Update: With our Visconti retrospective smashing box office records at the Film Society of Lincoln Center, becoming the most successful repertory program in our history, we’ve added encore screenings through July. Get tickets here.

Italian nobility, a member of the Italian Communist Party during World War II, openly gay and staunchly Catholic, Luchino Visconti inhabited a complicated, at times paradoxical, role in Italian cinema culture. A leader in the neorealismo movement who also worked with international stars like Burt Lancaster, Helmut Berger, Alain Delon, and Dirk Bogarde, Visconti produced an oeuvre of modest and humane dramas as well as decadent, sprawling historical spectacles. Deftly aware of the subtle and rich means of cinematic expression, he uniquely imposed the narrative customs of opera and the novel onto film, yet remained sharply attuned to the social and political climates of the 20th century. This June, the Film Society is pleased to announce a complete retrospective of Visconti’s feature films, most of them premiering in new restorations and rare imported prints, followed by a weeklong run of a new 35mm print of his 1973 historical masterpiece Ludwig.

Organized by Florence Almozini and Dan Sullivan of Film Society of Lincoln Center, and by Camilla Cormanni and Paola Ruggiero of Istituto Luce Cinecittà. Co-produced by Istituto Luce Cinecittà, Rome. Presented in association with the Ministry of Culture of Italy.

Download our Visconti brochure or read below.

Additional Reading

How Luchino Visconti Made History Sing by A.O. Scott (The New York Times)

The Operatic and Ecstatic Truth of Luchino Visconti by Bilge Ebiri (Village Voice)

The Royal Treatment by Nick Pinkerton (Art Forum)