Italian director Luchino Visconti dishes up his usual blend of elegance and decadence in Senso. The international cast includes French film star Alida Valli as a Italian countess married to a Venetian nobleman, and English leading man Farley Granger as an Austrian military officer. The two are swept up in the Austrian empire's evacuation of Italy in 1866. Valli and Granger fall in love, but Valli ultimately realizes that the officer is interested only in her wealth and prestige, whereupon she
gives him over to a firing squad. Visconti had wanted Ingrid Bergman and Marlon Brando for his leads, but when Bergman's husband Roberto Rossellini would not permit her to appear in the film, Brando also bowed out. Originally running 166 minutes, Senso was released in a radically cut version in the US in 1968, titled Summer Hurricane; yet another recut version popped up in England as The Wanton Contessa. ~ Hal Erickson, Rovi
It is an obvious, rudimentary operatic approach to amour and an illustration of history that is likely to be fuzzy to anyone but a student of Garibaldi's 1866 campaign in and around Venice and Verona.
A lush, melodramatic portrait of seduction and betrayal, decadence and deceit in the midst of Italy's resistance to Austrian occupation in the mid-19th century.
Senso isn't the subtlest picture and its writing is frequently cringe-worthy. But as a work of pure film artistry it's wonderful, especially in its less motivated sequences.
... this lush, lavish melodrama of a self-destructive love affair set against the idealistic passions of the Risorgimento is the very definition of cinematic.
Looks beautiful in sumptuous Technicolor, but I found the story to be deathly dull. I could barely finish it. This tale of war, betrayal, and forbidden love might be fine for some, but it's not for me.
1866 Venice. The Italians are organized to reclaim the province from the Austrian empire. Such is the backdrop for this melodrama. The strength of this film is not in the 'love affair' plot, but in Visconti's operatic direction and unsurpassed ability to recreate history. The undertone is decidedly bittersweet
because a way of life, with its beauty, elegance and decadence, is absorbed by history with the birth of a new nation. I am annoyed to find, once again, that the U.S. audience is viewing an edited version; most films play better when released in accordance to the artist's vision.
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