Product Details

• Actors: Farley Granger, Alida Valli, Heinz Moog, Rina Morelli, Christian Marquand
• Directors: Luchino Visconti
• Writers: Luchino Visconti, Camillo Boito, Carlo Alianello, Giorgio Bassani, Giorgio Prosperi
• Format: Color, Subtitled, NTSC
• Language: German, Italian
• Rated: NR (Not Rated)
• Number of tapes: 1
• Studio: Fox Lorber
• VHS Release Date: November 24, 1998
• Run Time: 118 minutes
• Average Customer Review: 3.9 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (11 customer reviews)
• ASIN: 1572523719
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #302,377 in Movies & TV (See Top 100 in Movies & TV)

Editorial Reviews

Amazon.com

It is 1855, and the Austrian military has occupied Italy. Countess Livia Serpieri (Alida Valli) falls deeply in love with Franz Mahler (Farley Granger), an Austrian lieutenant. She betrays her country by stealing funds collected to aid the resistance and giving them to Franz so that he can bribe his way out of service. When she rendezvous with the lieutenant, she finds a drunken, ungrateful rogue who has used her only for her money, in what is perhaps among the most psychologically disturbing scenes ever filmed. Her revenge is swift and decisive, and though severe, quite believable. This 1954 film from Luchino Visconti (The Damned, Death in Venice) is a complex depiction of human passions and the destruction they can wreak, set against the larger destruction of war. A simple story told against the backdrop of countries at war, it belongs to the same genre as Reds and Doctor Zhivago, and is definitely worth viewing. --James McGrath

Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

15 of 17 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Bellissimo, September 23, 2001

By 

D.A. (Ottawa, Canada) - See all my reviews

This review is from: Senso (Italian version w/ English Subtitles) [VHS] (VHS Tape)

One of Luchino Visconti's top four or five masterworks. This baroque but magnificent evocation of the Garibaldi period of Italian Revolution in late 19th century is truly one of the great Italian masterpieces of 1950s. The film brilliantly delineates the erotically charged love story between Alida Valli (her best performance ever) and Farley Granger, and the bitter legacy of the revolution. History and Romance merge in a way only Visconti knew how. And the result is an operatic realism at its highest order. Despite the great, heart-renching performances, though, the film's fascination and power lies the sumptuous "look", the realistically accurate detail of that period. Visconti's unique attention to detail is breathtaking. Some may find SENSO crudely melodramatic and is certainly a notch below Visconti's best film, THE LEOPARD (which also features Burt Lancaster's greatest performance); still, it cannot be ignored. It is a must-see if you want to find out why Visconti was one of the great film artists who ever lived.

12 of 14 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars The most beautiful film of all times, August 2, 2002

By 

Lincoln (Montevideo, Montevideo Uruguay) - See all my reviews

This review is from: Senso (1954) (DVD)

It's difficult to find, in all the history of the cinema, a so beautifull, sugestive and deep work like this masterpiece of Luchino Visconti. Glorius technicolor, a magnificent cast (even Farley Granger, a very limited actor, is splendid here),dialogues by Tennessee Williams and a wonderful historical recreation of the "Risorgimento", plus a musical score by Verdi and Bruckner make this film a permanent pleasure for persons of good taste. In my opinion the best film of Visconti and perhaps the most beautiful film of all times.

5 of 5 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars One of the best historical films ever, July 7, 1999

By A Customer

This review is from: Senso (Italian version w/ English Subtitles) [VHS] (VHS Tape)

the production design, the music, the attention to period detail, the plot, the actors all fit together in this story of cynical, deluded people betraying each other, themselves, and their country amid beautiful sets and photography. This is an historical film for adults, not some adolescent escapism like Shakespeare in Love.