L’Innocente Review

In his last film, Visconti returned to the widescreen costume melodrama, but chose a surprisingly intimate story (there are only three leading characters) rather than yet another sweeping portrait of high society decadence, as seen in The Damned and The Leopard. Turn-of-the-century aristo Giannini neglects his wife (Antonelli) for his mistress (O’Neill), but is wooed back to the conjugal bed when Antonelli has a fling with an author, and becomes increasingly uptight (and deranged) when he learns that his wife is carrying her dead lover’s child. For the most part, it is a poised melodrama of stiff characters in stiffer costumes (Scorsese borrowed a lot for The Age Of Innocence), but there is an extraordinary sensual interlude as the couple find brief erotic happiness in extensive breast-fondling intimacy. The latter stretches are especially powerful, as tragedy, guilt, murder and suicide force the characters to become less emotional.