Luchino Visconti’s “L’Innocente” Returns in 4K on December 11

By Elena Vasquez

According to IndieWire, “L’Innocente,” Luchino Visconti’s final film, returns in a 4K restoration with a theatrical rollout beginning December 11. The restoration premiered in Cannes Classics and at the New York Film Festival, IndieWire reports. The outlet also debuted the exclusive trailer for the new release.

Why is Visconti’s repertory returning?

IndieWire identifies a revival at repertory movie houses over the past year. The revivals include the black-and-white “White Nights” with Marcello Mastroianni and the psychosexual queer drama “Conversation Piece” with Burt Lancaster. IndieWire characterizes these melodramas as stories of people adrift, possessive and tragic. Although IndieWire says Visconti is probably best known for the epics “The Leopard” and “Rocco and His Brothers,” his later career turned toward intimate dramas and marital discord. The Palme d’Or-winning filmmaker continued in that direction until his death in 1976. The revival documented by IndieWire now reaches beyond Visconti’s best-known epics into his later, intimate work.

What turns a Roman marriage into tragedy?

IndieWire’s synopsis sets “L’Innocente” in Rome at the turn of the 20th century. It describes Giancarlo Giannini’s Tullio Hermil as “a wealthy and self-absorbed nobleman.”

• Tullio carries on an affair with the sophisticated yet possessive widow Countess Teresa Raffo, played by Jennifer O’Neill.
• He treats his devoted wife, Giuliana, played by Laura Antonelli, with cold condescension.
• Wounded by years of neglect, Giuliana takes a lover: the young novelist Filippo, played by Marc Porel.
• Giuliana’s pregnancy with Filippo’s child then triggers a chain of events, driven by Tullio’s wounded pride, that culminates in the tragedy identified in IndieWire’s synopsis.

In the synopsis, marriage, infidelity and wounded pride organize the film’s movement toward disaster.

How did Visconti’s health affect casting?\n

IndieWire reports that “L’Innocente” loosely adapts Gabriele D’Annunzio’s 1892 novel. By the time of production, Visconti had suffered a major stroke a few years earlier. The stroke did not necessarily prevent him from working, but it made him, in IndieWire’s account, a liability when the production needed to secure casting. Visconti wanted Alain Delon, the star of “The Leopard” and “Rocco and His Brothers,” for the lead. He also wanted Delon’s ex and repeat Visconti star Romy Schneider, and at one point Charlotte Rampling of “The Damned.” Visconti died in March 1976, two months before the film’s Cannes premiere. His illness complicated casting, while the completed film reached Cannes two months after his death.

What does the 4K restoration preserve?

Film Movement Classics restored the film to preserve its 50th anniversary, according to IndieWire. Cinelab Service in Italy created a new 4K digital transfer on an Arriscan film scanner, working directly from the original camera negative for the restored release. Critic Jonathan Rosenbaum called the film “a withering autocritique of masculine vanity and self-delusion.” The December release adds a 4K restoration of Visconti’s final film to the revival IndieWire has documented.