Sandra (1965)

Sandra returns to her childhood village to take care of family business, but her childhood memories and secrets soon overcome her.

Director:

Luchino Visconti

Writers:

Suso Cecchi D'Amico (story and screenplay), Enrico Medioli (story and screenplay)

Stars:

Claudia Cardinale, Jean Sorel, Michael Craig

3 wins & 2 nominations.

Cast

Complete credited cast:
Claudia Cardinale	...	Sandra Dawdson
Jean Sorel	...	Gianni Wald-Luzzati
Michael Craig	...	Andrew Dawdson
Renzo Ricci	...	Antonio Gilardini
Fred Williams	...	Pietro Formari
Amalia Troiani	...	Fosca, la domestica
Marie Bell	...	Corinna Gilardini, madre di Sandra e Gianni
Vittorio Manfrino
Giovanni Rovini
Renato Moretti
Paola Piscini
Isacco Politi

Storyline

Sandra comes back to Volterra, in Tuscany, the little town where she spent her childhood. She is with her American husband, Andrew. She wishes to pay homage to her father who died in Auschwitz where she was still a little child. In Volterra, Andrew meets for the first time Gianni, Sandra's brother. He soon realizes that Sandra and Gianni have a secret since their childhood.

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Plot Keywords:

scientist | concentration camp | auschwitz | deportation | stepfather | 

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Taglines:

SANDA has a husband - SANDRA has a brother - SANDRA loves one of them much too much. (original USA poster)

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Genres:

Drama | Mystery | War

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Details

Country:

Italy France

Language:

Italian Hebrew French English

Release Date:

16 January 1966 (USA)

Also Known As:

Sandra of a Thousand Delights

Filming Locations:

Geneva, Canton de Genève, Switzerland

Company Credits

Production Co:

Vides Cinematografica

Technical Specs

Runtime:

105 min

Sound Mix:

Mono

Color:

Black and White

Aspect Ratio:

1.66 : 1

Did You Know?

Trivia

One of the first films in which Claudia Cardinale (who was born In Tunisia and whose first language was French) dubbed herself in Italian.

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Quotes

Corinna Gilardini, madre di Sandra e Gianni: Two monsters, monsters, my children. Yes, my children. He was always hiding there behind the door. What am I to say? Are my children monsters? My enemies?

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Connections

Referenced in Luchino Visconti (1999)

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Soundtracks

Let's Go
Written by Cassano and Lo Re

User Reviews

The decay of an aristocratic family

Luchino Visconti often dealt with the disintegration of family in his films; The Damed, The Leopard, Conversation Piece.. The stories were tragedies and only in Bellissima (1951) the family sticked together in the end. Sandra (Vaghe stelle dell'Orsa...) is also a film about this, but specifically about an aristocratic family full of betrayal, decay and immorality.

Incest is a leading theme in Sandra; we are given clues about it throughout the film, but not a definite proof. The affair of the siblings remains in the shadows and there's something odd in the relationships between the children and the parents. Visconti first approaches this controversial theme calmly, showing it as a small thing - we are not told much about it. But then he increases it to enormous dimensions.

Luchino Visconti sets this story to a dying city around a aristocratic class that is dying out. Great tragedies, misfortunes and decay lead this class to extinction. Already in Senso Visconti achieved an aesthetic revolution, but he continues this in Sandra with a political and ethic revolution. Sandra is not the easiest film by Visconti and many people in the theater seemed to neglect it. In the beginning I found it a little unreachable and absurd but it grew up to be a beautiful allegorical description of the decay of an aristocratic family.