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Ossessione (1942)
Director: Luchino Visconti
Movie review
From Time Out Film Guide
Visconti's stunning feature debut transposes The Postman Always Rings Twice to the endless, empty lowlands of the Po Delta. There, an itinerant labourer (Girotti) stumbles into a tatty roadside trattoria and an emotional quagmire. Seduced by Calamai, he disposes of her fat, doltish husband (De Landa), and the familiar Cain litany - lust, greed, murder, recrimination - begins. Ossessione is often described as the harbinger of neo-realism, but the pictorial beauty (and astute use of music, often ironically) are pure Visconti, while the bleak view of sexual passion poaches on authentic noir territory, steeped, as co-scriptwriter Giuseppe De Santis put it, 'in the air of death and sperm'.Author: SJo
Cast & crew
Director: Luchino Visconti
Cast: Clara Calamai, Massimo Girotti, Juan De Landa, Dhia Cristiani, Elio Marcuzzo, Vittorio Duse, Michele Riccardini full cast
Duration: 139 mins
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