Patrick McElroy Finds the Meeting Point Between Life & Theater in SANDRA (1965, dir by Luchino Visconti, Italy)

Italian director Luchino Visconti once stated, “I like melodrama because it is situated just at the meeting point between life and theater.” Visconti, who like Elia Kazan in America had his origins in theater, would then go on to begin his film career in the 40s, becoming one of the pioneers of Italian neorealism along with Vittorio De Sica, and Roberto Rossellini, and making such classics as Ossession, and La Terra Trema. In these films he provided us with the workings of everyday people - with casts consisting of non-professional actors - and he filmed on basic locations.

But an artist can’t continue to create the same work repeatedly. In 1954 he made the lush technicolor, historical romance Senso, which many saw at the time as a betrayal to the neorealist movement. He would continue to transform his style after that film for the last twenty two years of his life. One of the finest examples of the meeting point between life and theater is his overlooked 1965 film Sandra.

The film is partially a modern retelling of the Greek myth  Electra, but it’s set-in modern-day Italy. and focuses on a young upper-class women Sandra (Claudia  Cardinale) who’s making her way back to her home in Italy. The film starts with her at an elegant house party, where there’s going to be a ceremony honoring her late Jewish father, who was killed in a Nazi concentration camp.

For the rest of film, she makes her way to an abandoned family mansion, where secrets unfold of both her and her family’s past. Through melodrama, Visconti can explore Italy’s identity as both country and people, and the role of the upper class in society. Like the title character, Visconti also lived a life of contradictions, but his were different: coming from a long line of aristocrats, who loved that world dearly, he was also a member of the communist party.

In sumptuous black and white cinematography shot by Armando Nannuzzi,  and production design by Mario Garbuglia, Visconti’s obsession with the elegance of the world these people inhabit is on display. With the background in theater, he was obsessed with every detail. Visconti’s abilities with his actors can’t be overlooked — Cardinale was perhaps the most beautiful women in film at that moment, and he molds her into a character where you can feel her inner workings while watching her performance.

When looking at Visconti’s body of work,  you witness how an artist can get pigeonholed, and creatively die in the same work, but they can avoid that by transforming themselves with each work. This is a film that’s worth viewing to catch a glimpse of that oeuvre. 

Patrick McElroy is a movie writer and movie lover based in Los Angeles. Check out his other writing at: https://www.facebook.com/patrick.mcelroy.3726 or his IG: @mcelroy.patrick