Pulled a Visconti double feature last night:
Ossessione (1943) -
Normally, in a film like this, 90% of it would've been a cat and mouse between the police and the main characters, but in this film, the police procedural elements take up about 10% of the film, while the remaining 90% is focused on the consequences which Gino's actions have on him. In the first half, Gino and Giovanna are ready to sacrifice everything for each other, but once they reach the point of no return, they soon discover that their actions greatly limit their freedom and, as a result, fall out of love throughout the film. With this, an interesting contrast emerges between Gino and Lo Spagnolo, a street performer Gino meets. Spagnolo isn't crippled by his obsession and has more freedom in terms of the places he can travel to, while Gino's obsession restricts his freedom to a tavern which is seemingly in the middle of nowhere. Overall, the film's focus on Gino and Giovanna made for an appealing change to the 'police slowly closing in on the main characters' premise which I've seen represented in many other noirs and that the various turns of the plot all felt organic made me welcome this change even more. With that being said though, the film definitely felt much longer than it needed to be and it might've benefitted with a shorter runtime. Due to that, I'll keep the film at an 8/10, but it's still really good.
Death in Venice (1971) -
This film's plot can be interpreted two ways. The first interpretation is that Gustav yearned for Tadzio as he represented a vision of beauty and youth that, as an artist himself, he desperately wanted to obtain. Evidence for this interpretation includes how Gustav dealt with the effects of aging throughout the film, that he was depicted as being past his prime in terms of the quality of his music, and that a cholera epidemic was in the backdrop of the film. The second interpretation is that Gusav was a pedophile who lusted after Tadzio and that you're repeatedly asked to feel sympathy for him throughout the film. If you watch the film, it seems pretty clear that the symbolic interpretation is what the film is going for, given that so much of the film is focused on Gustav's slow demise. Plus, since much of the music in the film comes from Gustav Mahler, a composer whose works are often seen as being the bridge between Austro-German tradition and 20th century modernism, the Gustav in this film can be read as a stand-in for Mahler. Knowing all this, the pedophilic interpretation of the film may seem superficial, but if you read into the film and learn that Visconti had Andrésen, much to his discomfort, partially disrobe so he and his assistants could evaluate his body during auditions and how Visconti took Andrésen, who was 16 at the time, to a gay nightclub after filming had finished, this adds a creepy bit of subtext to the film which may complicate the first reading. Perhaps, Tadzio was objectivized and Gustav needed to conquer his beauty so his music could appeal to the younger audience, who's slowly moving towards modernism. On the plus side though, the movie's style adds a lot to the film. The soundtrack, cinematography, minimal dialogue, and pacing, while it may be too slow for some people, all work in harmony to create a truly moving experience, one which I didn't appreciate nearly enough when I first watched the film, albeit one with the aforementioned creepy bit of subtext hanging over it.