Ossessione (1943)

Gino, a drifter, begins an affair with inn-owner Giovanna as they plan to get rid of her older husband.

Director:

Luchino Visconti

Writers:

Luchino Visconti (scenario & dialogue), Mario Alicata (scenario & dialogue)

Stars:

Clara Calamai, Massimo Girotti, Dhia Cristiani

1 win.

Cast

Complete credited cast:
Clara Calamai	...	Giovanna Bragana
Massimo Girotti	...	Gino Costa
Dhia Cristiani	...	Anita
Elio Marcuzzo	...	Lo spagnolo
Vittorio Duse	...	L'agente di polizia
Michele Riccardini	...	Don Remigio
Juan de Landa	...	Giuseppe Bragana (as Juan De Landa)

Storyline

Gino, a young and handsome tramp, stops in a small roadside inn run by Giovanna. She is unsatisfied with her older husband Bragana : she only married him for money. Gino and Giovanna fall in love. But Bragana is inhibiting for their passion, and Giovanna refuses to run away with Gino.

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Plot Keywords:

homoeroticism | homosexual | drifter | passion | money | 

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Genres:

Crime | Drama | Romance

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Certificate:

TV-14

Details

Country:

Italy

Language:

Italian

Release Date:

24 May 1949 (Uruguay)

Also Known As:

Obsesión

Filming Locations:

Ancona, Marche, Italy

Company Credits

Production Co:

Industrie Cinematografiche Italiane (ICI)

Technical Specs

Runtime:

140 min 104 min (cut) 118 min (cut) 112 min (cut) 134 min (International Media print)

Sound Mix:

Mono

Color:

Black and White

Aspect Ratio:

1.37 : 1

Did You Know?

Trivia

Included among the "1001 Movies You Must See Before You Die", edited by Steven Schneider.

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Connections

Referenced in Monty Python's Flying Circus: The Money Programme (1972)

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Soundtracks

È il sol dell'anima, la vita è amore
(uncredited)
from opera "Rigoletto"
Music by Giuseppe Verdi
Libretto by Francesco Maria Piave
Sung by an unidentified couple

User Reviews

A haunting tale of greed and desire.

This is a haunting, powerful Italian adaptation of James M. Cain's novel The Postman Always Rings Twice directed by the great Luchino Visconti. What is so interesting about the film is that in every way it transcends it's source material to become something bolder and more original (interestingly Camus also credits Cain's novel as the key inspiration for his landmark novel The Stranger). The film has a greater power and intensity than the novel because Visconti is able to create the filmic equivalent of Cain's narrative structure but offer a more complex exploration of gender. Cain's very American novel is also uncritically fascinated with the construction of whiteness (the lead character Cora is obsessively afraid she will be identified as a Mexican and embarrassed that she married a Greek immigrant), which is not relevant to the Italian rural context that Visconti is working in. This allows the class antagonisms to take center stage and dance among the embers of the passionate, doomed love affair of the two main characters. This film is a complex, suspenseful, rewarding experience.