Episode 161 – Luchino Visconti’s Senso

Podcast: Download (Duration: 59:10 — 27.4MB)

This time on the podcast, Scott is joined by David Blakeslee and Trevor Berrett to discuss Luchino Visconti’s Senso.

About the film:

This lush, Technicolor tragic romance from Luchino Visconti stars Alida Valli as a nineteenth-century Italian countess who, during the Austrian occupation of her country, puts her marriage and political principles on the line by engaging in a torrid affair with a dashing Austrian lieutenant, played by Farley Granger. Gilded with ornate costumes and sets and a rich classical soundtrack, and featuring fearless performances, this operatic melodrama is an extraordinary evocation of reckless emotions and deranged lust, from one of the cinema’s great sensualists.

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Buy The Film On Amazon:

Watch Criterion’s Three Reasons Video:

Episode Links:

• Senso (1954) – The Criterion Collection
• Senso and Sensibility – The Criterion Collection
• Senso (1954) – IMDb
• Senso – Wikipedia, the free Encyclopedia
• Roger Ebert’s Great Movies Essay
• Visconti’s Senso and the Evolving Italian Cinema
• A Second Look: Luchino Visconti’s Senso – LA Times
• Movie Review – Senso – Luchino Visconti’s ‘Senso’ Arrives on Bleecker Street – NY Times

Episode Credits:

• Scott Nye (Twitter / Battleship Pretension)
• David Blakeslee (Twitter / Criterion Reflections)
• Trevor Berrett (Twitter / Mookse and Gripes)

Music from this episode is by Gino Paoli and Jonas Kaufman, the latter from Giuseppe Verdi’s opera Il Trovatore.