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The little Count
Luchino Visconti was born into a prominent noble family in Milan, one of seven children of Giuseppe Visconti di Modrone, Duke of Grazzano Visconti and Count of Lonate Pozzolo, and his wife Carla -
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The Count`s Childhood
In his early years, he was exposed to art, music and theatre: he studied cello with the Italian cellist and composer Lorenzo de Paolis (1890–1965) and met the composer Giacomo Puccini, the conductor Arturo Toscanini and the writer Gabriele D'Annunzio. -
The meeting with Renoir
In the late 1930s he went to Paris, where he became an assistant director Jean Renoir. -
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The Second World War
During the Second World War, Visconti became close to the Italian Communists, helped the Resistance, was arrested on suspicion of organizing an anti-fascist conspiracy. -
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Life in theatre
In the 1940s and 1950s, Visconti was primarily a theater director, setting mostly modern playwrights, including Jean Cocteau, Jean Anouille, Tennessee Williams and Arthur Miller; carried out several productions and on the operatic stage. “La Traviata” by G. Verdi, set up in collaboration with KM Giulini in 1954 at La Scala, with Maria Callas in the title party, not accepted by the Milan public at one time, has long been “legendary” -
First film
In 1943, using his own funds and the means of the Communist Party of Italy, he shot his first full-length film "Obsession" based on the novel by James M. Kane "The postman always calls twice." According to the director himself, in order to film this proto-noir, he sold the jewels he inherited from his mother. Sympathy for the Communist Party and the “Left-Wing”, Visconti retained until the end of life. -
La terra trema
The next full-length feature film - “The Earth Trembles” - was filmed in Sicily with the participation of non-professional actors and created a furor in Italy. He was supposed to be the first part of the working class trilogy. The trilogy has never been completed, but Visconti was recognized as one of the gurus of Italian neorealism. -
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Creating great movies
In the cinema, moving away from proletarian themes, Visconti, in his quest for a synthesis of romanticism and realism, alternated films with contemporary themes (Most Beautiful, 1951; Rocco and His Brothers, 1960; Foggy Stars of Ursa Major, 1965; Family portrait in the interior ”, 1974), with an epic re-creation of the world of the previous century (“ Feeling ”, 1954;“ White Nights ”after the story of F. M. Dostoevsky, 1957). -
le Leopard
Milestone in the works of Visconti is considered to be a large-scale adaptation of the novel by Prince Giuseppe Tomasi di Lampedusa "Leopard", for which he was awarded the Golden Palm Branch of the Cannes Film Festival in 1963 -
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The German trilogy
Among the most controversial works of Visconti are the films of the “German trilogy”, in which the director one of the first in the cinema openly raised the themes of same-sex love and incest: in 1969 “The Death of the Gods” appeared, in 1971 - “Death in Venice” according to a novel Thomas Mann, in 1972 - multiseries "Ludwig". It was assumed that the trilogy will grow into a tetralogy, the fourth part of which was to be the screen version of The Magic Mountain by Thomas Mann. -
The death of great director
Visconti died on March 17, 1976 in Rome from a severe cold. His latest film, The Innocent, is based on the novel Gabriele d’Annunzio.
