Intcatinfo A Masterpiece!

InformationRap This is one of the few movies I've ever seen where the whole audience broke into spontaneous, loud applause a third of the way in.

BelSports This is a coming of age storyline that you've seen in one form or another for decades. It takes a truly unique voice to make yet another one worth watching.

Logan By the time the dramatic fireworks start popping off, each one feels earned.

avik-basu1889 'Ossessione' was great Italian filmmaker Luchino Visconti's debut film. 'Ossessione' is based on James M. Cain's novel 'The Postman Always Rings Twice'.The aforementioned novel has been adapted quite a few times in America. But I think Visconti's film succeeds in properly portraying the struggles of the characters in a very believable manner. This film actually elevates the subject matter of the book to some extent. While the book was all about the theme 'crime doesn't pay', the film adds a touch of humanity to the theme to make the film very moving.Is the film sexy and erotic? Certainly. It has all the titillating aspects of the original source material as Massimo Girotti and Clara Calamai crank up the heat. But apart from the eroticism, the film also brilliantly explores the characters. We understand the hesitations, the temptations, the motivations and the grief of both Giovanna and Gino. Visconti does a great job of setting the storyline in Italy. This allowed Visconti to place the socio- economic problems of wartime Italy in the background of the story. The financial inadequacy plays a big role in justifying the motivations of the characters.The film is certainly a morality tale too. It is concerned with the temptation to indulge in criminal activities and how such choices more often than not lead to catastrophe. However, Visconti doesn't judge or vilify any character. He treats them with respect and doesn't take their humanity away from them. From a technical standpoint, I was impressed by the shot selection of Visconti and the way he composed his frames. There are some breathtaking moments that stand out like the shot in the initial part of the film where the camera after tracking sideways suddenly rises(via a crane) above the truck to shift the focus from Bragana to Gino to show us whom this film would follow, or the shot of Giovanna verbalising her past struggles to Gino while sitting on a chair in a painfully hunched posture, or the beautiful sequence where Giovanna hints at the favour that she wants Gino to do for her and her love which almost plays out like a choreographed dance sequence as she moves around with Gino following behind her in the room,etc. Visconti's movement of the camera already seemed very assured for his debut film.The acting in the film is outstanding. Massimo Girotti has a strong masculine presence. But he also has the range to shift from a confident man to being a man riddled with guilt. Calamai also gives a very layered performance. One can easily see the pain and insecurity in her eyes.'Ossessione' is sometimes regarded as the first Italian neo-realist film. Now that is something that can be questioned, but in my mind what can't be questioned is the depth and layers that Visconti adds to the film which could have easily been reduced to a pulp crime thriller. He makes the film socially poignant. Highly Recommended.

gentendo Audiences today will probably watch a film like Ossessione and not really consider how unprecedented it was during the time when it came out. The structure of the film really divorces from sap-happy Hollywood conventions—as well as other major theatrical elements. It relies more upon depicting reality in a very grim and sober light. Films of this nature—the neo-realist films—were made to reflect the darkness felt during post-World War II times. Ossessione tackles some fairly provocative issues that were probably unseen on screen prior to the war, including: adultery, conspiracy, murder, pregnancy, etc. Aside from the one crane shot and certain musical swelling moments, the film aesthetic is very raw and gritty: shot on-location, uses natural lighting and most likely non-popular actors. All of these elements helped convey the issues explored in the film, yielding the following theme: Negative karmic repercussions will haunt those who deliberately act immorally.The two leads—Gino and Giovanna—are polar opposites, yet both carry the mentality: we're bored and we want to be entertained. Gino is a drifter; a lone traveler who embraces life and its constant fluctuations. Giovanna is a bored house-wife cemented in the familiarly of marital permanence: she doesn't want to leave her home and husband, but would rather remain where she is because it's safer. Gino's lifestyle represents the ideal lifestyle Giovanna craves; the only difference is that she's too afraid to live it herself—that's why she falls in love with Gino: he represents everything she wants but doesn't have the courage to get. She wants to live in a world free from the monotony of living with her corpulent husband—Gino is the perfect ticket into that world. The affair that ensues between the two most likely left audiences back in the 40's feeling somewhat uneasy. I mean, films prior to the neo-realist age never showed such scandalous behavior on screen before. To say the least it was probably a bit alarming.In conjunction with the theme, the neo-realist style helps show the negative repercussions of adulterous behavior. Succinctly put, adulterous behavior (as shown in the film) leads to depressing and ultimately deadened lives. When Gino and Giovanna conspire with each other to "eliminate" Giovanna's husband, karma comes to haunt them like a plague after the deed is done. They return to their home: the atmosphere is dark and biting (as can be expected from the neo-realist style). They are not happy; they're actually more depressed. They thought that by eliminating Giovanna's husband that they'd live happier lives, but they were duped. The film ends with Giovanna's death—it being in karmic similitude of her husband's death. I think this is a very satisfying ending for several reasons. Here's why.There's a lot of talk as to whether or not evil should be depicted on screen, and if so, to what extent. I think depicting evil is very necessary if and only if the evil depicted is not being glorified, but rather shows what negative consequences evil actions have. As the subtext of Ossessione asks, is adultery and murder evil? I think the film eagerly responds yes! The adulterous behavior between the two reveals how unhappy they are. Ironically though, towards the end of the film when they seem to be healed of their depression and are seen basking in each other's arms inside the car, the author of the film shows that their happiness is, in fact, a façade: the car crashes off the cliff and into the river, killing Giovanna; the police arrest Gino. I think it was the author's intention to say that even though people sometimes try and justify their immoral behavior, in the end karma will come back to haunt them. I agree. I think the two got what was coming to them because they both were incredibly selfish—always wanting instant gratification and not willing to endure through hard times. This was especially made clear after the first sign of difficulty that Gino and Giovanna experience in their relationship: he can't handle the pressure of living in Giovanna's husband shadow, so he leaves Giovanna and sleeps with another girl. Such is typical of the insatiable, hedonistic personality.All in all, the film seemed very risky for its time. The audience, however, was prepared to see such a film because of the sobriety the war brought. Those pre-war, happy-go-lucky films were no longer being believed. Movie-going audiences were ready to see and contemplate difficult films with complex characters: they wanted to see characters whose lives were entangled in so-called 'sin' because it was a reflection of their own life problems. Ossessione, then, acts as a great catalyst for where the future of film was heading. That is, a lot of the naturalism pieces we see today can be said to have been influenced by the neo-realist film movement.

faraaj-1 The Ruth Snyder - Judd Gray murder in 1927 inspired Ogden Nash to write a Broadway play called Machinal. More famously, it inspired James M. Cain to write two short novels which anyone who has actually reached the point where they are reading this review would be familiar with - Double Indemnity and The Postman Always Rings Twice. Both became film noir classics of the 1940's, Double Indemnity being arguably the most perfect noir ever made. Some of the real-life elements of the Snyder-Gray story were captured by Cain - the old age and indifference of Albert Gray, Ruth's high sex drive, Ruth and Judd's passionate affair and complicity in the murder and that famous double indemnity insurance clause. Missing elements included the fact that the actual setting was a very urban Manhattan - Albert Snyder being a respected newspaper editor. The numerous incompetent and failed attempts were also ignored in order to cut to the chase.Cain's Double Indemnity was filmed perfectly by Billy Wilder - let's ignore Stanwyck's ridiculous wig as one of those interesting accidents of film lore! The Postman Always Rings Twice, however, was filmed thrice and Ossessione, an Italian version and Luchino Visconti's first film, was the first of three versions. Before commenting on it, I'll recommend the Lana Turner - John Garfield version of 1946 in its entirety and five minutes of the 1981 Jack Nicholson - Jessica Lange version for the great sex scene on the dining table.Ossessione is not as noirish as The Postman Always Rings Twice. It has a strong neo-realist look which makes it a great movie, but a lot of the essential noir elements are missing. It does not have low-key lighting and unconventional camera angles. The dialog is not hard-boiled and instead the film concentrates more on characterization. This is the longest version of the story and goes deeply into characterization. Its also a lot more sexual than the Lana Turner version. We have a very obvious adulterous relationship and Giovanna is very obviously a nymphomaniac. A new character is introduced into the story - La Spagnola - with very obvious homosexual overtones. There is also a small, but very well-played role for a dancer who moonlights as a prostitute.This is a far greater study of the working class than of crime. The audience really gets the feeling of poverty and grime. The drifter is a complete tramp, the wife is no Lana Turner and may even have been a prostitute before marriage. Her husband is an obscene capitalist - obese, rude and arrogant. I think the casting was brilliant for this film. My only beef is with the overlong running time. Everything is drawn out too long and it would have been more effective if it had been more economical. Nevertheless, fans of noir and realism will definitely like Ossessione, as I did.

ALauff Luchino Visconti's debut film, this Italian noir is generally credited with launching the Neorealist movement—well, it says so right on the back of the box—and is a sometimes penetrating, sometimes lugubrious portrait of lonesome individuals in moral flux. In Fascist Italy, an assortment of characters—including an ingenuous drifter who espouses Communist virtues—embody the remote desperations of a country searching for its identity from without, drifting phantasms longing for a soul. Although Visconti's compassion for the disenfranchised and his ability to express their lamentable conditions was already well-developed, the spider web of deceit here is too tenuous—Gino is so unhinged to begin with that his undoing seems less a matter of fate or manipulation than a self-fulfilling prophesy—the cosmic irony too didactic, the illicit relationship too strained with bathos. All the same, it's incisive and essential, although its actual impact on film history is certainly debatable.