A classic of Italian Cinema that launched the neo Neorealist Wave
In 2017, I saw on National Theatre Live Ivo Van Hove’s adaptation of Luchino Visconti’s Ossessione. Starring Jude Law, this excellent production interested me enough to make me do researches around the original 1943 classic. So after many years of work, I was quite pleased to find a copy of that film on DVD. Courtesy of a release from distributor Films Sans Frontieres, which showed this film in a restored edition with the sound and image in HD quality. So it was quite a thrill to see this movie which, as noted by many film historians, launched the Italian Neorealist wave.
For those who don’t know, the Italian neorealist wave was an attempt from filmmakers to present the reality of italians and their personal struggles. How poverty and unjust life conditions affected them. This movie current was an attempt to protest against the propaganda of Mussollini’s government that presented a false vision of Italy. Something that reminded me of the neorealist wave of french canadian filmmakers who appeared in the canadian province of Quebec after the death of politician Maurice Duplessis in 1960. For during his political regime during the 1940s and 1950s, Duplessis — whom my grandmother met during an official government meeting and whom she described as a bandit who exploited God’s word for cash — had cultivated in the entire province an oppressive theocratic and conservative regime that censored arts, society, and political ideas; alongside the population’s lives and struggles. So when he passed away in 1960, the quiet revolution that occured in the 1960s encouraged filmmakers to present the real life struggles that French canadians went through; denouncing how what was vehiculated in Duplessis’s medias decades before was innacurate and censored Quebec’s reality.
Now regarding Visconti, his release of Ossessione was so scandalous and offensive for the Church and Mussolini Government that the original negative was seized and destroyed. But fortunately, Visconti had hidden a print of his movie. So if it had not been from Visconti having such a copy in his archives, this classic would not have survived this horrible censorship attempt.
As for the film itself, the story is an adaptation of James M Cain’s The Postman Always Rings Twice. A tragedy involving Gino Costa, a drifting homeless man who travels around Italy. Trying to survive and to live as best as he can, through highs and lows, he arrives at the tavern of Giuseppe Bragana; whose wife Giovanna resents his selfishness and is tired of her frustrating life. Starting an affair with Gino, the two lovers decide to get rid of the husband. Committing on him a crime that occurs off screen and which starts their inevitable descent into Hell.
In the movie, Visconti presents Gino and Giovanna with much empathy. As two people victims of their personal circumstances and economical situations. As two jobless, penniless individuals caught in circumstances that make them spiral into a twister of problems. A tragedy that was an attempt from Visconti to expose Italy’s true reality of poverty and despair. And with the adulterous nature of the story, the movie was blasphemous enough to shock the higher authorities who reacted the way they did.
Through the movie, Gino meets two angel figures: Spagnolo and Anita. The first, a professional artist whose career and friendship could have helped Gino establish himself into a sane life. For Anita, a down-to-earth woman whose kindness differs from Giovanna’s selfishness. So when we meet these two figures, there is no denying that had circumstances been different and had Gino met them before Giovanna, then his life would not have gone down the way it did. For these two characters are a breath of fresh air and positivity in a story that is at times heavy in its drama. Two examples of the beauty of humanity in a world where injustices destroy the lives of innocent people and tempt them into doing horrible acts.
As for the second half of the film, the story turns into an excellent thriller; with the police slowly approaching around the diabolical lovers. A presence Luchino Visconti directs superbly well. Building the tension with his camera and Giuseppe Rosati’s music with the same masterful skills Alfred Hitchcock did in his movies.
And of the remastering release of that film, the sound and image quality is excellent. Sharp for today’s HD TV screens. And it is great to see it offered on streaming services like Amazon Prime and on DVDs like the Films Sans Frontières release. Especially as for that latter release, the DVD is ALL zones. Meaning that everyone worldwide can see it on their DVD players.
So if you are looking for a great italian film to watch one evening, do take time to see Ossessione. You won’t be disappointed.
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