SENSO (1954)

This early Luchino Visconti movie is renowned for its beautiful Technicolor look, but the print shown on Turner Classic Movies was washed out, dirty, and in need of restoration. Host Robert Osborne did helpfully set up the historical context for the narrative, set in the 1860's. Austria has occupied Venice and tensions between the Austrian soldiers and the occupied citizens are brewing. Alida Valli is an Italian countess whose cousin is an agitator in an underground movement to get rid of the Austrians. During a political demonstration which breaks out at an opera house during a performance of Il Travatore, she falls for an Austrian soldier (Farley Granger). Even though he is the enemy, and she is married, she pursues him and they have a passionate affair. As the possibility of war increases, Valli gives Granger money so he can bribe his way out of the army, but he then uses some of the money to shack up with a whore. Valli finds out and, already on the verge of a nervous breakdown, snaps and betrays him to his commander. He is killed by firing squad and she wanders the streets, distraught. This material has potential, but for the first hour or so, it's sluggishly paced and drawn out, without really bringing the characters to life. In the last half, things get more interesting as Visconti goes into an almost operatic mode of melodrama and the pace picks up nicely. Granger is OK, although the fact that his Italian dialogue is dubbed by someone else is a little distracting. Valli is excellent as the woman who loses her stability in a lusty affair. Toward the end, when she
catches a dissipated Granger cheating on her, she is superb, and the whole thing was worth watching for that scene. I really wish they had been able to show a restored version, because I'm sure the original color print was lovely. [TCM]