Steve D
Not as clever as it thinks it is.
Rated 1.5/5 Stars •
Rated 1.5 out of 5 stars
04/20/24
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Audience Member
Enjoy this for the farce that it is versus the worthy serious European filmmaking that Burt Lancaster wants it to be and it's a great rainy afternoon well spent. The best thing about being an aristocrat is that you can have zero consequence animal/ vegetable/ mineral sex adventures in the most ludicrously beautiful settings with ludicrously beautiful people and it all mean everything and nothing. That's the fun of this. It's gorgeous. Move into a flat on the palazzo, annoy a professor, renovate, fornicate and then disappear for 2 months on an afternoon boat trip. And there's a parrot in it.
Rated 3.5/5 Stars •
Rated 3.5 out of 5 stars
02/12/23
Full Review
paul d
After watching this, I had two immediate thoughts, namely that I liked it very, very much; and, that hardly anyone, except those who lived in Europe in the 70s, could understand and appreciate the political and cultural context and references of the film. For that reason, most people will not like it. It has flaws, for sure - it veers towards being the caricature of an art-house film, a dialogue-heavy, overtly political drawing room drama, and the flashbacks are too few and fleeting to give us whatever insight and guidance Visconti had in mind. But I firmly believe it is a minor masterpiece. Mangano and Berger are excellent and Lancaster is outstanding, even riveting. And, like all Visconti films, it is a sumptuous visual feast.
Rated 4/5 Stars •
Rated 4 out of 5 stars
03/31/23
Full Review
Audience Member
Burt Lancaster stars as a reclusive retired professor who is bullied into renting the unused top floor of his palazzo to a brash aristocrat (Silvana Mangano). She intends to use the apartment for her young, kept lover (Helmut Berger). Lancaster's life is continually disrupted by Berger and Mangano's daughter and her boyfriend. This makes it sound like an art film take on "Pacific Heights", but Visconti has different things on his mind. The crass, loud young folks reawaken Lancaster and connect him back to the world he has cast aside, but they also eventually reveal his hypocrisy and inability to act on his noble intentions.
Rated 4.5/5 Stars •
Rated 4.5 out of 5 stars
02/01/23
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Audience Member
7.1/10, my review: http://wp.me/p1eXom-2zr
Rated 3.5/5 Stars •
Rated 3.5 out of 5 stars
02/16/23
Full Review
eric b
Luchino Visconti directs Burt Lancaster again, years after their more famous collaboration "The Leopard" (1963). You have to be careful tracking down this film, because you don't want to see the Italian-dubbed version (ugh). This is sort of a chamber play with five dominant characters, and I don't recall one outdoor shot during the film. Lancaster plays a wealthy, reclusive professor with a gorgeously ornate home (or townhouse?). An impertinent, middle-aged aristocrat (Silvana Mangano) bullies Lancaster into renting her his unused upper floor, because she needs a nest for her androgynous lover (Helmet Berger), her daughter (sexy Claudia Marsani, who had just a brief acting career) and the daughter's boyfriend (Stefano Patrizi, who makes a weaker impression). Lancaster almost immediately regrets his consent, because the upstairs libertines are grossly disrespectful and destructive to their new surroundings. But an unlikely bond develops between the Lancaster, Berger and Marsani characters -- they awaken his lost spirit of adventure, while they view him with a mix of taboo attraction and child-like admiration. Most of the story focuses on the evolution of Berger's character, who has a dark side. This is almost a wonderful film, but the ending is a bit clunky.
Rated 3.5/5 Stars •
Rated 3.5 out of 5 stars
03/31/23
Full Review
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