Italian postcard by Rotocalco Dagnino, Torino. Photo: Lux Film.
Alida Valli as countess Livia Serpieri and
Farley Granger as Lt. Franz Mahler in Luchino Visconti's historical film
Senso (1954).
This scene was shot at the 16th century Villa Godi-Malinverni at Lonedo, Lugo di Vicenza - Andrea Palladio's oldest villa, once called Villa Valmarana. The costumes are by Marcel Escoffier and Piero Tosi. Senso was one of the earliest colour features in Italian film production and is a masterpiece of colour cinema. Loosely based on a story by Camillo Boito, it focuses on the forbidden love affair between a Venetian countess and a member of the Austrian occupying army, set against the Italian resistance against the Austrians starting with a riot at the Venice opera house La Fenice and ending in a battle near Custoza lost by the Italians. Blinded by love, the once so proud and patriotic woman gives away her emotions, honour, marriage and the money of the free fighters to the opportunistic young officer. The political message of the film was considered so dangerous, that the film was refused any award at the 1954 Venice Film Festival, on the instigation of the government (see e.g. Anton Giulio Mancino's study Il processo della verità). Instead, Renato Castellani's Romeo and Juliet won, considered a 'safe', apolitical film. Still, Venice 1954 was a highly interesting film festival, with Silver Lions for Fellini's La Strada, Kazan's On the Waterfront, The Seven Samurai by Kurosawa and Sansho the Bailiff by Mizoguchi. This Summer, the Bologna film festival Cinema Ritrovato shows a Renato Castellani retrospective: the occasion to test whether after half a century his Romeo and Juliet stands up against Senso.
Strikingly beautiful actress
Alida Valli (1921-2006) was Italy’s Sweetheart of the early 1940s. She fascinated audiences not only with her flawless porcelain face, her dark, voluptuous hair and her green, expressive eyes but also with her ability to simultaneously hide and reveal a character's thoughts and emotions. In a career that spanned seven decades, she appeared in more than 110 films including such classics as
The Third Man and
Senso.
American actor
Farley Granger (1925-2011), whose career spans several decades, is perhaps best known for his two collaborations with Alfred Hitchcock,
Rope (1948) and
Strangers on a Train (1951), but also for his
homme fatal role as the seductive and opportunist lieutenant Franz Mahler in Luchino Visconti's classic historical drama
Senso (1954), opposite Alida Valli as countess Livia Serpieri.
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