Luchino Visconti

WHY SHOULD WE CARE?
More lavishly, passionately and truthfully than any other director, Visconti succeeded in portraying the lives of the decadent and increasingly irrelevant Italian aristocracy; an era now lost, not just to Italy, but to the world.

WHEN WAS HE WORKING?
Obsession (Ossessione) marked his cinematic debut in 1942, the first ever adaptation of the American novel, The Postman Always Rings Twice. Visconti bowed out with The Innocent (L'Innocente) in 1976, completing the editing having suffered a stroke.

WHO DID HE WORK WITH?
Visconti began his career as an unpaid assistant for French master Jean Renoir on Partie de la Campagne. In the 70s, Visconti was in the premiere league of European directors and consequently attracted the same calibre of European stars: Alain Delon, Dirk Bogarde, Claudia Cardinale, Annie Girardot, Charlotte Rampling and, for The Leopard, Burt Lancaster.
Visconti was an equally successful opera director, renowned for bringing a drama and psychological realism to what was becoming a tired medium. Diva Maria Callas credits him with giving her the praise and encouragement to be herself on stage.

WHO DID HE SLEEP WITH?
Visconti took on a handsome, hard working assistant who, not only became production manager on his early films and operas, but also moved in with him for five years. He later became a great director in his own right - Franco Zeffirelli. Visconti later met ski instructor Helmut Berger, twenty or so years his junior, and employed him as a butler. They became lovers and the urbane director spent years grooming the Austrian in table manners, etiquette and even acting. Berger went on to star three of the Count's later films: The Damned, Ludwig and Conversation Piece.