO.

It has some moments but Senso is ultimately devoid of likeability.

An extravagant, sexy and ruthless portrayal of the self-destruction of the upper class, a theme repeatedly explored in Luchino Visconti's latter films. The incompatibility of Nationalism might, however, be less echoic to contemporary audience provided that Visconti's sympathy towards Socialism makes his other films more humanistic than this one. But still, Visconti's first attempt to transit to melodrama is affectionate and colourful.

Opens 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 loverboy 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 trendsetter would inspire later kindred spirits, for instance Baz Luhrmann's 3D adaption of the bourgeoise sumptuosity THE GREAT GATSBY (2013, 8/10).

Beautifully, perfectly done, but it failed to engage me on a visceral level. I have a great deal of respect for this movie, bit I will never be able to love it.

A lush, visual masterpiece by Visconti, staring the Farley Granger in his prime!

Pretty good for a romance, despite being cliche (women with too much passion, men who are despicable, etc.). Still, when you start with a great scene in an opera house and continue to film the rest of the movie in a very thematic way, I can't help but compare it to some of the greats of the romantic genre like "Gone with the Wind" and "Doctor Zhivago".