In 1954, Italian director Luchino Visconti made film history with Senso, the story of a married countess who betrays her country for the love of an Austrian deserter during Italy's revolt against Austria in the 1860s. In addition to being Italy's first color film -- and with Visconti directing the color couldn't be anything less than dazzling -- Senso marked his transition from stark realistic films like his earlier Ossessione (1943) and La Terra Trema (1948) to a more operatic treatment of history. Unfortunately, like so many of his films, Senso was far ahead of its time, taking years to find acceptance in Visconti's native Italy and to reach the U.S. in its original version.

The production was inspired by producer Riccardo Gualino, who had financed some of Visconti's stage work and urged him to bring his artistic vision to the making of an historical epic. Screenwriter Suso Cecchi d'Amico, who began working for Visconti in 1945 as a translator of American plays, suggested Camillo Boito's story about the failure of the Italian Risorgimento against Austrian occupation. Together they spent a year researching the period and getting every detail in the story exactly as Visconti wanted it. At the time, d'Amico was the most respected screenwriter in Italy, having worked on such pioneering films as Open City (1946) and The Bicycle Thief (1948).

That didn't stop Gualino from demanding two re-writes from other writers, not to mention an American version by Tennessee Williams and Paul Bowles that was shot concurrently with the Italian film. Gualino also vetoed Visconti's original choices for the film's leads, Marlon Brando and Ingrid Bergman, even though the two had already agreed to appear in the picture. Instead he chose Farley Granger, best known as Alfred Hitchcock's leading man in Rope (1948) and Strangers on a Train (1951), and Alida Valli, whose career had taken off when she played the girlfriend of Harry Lime (Orson Welles) in The Third Man (1949). Despite his disappointment in the casting, Visconti worked tirelessly with his stars, directing both to the best performances in their careers, despite the fact that he and Granger could only speak through an interpreter.

But that wasn't the end of Gualino's meddling. He cut battle scenes before Visconti could shoot them and demanded a new ending. Despite the interference, however, Visconti kept trying to get the production right. He shot so slowly -- sometimes only getting two set-ups a day -- that the production ran six months behind schedule. Although most biographers would credit the painstaking shoot to Visconti's professionalism, star Valli suggested that he was doing it to get back at her. During filming she was involved in an affair with one of his production assistants and always felt that the director, whose homosexuality was well-known, wanted the man for himself.

Visconti was not happy with the finished product, claiming that the film, as re-written under Gualino's orders, made no sense to him or the audience. One thing the audience did understand, however, was that the romantic leading lady had taken money intended for the resistance and given it to her Austrian lover. This triggered a furor in Italy, where the Risorgimento had never been treated so cynically before. Only the country's left-wing critics, who praised its realistic depiction of a love affair based primarily on sexual attraction, found kind words for the film.

Senso was released in the U.S. in a heavily cut English-language version called The Wanton Contessa and did very poorly at the box office. That version was the only one available in this country until 1968, when the Italian original finally premiered in the U.S. Coming after such acclaimed Visconti films as Rocco and His Brothers (1960) and Sandra (1965), the restored film won raves. Critics praised Visconti's sweeping approach to history, his effective use of classical music (including a performance of Verdi's Il Trovatore sung by the legendary Maria Callas) and his deft handling of the actors. Despite the problems on its initial release, Senso now holds a place as one of Visconti's and Italy's greatest films.

Producer: Domenico Forges Davanzati
Director: Luchino Visconti
Screenplay: Visconti, Suso Cecchi D'Amico, Giorgio Prosperi, Carlo Alianello, Giorgio Bassani American Version: Tennessee Williams, Paul Bowles
Based on the Short Story "Senso, Scartafaccio Segreto della Contessa Livia" by Camillo Boito
Cinematography: G.R. Aldo, Robert Krasker, Giuseppe Rotunno
Art Direction: Ottavio Scotti, Gino Brosio
Music: Anton Bruckner, Giuseppe Verdi
Principal Cast: Alida Valli (Contessa Livia Serpieri), Farley Granger (Lt. Franz Mahler), Massimo Girotti (Marquis Roberto Ussoni), Heinz Moog (Count Serpieri), Rina Morelli (Laura), Marcella Mariani (Prostitute), Christian Marquand (Bohemian Officer).
C-118m.

by Frank Miller