The Damned (1969)
(La caduta degli dei, Luchino Visconti, Italy 1969, 154 min., 35mm, dubbed into English)
Originally rated X by the Motion Picture Association of America, this US release version only earned an R rating when twelve minutes of the original film were removed. The first film in Visconti’s loose “German Trilogy” (followed by Death in Venice and Ludwig) centers on the family of Baron Joachim von Essenbeck (Albrecht Schoenhals), a traditional German aristocrat opposed to the rise of the Nazi party. His widowed daughter-in-law, Sophie (Ingrid Thulin) is having an affair with Friedrich (Dirk Bogarde), an executive in the family’s steelworks, while her son, Martin (Helmut Berger), is sexually abusing his nieces. When Joachim is murdered, the vacuum at the head of the family and the company initiates power moves within and outside the family as the Nazis come to power and eye the steelworks as they prepare for war. Still shocking today in its transgressive themes and explicit nature, the film is considered one of Visconti’s masterpieces, and his use of color is on full display in this original-release Technicolor imbibition print.
Post-screening discussion with Senior Curator Peter Bagrov.