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Marxism and Formalism in the Films of Luchino Visconti

1971; University of Texas Press; Volume: 11; Issue: 1 Linguagem: Inglês

10.2307/1225346

1527-2087

Walter F. Korte,

Italian Literature and Culture

The films of Luchino Visconti represent a study in polarities. The source of these polarities, and of the concomitant dialectical tension in the works, lies deep in the personal sensibilities of their creator. From Ossessione through Death in Venice, the pull between Visconti the Marxist and Visconti the aristocrat largely has determined the aesthetic cast of the films: the progressive element vying with the nostalgic, the formal-operatic element with the neorealist-naturalist. And it must be emphasized in discussing the genesis of any one of these films that Visconti's approach represents in each case a progression from a Marxist-progressive intent which is tempered by formalism before becoming a nostalgia firmly rooted in his aristocratic past. There is, then, a contradiction in Visconti's work: he deals with pressing contemporary social problems and recreates historical problems in order to analyze them in terms of the Marxist canon, but he treats them in a manner which is fundamentally baroque in its emphasis on scenography, a direct extension of his parallel career in theatre, lyric and legitimate. Part of the problem here is the whole matter of tradition. Visconti is one of the few directors who consciously develops his work from tradition. Where a Fellini or Antonioni sees or attempts to see from an angle apart from tradition, albeit a personal angle, Visconti is constantly immersed in traditions and is himself a part of them. The traditional approach extends to matters of cinematic form. Godard plays with the medium and many would argue that the inventive rhythms of his blocks of shadow and sound have created a new cinema. Visconti, on the other hand, does nothing really new in the formal use of film, with the exception of his use of color. In Visconti's work one is struck by the primacy of formalism. In the majority of his films, the populist-progressive intent of the film-maker at the time of conception has been tempered and shaped, in the implementation, by the grand mise-en-scene of operaticism and the scenographic baroque. This even takes the form of changes in key characters from first scenario to final film: Antonio in La Terra Trema, Ciro in Rocco and His Brothers, Ussoni in Senso, Salina in The Leopard. In each case, the character is drained of much of the progressive function, becoming more an accompaniment to the mise-en-scine, rather than a determinant of it.