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", "Outsider", "Death in Venice", "Family Portrait in the Interior."
Childhood and youth
Luchino Visconti was born in Milan in 1906. His father was the Duke of Modrone, who was known in the district as a theater patron. The mother of the famous director, Karl Erba, came from a family who 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. Moreover, none of them was left to its own devices. Teachers of foreign languages, music and sports studied with them. In adolescence, the hero of our article learned to play the cello for several years.
Parents tried from an early age to invest in their children with the understanding that they would have to achieve everything in their life exclusively with 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 "Rules of the Game" and "Great Illusion". Recommendation Luchino Visconti received from the designer Coco Chanel. Renoir at that time was just shooting his picture "Country Walk", in the yard was 1936. It was this work that became the starting point in the career of director Lukino Visconti.
In the anti-fascist organization
True, soon after the release of the film on the screens, Visconti became interested in politics. He ended up in the ranks of the anti-fascist Resistance. At home, he harbored those who were persecuted by Italian fascists, provided all possible assistance to soldiers from the allied armies, helping them to escape from captivity from the Germans.
As a result, Luchino Visconti, whose biography is presented in this article, was arrested in Rome by Gestapo officers. Researchers of his life's path note that only thanks to his high origin he managed to avoid the death penalty.
In 1945, along with other cinemas, the hero of our article took part in the creation of a documentary film dedicated to the anti-fascist Resistance. It was called "Days of Glory."
By then, Visconti was well known as a theater director. From 1945 to 1947, he staged 11 dramatic productions on various stages throughout Italy.
Group at the Eliseo Theater
In 1946, Visconti was at the head of his own creative association, which is constantly gathering 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 last 12 years.
As Visconti himself emphasized, in his performances, glorifying him in the 40s, the public constantly had a feeling of something unusual and fundamentally new. The audience was struck by the unusual realism of the productions, the actors' play simply astounded their imagination.
Big screen debut
The melodrama "Obsession" by Luchino Visconti of 1943 is his first painting. This is a romance shot in noir style. It was a film adaptation of the famous novel by American James Kane, “The Postman Calls Twice,” in which starring Massimo Girotti and Clara Kalamai.
This work was very different from the so-called "ceremonial cinema" that reigned in Italy at that time. A love story shot by Visconti, developing against the backdrop of crime, betrayal and betrayal, shocked viewers who were not used to seeing the impoverished Italy populated by tramps and prostitutes.
The second work in the filmography of Lukino Visconti is the drama "The Earth is Trembling" with Antonio Archidiakono in the title role. The film premiered at the Venice Film Festival. This is a story about fishermen who decide to open their own business so that resellers cease to profit from their work. Defeating the system alone is not at all easy. The film is striking in its high poetic dignity, combined with truthfulness and realism.
Starting to work as a film director, Visconti did not leave his job in the theater. For example, at the La Scala Theater, he staged the opera Vestal by Gaspard Spontini.
In the 50s, he shot 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 costumed melodrama “Feeling” was released, the events in which are unfolding in Verona and Venice during and after the second battle of Kustotsu 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 moved to Italy, and starring Marcello Mastroiani and Maria Shell.
In 1960, he shows the modern city in the drama "Rocco and His Brothers," filmed in a classical manner for Italian neo-realists. In this picture, Visconti works with Alain Delon, Annie Girardeau, Renato Salvatori. The hero of our article raises the hot topic of the social adaptation of immigrants from southern Italy who come to large industrial cities. Also on the example of the heroes of this tape, he demonstrates the life of ordinary Italians of that era.
In parallel, Visconti works in short films. He shoots the episode "Work" on the novel by Guy de Maupassant "On Bed" for the project "Boccaccio-70", the novel "Sorceress, burnt alive" for the project "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 Tomazi Di Lampedusa. The painting receives the Golden Palm Branch of the Cannes Film Festival.
The film tells about the decline experienced by Sicilian aristocrats, which are replaced by cunning representatives of the bourgeois. The main roles in this tape are played by Bert Lancaster, Alain Delon, Claudia Cardinale.
At the center of the story is the princely family of Salin, who, like all other aristocrats, has 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 was forced to face the fact that the world of the aristocracy, to which he belongs himself, was going into oblivion, and he was replaced by clever businessmen.
"Death of gods"
In 1965, Visconti demonstrates another variant of the death of the family 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 is filming the novel “Alien” by Albert Camus with Marcello Mastroiani and Anna Karina. The picture fell into the main program of the Venice Film Festival, was nominated for the Golden Globe in the nomination "Best Film in a Foreign Language".
In 1969, another iconic picture of the director appeared on the screens - the historical drama "Death of the Gods" with Dirk Bogard, Ingrid Tulin and Helmut Berger. The film tells about a family of industrialists from Germany who find the Nazis coming to power, the director’s focus is the feral rush of the elite of modern society.
In the same year he released a cinematic collection, consisting of five short stories, which, in addition to him, were shot by Pazolini, Bolognini, de Sica, Rossi.
In many of his works, he demonstrates a brilliant knowledge of German culture. This can be judged by the drama "Death in Venice" with Dirk Bogard and Bjorn Andersen. This is a film adaptation of the novel by Thomas Mann of the same name, which touches on the themes of same-sex love, life and death.
In 1973, he shoots the historical drama "Ludwig", which tells about the fate of the King of Bavaria, Ludwig II, who is obsessed with the work of the composer Wagner, builds fabulous castles, while remaining in an atmosphere of oppressive loneliness. Visconti unexpectedly interprets his personality not as a madman, but as a monarch, a latecomer born, feeling 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 tetralogy, but his plans for the adaptation of The Magic Mountain by Thomas Mann were not destined to come true.
Last works
From the last works of Visconti, the psychological drama "Family Portrait in the Interior" with Bert Lancaster, Helmut Berger and Silvana Mangano. The action of the picture takes place in Rome.
The protagonist is an elderly American professor who collects paintings. Against his will, he rents an apartment to an annoying aristocrat.
Visconti's latest film is the drama Innocent, filmed in 1976.
A family
The personal life of Lukino Visconti was constantly in sight of all his fans. He never hid his gay sexual orientation.
At different times he had a relationship with photographer Horst, actor Helmut Berger, director Franco Zeffirelli. At this short time, he remained engaged to an Austrian noblewoman, Irma Vindishgrets.
Last years
Visconti finished his job after breaking his hip. It turned out that he could not independently serve himself, relatives and friends were constantly on duty in his apartment. The only rejoicing 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.