Visconti

Summary

Dominique Pagani sees Visconti above all as a "red prince", a communist prince who shows the class struggle within the ruling classes themselves, in The Leopard as in The Damned1. He often comes back to Death in Venice. He points out its link with Wagner, who died in Venice, something Visconti knows2, the scene of the musician who taunts the hotel guests3 and the opening credits that quote Rilke. He sees in him a filmmaker who probed the consciousness of the 1920s without accepting the post-1945 status quo4. In his sessions on music, he connects Visconti to Verdi. Senso opens on a performance of Il Trovatore where partisans of Italian unity shout "Viva Verdi"5, and The Leopard captured well the frenzy of living that belongs to Verdi6. He also mentions Ludwig, the film about Ludwig II. He counts Visconti among the great names of Italian cinema of the time and uses him as a point of comparison when he calls Satyajit Ray an "Indian Visconti".

1. 1From fidelity to grace: from substance to subject30 May 2024 · 1:23:34
2. 2#9.15 How can sciences of history be real?18 Feb 2021 · 29:05
3. 3“What threatens societies are the men and women who benefit from the exploitation of others”12 Mar 2019 · 1:52:23
4. 4#8 Happiness and unhappiness in music11 Jan 2021 · 1:55:25
5. 5#9.18 Twilight of the Gods, or from repetition to liberation3 Apr 2021 · 27:01
6. 6#8 Happiness and unhappiness in music11 Jan 2021 · 33:38

Summary produced automatically from 13 of the passages below, to be reviewed; the numbers link to the moment in the session.