Senso 1954

“Luchino Visconti’s 1954 film about the affair between an Italian countess (Alida Valli) with partisan sympathies and an Austrian officer from the occupying army (Farley Granger), set during Garibaldi’s war of independence in the 1860s, is one of the most extraordinary historical films ever made. Rarely have the dramas of history and romantic passion been so skillfully and compellingly intertwined. It also marks one of the medium’s most creative uses of color. Visconti and his cinematographers Aldo Graziati (who tragically died during the shoot) and Robert Krasker fashioned a palette that was both delicate and vivid, rich in its historical associations and its evocations of landscape painting of the period... With the advent of digital techniques the Cineteca di Bologna and L’Immagine Ritrovata have joined forces to restore this magnificent film to its original grandeur.” — Kent Jones

“With music by Verdi and Bruckner, a script written in part by Tennessee Williams and Paul Bowles, sumptuous period sets and costumes, and a central performance of blazing intensity, ‘Visconti’s masterpiece proceeds with all the majestic rhythm and the meticulous design of Grand Opera’ (Peter Cowie).” — Cinémathèque Ontario

Restored by StudioCanal, Centro Sperimentale di Cinematografia/Cineteca Nazionale and Cineteca di Bologna/L’Immagine Ritrovata with funding provided by GUCCI, The Film Foundation and Comitato Italia 150. Presented by The Film Foundation and GUCCI as part of Cinema Visionaries.