Customer Reviews

Luchino Visconti (Twayne's Filmmakers Series)

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The new book by Tonetti has been overedited by: Frank Beaver, University of Michigan and falls short to this reviewer as an outline to the genius of the Italian master of film Luchino Visconti. It attempts to write out a study in which Visconti's life is made to blend into a film-by-film discussion of his work. Yet, the focus is broken and lacks direct clarity of detail. There is a serious problem with this overview, and these "details" that are included. Visconti was first an Italian aristocrat, a direct descendent of the grand Visconti family of Milan; he was not just a horse proprietor. It was that specific difference that had much to do with the creation of the great Visconti, as most of his early career developed through Society contacts, (his aesthetic sense being with him from birth.) Secondly, the films that are made out to be most significant are not the best selections in term of placement and order(first of all the editor refers to "Gotterdammerung" this piece is what Visconti's film was loosely called in Germany, its true English title is "the Damned, 1969" furthermore "White Nights" does represent a break from Neo-Realism yet is nowhere in the same catagory as the grand "Death in Venice." Visconti's spectacular "Obsessione" and "Ludwig" are not given full due respect. It is insinuated that Visconti left Italy due to political reasons, this is not clear in fact, Visconti had no serious problem with Fascism when he left Italy to go to Paris; it wasn't until he met the photographer Horst that his views changed. Visconti met via his friend CoCo Chanel (hence the benefit of his aristocratic background) filmmakers Jean Cocteau and Jean Renoir, he was most influenced by Renoir, the book doesnt fully emphasize the full grand importance of Renoir on Visconti. The book fails to emphasize Visconti's vision leaning toward collaboration with those he saw as future super talents such as the great Maurice Jarre or Nino Rota. The book fails to clearly point out how so many great talents sought him out including Helmut Berger, his protege. There is a failure to point out clearly his use of a self selected and developed cast including Helmut Berger or the great talent Dirk Bogard. There is too much emphasis on details that have very little to do with Visconti's growth as a filmmaker and far too little dealing with what truly contributed to his becoming such a cinematic genius. The book is an overview where detail is a key issue yet as an overview the most important details are not fully developed or have been edited out, leaving the reviewer concerned for the students who use this piece as an entree to Visconti and his work.