Senso is a 1954 Italian historical melodrama film directed and co-written by Luchino Visconti, based on Camillo Boito's novella of the same name. Set during the Third Italian War of Independence, the film follows the Italian Contessa Livia Serpieri (Alida Valli), who has an affair with the Austrian Lieutenant Franz Mahler (Farley Granger). It was Visconti's first color film.
The word senso is Italian for "sense," "feeling," or "lust." The title refers to the delight Livia experiences while reflecting on her affair with a handsome lieutenant, in spite of her political convictions.
In 2008, the film was included on the Italian Ministry of Cultural Heritage’s 100 Italian films to be saved, a list of 100 films that "have changed the collective memory of the country between 1942 and 1978."
Historical background
The film is set in Italy around 1866, the year the Italian-Austrian war of unification would see the Veneto and most of Friuli-Venezia Giulia united to Italy after the Seven Weeks' War between Austria on one side and Prussia and Italy on the other.
Plot
In spring of 1866, a performance of Il Trovatore at La Fenice opera house in Venice is interrupted at the close of Manrico's rousing aria "Di quella pira" by a boisterous protest by Italian Nationalists against the occupying Austrian troops present in the theater. Livia Serpieri, an Italian countess, unhappily married to a stuffy older aristocrat, witnesses this and tries to conceal the fact that her cousin Marchese Roberto Ussoni has organized the protest. During the commotion, she meets a dashing young Austrian Lieutenant named Franz Mahler, and is instantly smitten with him. The two begin a secret love affair. Despite the fact that Franz was responsible for sending Roberto into exile for his radical behavior, Livia vainly pretends not to be aware of it.
Although Franz is obviously using Livia for her money and social status, Livia throws herself into an affair of complete sexual abandon with Franz, giving away her money and not caring what society thinks about her. But soon, Franz begins failing to show up for their trysts and Livia becomes consumed by jealousy and paranoia. The war finally forces the lovers apart, with Livia's husband taking her away to their villa in the country in order to avoid the carnage. Late one night, Franz arrives on the estate and slips into Livia's bedroom. He asks her for more money to bribe the army doctors into keeping him off the battlefield, and Livia complies, giving him all of the money she was holding for Roberto, who intended to supply it to the partisans fighting the Austrians. Livia's betrayal leads to tragic consequences, as the Austrians overwhelm the under-equipped Italians at the Battle of Custoza (1866).
Being separated from Franz almost drives Livia mad, and she rejoices when a letter from him finally arrives. In it, he thanks her for the financial support that helped him stay away from the front, but advises her not to come to him in Verona yet, as the journey would be too dangerous. She disregards this last bit of advice, however, and, without qualms, abandons her comfortable life to hurry to him as soon as possible. She makes her way to his apartment, which her money has paid for, only to find Franz in the company of a young prostitute. Now a drunken, self-loathing rogue, he openly mocks Livia for accepting his abuse.
After forcing Livia to sit and drink with the prostitute, Franz throws Livia out of his rooms, and she finds herself in the streets, which are filled with drunken, amorous Austrian soldiers. Her sanity slipping, Livia realizes that she still has Franz's letter, and heads to the headquarters of the Austrian Army, where she hands the letter to a general. Although he can see that Livia is acting out of spite for being cuckolded, the general is forced to act upon the evidence of Franz's treason, and Franz is promptly executed by firing squad. Livia, now insane, runs off into the night, crying out her lover's name.
Cast
Production
Adaptation
Boito's novella is presented as though it is the private diary of Countess Livia (who is not from Venice, as she is in the film, but, rather, from Trento). Sixteen years after the Third Italian War of Independence, she tells of being courted on and off by a lawyer, Gino, whom she constantly rebuffs, and then reminisces about an affair she had in Venice in 1866, and the story switches back and forth between the present and past, with the past comprising the majority of the work. In adapting the novella, Visconti chose not to incorporate the diary aspect and deleted the character of Gino entirely to focus solely on the events that take place during the War.