Ossessione

Ossessione (1943) is Luchino Visconti's first film, and an unauthorized version of James Cain's The Postman Always Rings Twice. However, a few important plot points are changed, an interesting supporting character ("The Spaniard") has been added, and the movie has a very different tone from the novella. The original novella, and the "official" Hollywood versions of it (in '46 and '81) are thrillers, but Ossessione isn't. It's more of a story of a doomed love affair. The basic plot is the same - a drifter has a passionate fling with an unhappily married woman and helps her murder her husband - but Visconti approaches the material in a very different manner. You really get a genuine insight into 1940s Italian working class life, which evokes the heart of what is now known as Italian neorealism. The character of The Spaniard adds an interesting touch to the story with a possibly homosexual relationship between Gino and himself, which is not explicitly shown, but suggested in their falling out later in the film. After reading Phillip Lopate's essay on Visocnti, "The Operatic Realism of Luchino Visconti" from Totally Tenderly Tragically. I felt the need to seek out his major works and see them in the context of the Italian neorealism movement that I have been interested in of late prior to my most recent visit to Italy.