SLIFF 2010 Review: SENSO

Review by Dane Marti

Having seen Visconti’s THE LEOPARD, I certainly was not expecting a lot of kinetic action from SENSO (1954). Going in, I did realize that it would undoubtedly be beautifully filmed, a motion picture of poetic images. However, I was pleasantly surprised. Although this is a film made years ago – a completely different age in which movies ordinarily told a story at a slower pace – a smart viewer, with a little patience, would definitely enjoy watching this dramatic story enfold. With a new, restored print from the Film Foundation, its epic beauty should entrance film-goers everywhere. Okay, it is slow and there are no characters dodging the obligatory fireballs. The film proceeds with the relaxed tranquility of an elephant on Quaaludes. Still, within this slow buildup, the film entraps the viewer in the passion and immorality of an Italian Countess doing something ‘shocking’, at least shocking during the historic period that the film takes place in War and the Austrian retreat from Italy in 1866. Setting the story within this dramatic era is a perfect way to highlight the film’s tragic and often melodramatic elements: it’s a cinematic morality tale. The film reminds one of GONE WITH THE WIND but unlike that masterpiece, with all of its wonderful Technicolor bluster, SENSO hits a perfect balance between reality and melodrama. The War scenes, as Austria retreats over the Italian countryside, are beautifully wrought; the environment of Venice in 1866 has potent realism.

As the film begins, Alida Valli (the haunted, beautiful woman in The Third Man) plays an Italian Countess who is married to an overbearing, buffoonish older man. She’s miserable and the actress’s portrayal is spot-on: she drips dignity while still oozing romantic notions of life, desiring the life she feels entitled to, the one, she imagines, destiny has promised her. She meets a young Lieutenant played with casual insouciance by Farley Granger, who acts dignified, narcissistic and yet playful. Within his blank, smiling face, a viewer can tell that he knows that he’s good looking, but also understands that his youthful handsomeness is simply skin-deep. The war, or his notion of what life is all about, has made him cynical. An objective film viewer is perhaps able to see sides of his personality that Valli doesn’t allow herself to see due to her own illusions. Granger is the best reason to see this movie.

There are many interesting qualities in Senso and among the best is a performance that seems unique to me: the neurotic acting by Farley Granger (Hitchcock’s STRANGERS ON A TRAIN) is excellent and multi-faceted. At first he seemed to hardly be acting, and I was about to write him off as a typical Hollywood pretty-boy, but by the climax of this film, he seemed to have been channeling Monty Cliff via Raintree County. I had no idea that he was fluent in speaking the Italian language. He also benefited greatly from the brilliant direction of Visconti. The production design is never ostentatious or over-the-top, the direction is clever and simple – completely in keeping with the theme of the story. Another highlight is the cinematography. It should definitely be viewed on the big screen. There were moments that had the grimy, period look of Goya’s war paintings. Outside of Granger’s acting, what impressed me the most was how realistic and understated this Epic, period film was.

SENSO will play during the 19th Annual Stella Artois St. Louis International Film Festival on Thursday, November 11th at 7:30 pm and Friday, November 12th at 7:00 pm at the Winifred Moore Auditorium on the Webster University campus.