Senso

This lush, Technicolor tragic romance from Luchino Visconti stars Alida Valli as a nineteenth-century Italian countess who, during the Austrian occupation of her country, puts her marriage and political principles on the line by engaging in a torrid affair with a dashing Austrian lieutenant, played by Farley Granger. Gilded with ornate costumes and sets and a rich classical soundtrack, and featuring fearless performances, this operatic melodrama is an extraordinary evocation of reckless emotions and deranged lust, from one of the cinema’s great sensualists.


Senso was restored by StudioCanal, Centro Sperimentale di Cinematografia-Cineteca Nazionale, and the Cineteca di Bologna at L’Immagine Ritrovata. Restoration funding provided by Gucci, The Film Foundation, and Comitato Italia 150.

Film Info

  • Italy
  • 1954
  • 123 minutes
  • Color
  • 1.33:1
  • Italian
  • Spine #556

Special Features

  • The celebrated Film Foundation/Cineteca di Bologna digital restoration, created in consultation with cinematographer Giuseppe Rotunno and Martin Scorsese, with uncompressed monaural soundtrack on the Blu-ray edition
  • The Wanton Countess, the rarely seen English-language version of the film
  • The Making of “Senso,” a new documentary featuring Rotunno, assistant director Francesco Rosi, costume designer Piero Tosi, and Caterina D’Amico, daughter of screenwriter Suso Cecchi D’Amico and author of Life and Work of Luchino Visconti
  • Viva VERDI, a new documentary on Visconti, Senso, and opera
  • Visual essay by film scholar Peter Cowie
  • “Man of Three Worlds: Luchino Visconti,” a 1966 BBC program exploring Visconti’s mastery of cinema, theater, and opera direction
  • New and improved English subtitle translation
  • PLUS: A new essay by filmmaker and author Mark Rappaport and an excerpt from actor Farley Granger’s autobiography, Include Me Out

    New cover by Glenn Orbik

Purchase Options

Special Features

  • The celebrated Film Foundation/Cineteca di Bologna digital restoration, created in consultation with cinematographer Giuseppe Rotunno and Martin Scorsese, with uncompressed monaural soundtrack on the Blu-ray edition
  • The Wanton Countess, the rarely seen English-language version of the film
  • The Making of “Senso,” a new documentary featuring Rotunno, assistant director Francesco Rosi, costume designer Piero Tosi, and Caterina D’Amico, daughter of screenwriter Suso Cecchi D’Amico and author of Life and Work of Luchino Visconti
  • Viva VERDI, a new documentary on Visconti, Senso, and opera
  • Visual essay by film scholar Peter Cowie
  • “Man of Three Worlds: Luchino Visconti,” a 1966 BBC program exploring Visconti’s mastery of cinema, theater, and opera direction
  • New and improved English subtitle translation
  • PLUS: A new essay by filmmaker and author Mark Rappaport and an excerpt from actor Farley Granger’s autobiography, Include Me Out

    New cover by Glenn Orbik
Senso
Cast
Alida Valli
Countess Livia Serpieri
Farley Granger
Lieutenant Franz Mahler
Heinz Moog
Count Serpieri
Rina Morelli
Laura, the maid
Massimo Girotti
Roberto Ussoni
Marcella Mariani
Clara
Credits
Director
Luchino Visconti
Screenplay
Luchino Visconti
Screenplay
Suso Cecchi D’Amico
From the novel by
Camillo Boito
Dialogue collaboration
Tennessee Williams
Dialogue collaboration
Paul Bowles
Photographed by
G. R. Aldo
Photographed by
Robert Krasker
Photographed by
Giuseppe Rotunno
Assistant directors
Francesco Rosi
Assistant directors
Franco Zeffirelli
Editing
Mario Serandrei
Costumes
Marcel Escoffier
Costumes
Piero Tosi

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