Ossessione- neo-realism?
larry legallo
what do you all think? Where does it fit within the neorealist
movement?
I only saw pieces of the Scorsese documentary, so I don't know how
deeply he discussed this film. Can we at least agree that this is the
finest Postman Always Rings Twice adaptation?
Tom Cervo
>what do you all think? Where does it fit within the neorealist
>movement?
>
neo-realism to describe what was coming into his cutting room, while saying it
more like hyper-realism, realler than realistic, heightened reality
>I only saw pieces of the Scorsese documentary, so I don't know how
>deeply he discussed this film. Can we at least agree that this is the
>finest Postman Always Rings Twice adaptation?
Surely the truest to the material, and the least glamorous--the redemption of
two squalid criminals through love.
Sebastian Knight
>
> >I only saw pieces of the Scorsese documentary, so I don't know how
> >deeply he discussed this film. Can we at least agree that this is the
> >finest Postman Always Rings Twice adaptation?
>
> Surely the truest to the material, and the least glamorous--the redemption of
> two squalid criminals through love.
I saw the Visconti, and read the James M Cain book, and I have to
say I missed both the redemption and the love bit. To me, it's more
like the sexual obsession which leads them into crime, and ultimately
on a road to death, prison, and/or hell.
Sebastian Knight
Sebastian Knight
I liked it. Things I found especially noteworthy were
1) the final death scene. Most death scenes are phony - here, Clara
Calamai really looks dead, and there was a nice use of understated
Christian symbolism.
2) Visconti cut out the legal shenanigans of the book, which always
seemed extraneous in the John Garfield/Lana Turner film. (I've not
seen the Jack Nicholson version.)
3) the character of Lo spagnola, the guy who befriends Massimo
Girotti and tries to get him on the right path (which seems to be a
sort of Christian/Communist one), in the end turns out to be a
snitch. This is the sort of thing you often find in Visconti, but
almost never in the more didactic and manipulative films of, say, de
Sica.
4) the song contest. Juan de Landa sings well, and comes across as a
real human being, even somewhat likable. Which makes his murder a
real crime.
I suppose the only real thing the Lana Turner version has going
for it, over the Visconti, is Lana Turner. Not so much her acting
ability, but her sexual oomph is such that you can readily believe
anyone becoming sexually obsessed with her. Really, who wouldn't kill
for her? Clara Calamai is desirable enough, but Visconti has to
reiterate her sexual hold over Massimo Girotti so much that he almost
has to belabor the point; and even then, you wonder why he goes to the
point of murder to get her. (A murder which, significantly, occurs
off screen.)
Sebastian Knight
Tom Cervo
>say I missed both the redemption and the love bit. To me, it's more
>like the sexual obsession which leads them into crime, and ultimately
>on a road to death, prison, and/or hell.
At the end she's pregnant, and they go off thinking that the new life in her
can somehow atone for what they've done. Visconti makes the initial attraction
real but lets them be as unglamorous, even sordid, as Cain. At the end she
almost seems to glow, and you believe they're going to try. Cain tells it
through Frank, an eminently untrustworthy type, but Visconti tells through the
camera, which can not lie in his hands.
Sebastian Knight
I agree with what you say, but I don't think it really is love
they feel for each other; or if it is love, of a type, it's so
intermingled with obligation, fear, guilt, and a general sense of
being stuck with each other that you know it can't last. It might be
love, but I think Visconti would feel that it's built on bad faith, or
a sin (i.e. murder), and therefore doomed. (Even without the cops.)
And, in the works of James M Cain, doesn't it seem that any kind
of attraction (sexual, romantic, even maternal love) lead only to
self-destruction?
Sebastian Knight
Tom Cervo
>they feel for each other; or if it is love, of a type, it's so
>intermingled with obligation, fear, guilt, and a general sense of
>being stuck with each other that you know it can't last.
You're right, alas. At least they died with their illusions intact, which has
to pass for happiness.
Tony Spadaro
of the women who've played the part. But of the three I find Lana Turner the
most unbelievable -- in every movie, she had as much sexual attraction as
flowered wallpaper.
--
http://www.chapelhillnoir.com
Photography ... the hard way
and partial home of
The Camera-ist's Manifesto
a Radical approach to photography.
The Links are at
http://home.nc.rr.com/tspadaro/links.html
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larry legallo
>>Now that we've had time to watch (or re-watch) Visconti's Ossessione,
>>what do you all think? Where does it fit within the neorealist
>>movement?
>>
>MS reports that it was the editor of Ossessione who counted the term
>neo-realism to describe what was coming into his cutting room, while saying it
>more like hyper-realism, realler than realistic, heightened reality
Supposedly, Visconti was the only one of the Italian neorealists who
knew about Renoir's Toni before 1950. But I've always questioned just
how much influence Renoir's film actually had on neo-realism. I think
maybe the Italians just came up with similar ideas on their own ten
years later. Ossessione doesn't quite feel like neo-realism, though
it definitely looks forward to it.
>>I only saw pieces of the Scorsese documentary, so I don't know how
>>deeply he discussed this film. Can we at least agree that this is the
>>finest Postman Always Rings Twice adaptation?
>
>Surely the truest to the material, and the least glamorous--the redemption of
>two squalid criminals through love.
What amazed me was the griminess that the film was able to portray.
The whole thing just smelled like sweat and dirt and lust.
Desperation everywhere.