Visconti was born in 1906 into a family that embodied both Italy’s past and its future: aristocratic tradition on his father’s side, entrepreneurial culture on his mother’s. This is probably the key to understanding his work as an artist, capable of bringing the performative tradition of the nineteenth century into cinema—the art form of the twentieth. A revolutionary director of both spoken theatre and opera, he helped shape a legendary generation of costume designers, set designers, and screenwriters, as well as a remarkable group of actors and actresses who found, with him, the defining roles of their careers on stage and screen: from Delon to Callas, from Valli to Lancaster, from Cardinale to Gassman, from Magnani to Mastroianni.

Today we regard his filmography as classic, yet we often forget the experimental and exploratory dimension that ran throughout his entire career. His astonishing first feature, Ossessione (1943), was cut and condemned by the Fascist regime; many of his subsequent films became the object of historic battles with censorship. The fiftieth anniversary of his death offers an opportunity to rediscover—also through new and precious restorations—his masterly ability to stage the past, to forge new relationships between music and image, and to speak, still and forcefully, to the present.

Curated by Caterina d’Amico.

Photo: Luchino Visconti on the set of Bellissima (1951) © Paul Ronald