Senso (1954)

Director:

Luchino Visconti

Writers:

Luchino Visconti (story) and
Suso Cecchi D'Amico (story) ...
(more)

Release Date:

8 July 1968 (USA)

Genre:

Drama | History | Romance | War

Plot:

A troubled and neurotic Italian Countess betrays her entire country for a self-destructive love affair with an Austrian Lieutenant.

Plot Keywords:

Love | Betrayal | Affair | Italy | Opera

Awards:

2 wins & 1 nomination

Cast

Alida Valli	...	La contessa Livia Serpieri
Farley Granger	...	Il tenente Franz Mahler
Heinz Moog	...	Il conte Serpieri
Rina Morelli	...	Laura, la governante
Christian Marquand	...	Un ufficiale boemo
Sergio Fantoni	...	Luca
Tino Bianchi	...	Il capitano Meucci
Ernst Nadherny	...	Il comandante della piazza di Verona
Tonio Selwart	...	Il colonello Kleist
Marcella Mariani	...	Clara, la prostituta
Massimo Girotti	...	Il marchese Roberto Ussoni
rest of cast listed alphabetically:
Franco Arcalli	...	Un soldato (uncredited)
Aldo Bajocchi	...	Un soldato (uncredited)
Ottone Candiani	...	Un soldato (uncredited)
Nando Cicero	...	Un soldato (uncredited)
Claudio Coppetti	...	Un soldato (uncredited)
Cristoforo De Hartungen	...	Il generale Hauptmann (uncredited)
Tony Di Mitri	...	Un soldato (uncredited)
Eugenio Incisivo	...	Un soldato (uncredited)
Marianne Leibl	...	La moglie del generale Hauptmann (uncredited)
Jean-Pierre Mocky	...	Un soldato (uncredited)
Spartaco Nale	...	Un soldato (uncredited)
Ivy Nicholson	...	Una patriota (uncredited)
Mimmo Palmara	...	Un soldato (uncredited)
Winni Riva	...	La cameriera (uncredited)
Goliarda Sapienza	...	Una patriota al teatro (uncredited)
Renato Terra	...	Un soldato (uncredited)
Gustl Untersulzner	...	Un soldato (uncredited)
Mario Valente	...	Un soldato (uncredited)

Directed by
Luchino Visconti

Writing credits
Luchino Visconti		(story) and
Suso Cecchi D'Amico		(story)
Camillo Boito		(novella)
Suso Cecchi D'Amico		(screenplay) and
Luchino Visconti		(screenplay)
Carlo Alianello		(collaboration) and
Giorgio Bassani		(collaboration) and
Giorgio Prosperi		(collaboration)
Tennessee Williams		(dialogue collaborator) and
Paul Bowles		(dialogue collaborator)

Cinematography by
G.R. Aldo
Robert Krasker

Film Editing by
Mario Serandrei

Production Design by
Ottavio Scotti

Set Decoration by
Gino Brosio

Costume Design by
Marcel Escoffier
Piero Tosi

Makeup Department
Alberto De Rossi	....	makeup artist (uncredited)

Production Management
Domenico Forges Davanzati	....	production manager
Marcello Giannini	....	production supervisor
Gabriele Silvestri	....	production supervisor

Second Unit Director or Assistant Director
Francesco Rosi	....	assistant director
Aldo Trionfo	....	associate director
Giancarlo Zagni	....	associate director
Franco Zeffirelli	....	assistant director
Jean-Pierre Mocky	....	second assistant director (uncredited)

Sound Department
Aldo Calpini	....	sound
Vittorio Trentino	....	sound

Camera and Electrical Department
Nino Cristiani	....	assistant camera (as Michele Crisitiani)
Giuseppe Rotunno	....	camera operator
Francesco Izzarelli	....	camera operator (uncredited)

Editorial Department
Neil Binney	....	color technician: Technicolor
John Craig	....	color technician: Technicolor
Giandomenico Zeppa	....	final colorist: digital restoration (uncredited)

Other crew
Mary Alcaide	....	direction secretary
Gina Guglielmotti	....	production assistant
Roberto Palaggi	....	production secretary
Jean Renoir	....	supervisor: French dubbed version

Production Companies

• Lux Film (as Lux)

Distributors

• Lux Film (1954) (Italy) (theatrical) (as un film lux)
• Rey Soria y Cía. S.L. (1955) (Spain) (theatrical)
• Standaard Films (1955) (Netherlands) (theatrical)
• Les Acacias (1956) (France) (theatrical)
• Pathé Consortium Cinéma (1956) (Belgium) (theatrical)
• Fleetwood Films Incorporated (1968) (USA) (theatrical)
• Kinokuniya (2003) (Japan) (DVD) (box set)
• Versátil Home Vídeo (2004) (Brazil) (DVD)
• Dolmen Home Video (2007) (Italy) (DVD) (restored)
• Arthaus Filmverleih (2008) (Germany) (DVD)
• Homescreen (2009) (Netherlands) (DVD)
• StudioCanal (2009) (France) (DVD) (remastered)
• Criterion Collection, The (2011) (USA) (DVD) (Blu-Ray)
• Videocast (????) (Brazil) (VHS)

Other Companies

• Ditta Maggi  wigs (as Maggi di Roma)
• Olga Asta & C. di Venezia  underwear
• Orchestra Della Radio Televisione Italiana  music
• S.A.F.A.S.  costumes
• Scalera di Venezia  extras casting
• Suono Lux Film  post-production sound services
• Titanus  extras casting (as Titanus di Roma)
• Werther e Mofri  costumes
• Western Electric  post-production

Also Known As:

"Livia" - USA (censored version)
"The Wanton Contessa" - USA (TV title)

Runtime:

Italy:118 min | USA:93 min (edited/dubbed) | Italy:123 min (director's cut)

Country:

Italy

Language:

Italian | German

Color:

Color (Technicolor)

Aspect Ratio:

1.66 : 1

Sound Mix:

Mono (Western Electric Sound System)

Certification:

Finland:K-12 | Sweden:15 | West Germany:18 | UK:A (cut) | UK:PG (video rating) (1999) | Portugal:M/12 (Qualidade) | USA:Not Rated

Filming Locations:

Borghetto, Valeggio sul Mincio, Verona, Veneto, Italy

Company:

Lux Film

Trivia:

Jean Renoir supervised the French dubbed version, which restored some scenes cut by the Italian government.

Movie Connections:

Referenced in Christmas Eve '45 (2011)

Soundtrack:

Sinfonia N. 7 in mi maggiore (7th Symphony)

Love and treason

But not a love treason. Treason of ideals, treason of your country and treason of the military duty. It's 1866 in northern Italy occupied by the Austrian armed forces. The Italian patriots fight to free their country and unite Italy, supported by French and Prusssian armies. Countess Serpieri (Alida Valli), a Venetian aristocrat married to an older man, falls suddenly deeply in love with an Austrian army officer, Franz Mahler (Farley Granger) who is however nothing more than a philanderer, a crook and a coward who ends up by deserting his army based on a fake and obtained through bribery medical report stating that he is physically unfit for the army. A large sum of money was given to him for that purpose by the Countess. But she had been trusted with that money by the revolutionaries and it was to be used for their cause. When she realizes that he is nothing else than an unscrupulous scoundrel it's already too late and the story ends up tragically. The director Luchino Visconti is above all an aesthetician and this movie has got wonderful images and sceneries both in exteriors and interiors. The critics have already classified his movies as opera cinema. Although he is himself descended from an aristocratic Lombard family, his ideology is much closer to Marxism and in this movie, like in his other beautiful movie, "Il Gattopardo", he depicts the moral and social decadence of the till then dominating aristocracy and the rising to power of another class, the bourgeoisie, like it occurred with most revolutions in Europe during 19th century. So as an aristocrat, Visconti is an aesthetician and that's why his movies are always rich and beautiful in visual terms. But terms of ideology and of his movies message he is closer to Marxism. The only flaw of this movie in my opinion is the performance of Farley Granger a wrong choice for the role of Franz Mahler. He is much inadequate to the character of an elegant, seductive, unscrupulous and libertine officer. In fact he is not very talented and anyway goes better in an American detective movie than in the atmosphere of the Italian Risorgimento. He looks very unrefined for that. On the contrary the beautiful Alida Valli is brilliant as Countess Serpieri. If it weren't for that flaw I'd have rated this movie with an 8 instead of a 7.