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Vaghe Stelle dell'Orsa (1965)
Director: Luchino Visconti
Movie review
From Time Out Film Guide
Visconti's retelling of the Electra story starts with Sandra/Electra (Cardinale) returning to her ancestral home in Italy - and reviving an intimate involvement with her brother (Sorel) which troubles her naive American husband (Craig) - on the eve of an official ceremony commemorating the death of her Jewish father in a Nazi concentration camp. As ever with Visconti, he is ambivalently drawn to the decadent society he is ostensibly criticising; and Armando Nannuzzi's camera lovingly caresses the creaking old mansion, set in a landscape of crumbling ruins, where the incestuous siblings determine to wreak revenge on the mother (Bell) and stepfather (Ricci) who supposedly denounced their father. Something like a Verdi opera without the music, the result may not quite achieve tragedy, but it looks marvellous. The title, culled from a poem by Leopardi, has been better rendered as 'Twinkling Stars of the Bear'.Author: TM
Cast & crew
Director: Luchino Visconti
Producer: Franco Cristaldi
Cast: Claudia Cardinale, Jean Sorel, Michael Craig, Marie Bell, Renzo Ricci full cast
Duration: 100 mins
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