50 Years Ago: Celebrating Visconti’s Last, Masterful Film, The Innocent
Luchino Visconti’s last film, The Innocent, (completed in 1976, three months before his death at 69) is a most fitting swan song, a masterpiece demonstrating the director’s trademark of meticulous attention to the smallest detail in every aspect of the production.
Grade: A
As such, it ranks way up there with the 1963 The Leopard, Visconti’s undisputed masterpiece, as well as the earlier Senso, romantic historical epics defined by their measured pacing and lavish production values, all in service of a poignant mise-en-scene.
The Innocent is a 1976 period drama film directed by Luchino Visconti and starring Giancarlo Giannini, Laura Antonelli, and Jennifer O’Neill.
An adaptation of Gabriele d’Annunzio’s 1892 novel “The Intruder,” The Innocent is an early probe of toxic masculinity, a bold meditation on male vanity, self-delusion, and ultimately victimhood.
D’Annunzio’s book was first adapted into a silent film in 1912 by Edoardo Bencivenga.
The Italian title, “Intruder,” is more accurate than the film’s.
The book, translated by Georgina Harding. was published in English in 1897. Known as “The Victim” in the U.S., it tells the story of a selfish dandy named Tullio Hermil, a selfish chauvinist aristocrat who flaunts his mistress to his wife, but when he believes that she has been unfaithful, he becomes enamored of her again.
We are introduced to the protagonist, Tullio Hermil, in the late 1890s, when he is at his prime as a wealthy hedonistic Roman aristocrat. His love life is divided between his possessive aristocratic mistress, Teresa Raffo, and a seemingly weak and neglectful wife, Giuliana.
His interest in his wife is rekindled when he observes with a god deal od jealousy and pain Giuliana’s happiness after she has begun a love affair with a novelist named Filippo d’Arborio. When she becomes pregnant by d’Arborio, Tullio urges an abortion but she refuses; d’Arborio then dies of complications from malaria and Giuliana raises the boy on her own.
Tullio cannot tolerate the healthy male child, although he tries. While the family is at Christmas mass he exposes the baby who then dies, apparently of natural causes. Giuliana, however, knowing that it is Tullio who has murdered the baby, decides to leave him.
With his male ego bruised, but pretending to be unhurt, Tullio tries to rekindle his affair with Teresa and takes her to his town house where they attempt to make love.
A light feminist streak informs the tale, when a sincere Teresa tells him that she no longer loves him, after which he shoots himself. In the end, the shocked but emotionally stronger, Teresa packs up her belongings and leaves the estate.
Visconti originally wanted Alain Delon and Romy Schneider for the lead roles, but Schneider was unavailable. For his part, Delon, who rose to fame after appearing in Visconti’s 1960 Rocco and His Brothers, had reservations about working with Visconti, then in a diminished, post-stroke state.
Charlotte Rampling later said that Visconti wrote the screenplay with her in mind, but she was unable to do it because she was filming Foxtrot.
The Italian-French co-production was shot at Villa Mirafiori in Rome, the Villa Butori in Lucca, and the Villa Bellosguardo nearby.
The film, which played in competition at the 1976 Cannes Film Festival, opened in the U.S. several months later.
Cast
Giancarlo Giannini as Tullio Hermil
Laura Antonelli as Giuliana Hermil
Jennifer O’Neill as Teresa Raffo
Rina Morelli as Marchesa Marianna Hermil
Didier Haudepin as Federico Hermil
Marc Porel as Filippo d’Arborio
Massimo Girotti as Count Stefano Egano
Marie Dubois as The Princess
Roberta Paladini as Miss Elviretta
Claude Mann as The Prince
Siria Betti as Virginia
Alessandra Vazzoler as Nana
Marina Pierro as Maria
Vittorio Zarfati as Dr. Milani
Enzo Musumeci Greco as Fencing Master
