Too many fans seem to be blown away

the audience applauded

Easily the biggest piece of Right wing non sense propaganda I ever saw.

There is, somehow, an interesting story here, as well as some good acting. There are also some good scenes

This is an Italian film I found in the pages of the book 1001 Movies You Must See Before You Die, I didn't know what to expect, I just hoped it would be worthy of its placement, directed by Luchino Visconti (Ossessione, Rocco and His Brothers, The Leopard). Basically set in the spring of 1866, during the last days of the Austrian occupation and the Third Italian War of Independence, the unhappily married Countess Livia Serpieri (The Third Man's Alida Valli) witnesses her cousin Marquis Roberto Ussoni (Massimo Girotti) organising a protest. Roberto challenges the dashing young Austrian Lieutenant Franz Mahler (Rope's Farley Granger) to a duel at the La Fenice opera house in Venice, Roberto is arrested and sent to the exile for one year. During the commotion, Livia meets Franz, she hates him at first, but spending a night walking together she falls deeply in love with him, they begin a secretive love affair, despite the fact that Franz's radical behaviour was responsible for Roberto's arrest, Livia pretends to be unaware of this. Franz is obviously using Livia for her money and social status, but Livia throws herself into the sexual affair, giving away her money and not caring about the opinions of her in society, but soon she becomes consumed by jealously and paranoia as Franz fails to show up for appointments. War breaks out, forcing Livia and Franz apart, her husband takes her with him to escape the carnage to the villa in the country, but late one night Franz shows up, demanding more money from Livia to bribe the army doctors and keep him away from the battlefield, she complies and gives all money she had saved for Roberto, her betrayal have tragic consequences. Eventually Livia is almost driven mad being unable to see Franz, but she rejoices when she receives a letter from him, in it he thanks her for financial support, but tells her not to look for him, Livia ignores this and heads for Verona to find her lover. Livia finds Franz, but is devastated to find him as a drunk and self-loathing rogue, with a young prostitute, and mocking her, after forcing her to drink with the prostitute Franz angrily throws Livia out,. Livia's sanity is slipping, she heads to the headquarters of the Austrian Army, with the letter he sent her Franz is arrested for treason and executed by firing squad, Livia is now truly insane and is last seen running into the night crying out her lover's name. Also starring Heinz Moog as Count Serpieri and Rina Morelli as Laura. The director originally wanted to cast Ingrid Bergman and Marlon Brando, but Roberto Rossellini put his foot down and said Bergman only worked for him, she was also not interested, while Brando was shunned by the producers. But Valli proves a good choice as the countess used by a cavalry officer, well played by Granger, I could just about follow the story whilst having to read the subtitles, it is essentially a doomed romance going against country and social class, it may have been slow and predictable in places, but overall it is an interesting melodrama. Worth watching!

But not a love treason. Treason of ideals, treason of your country and treason of the military duty. It's 1866 in northern Italy occupied by the Austrian armed forces. The Italian patriots fight to free their country and unite Italy, supported by French and Prusssian armies. Countess Serpieri (Alida Valli), a Venetian aristocrat married to an older man, falls suddenly deeply in love with an Austrian army officer, Franz Mahler (Farley Granger) who is however nothing more than a philanderer, a crook and a coward who ends up by deserting his army based on a fake and obtained through bribery medical report stating that he is physically unfit for the army. A large sum of money was given to him for that purpose by the Countess. But she had been trusted with that money by the revolutionaries and it was to be used for their cause. When she realizes that he is nothing else than an unscrupulous scoundrel it's already too late and the story ends up tragically. The director Luchino Visconti is above all an aesthetician and this movie has got wonderful images and sceneries both in exteriors and interiors. The critics have already classified his movies as opera cinema. Although he is himself descended from an aristocratic Lombard family, his ideology is much closer to Marxism and in this movie, like in his other beautiful movie, "Il Gattopardo", he depicts the moral and social decadence of the till then dominating aristocracy and the rising to power of another class, the bourgeoisie, like it occurred with most revolutions in Europe during 19th century. So as an aristocrat, Visconti is an aesthetician and that's why his movies are always rich and beautiful in visual terms. But terms of ideology and of his movies message he is closer to Marxism. The only flaw of this movie in my opinion is the performance of Farley Granger a wrong choice for the role of Franz Mahler. He is much inadequate to the character of an elegant, seductive, unscrupulous and libertine officer. In fact he is not very talented and anyway goes better in an American detective movie than in the atmosphere of the Italian Risorgimento. He looks very unrefined for that. On the contrary the beautiful Alida Valli is brilliant as Countess Serpieri. If it weren't for that flaw I'd have rated this movie with an 8 instead of a 7.

It's no coincidence that the film opens at the opera. In some fine deep shots we are introduced to our characters with the performance in the background - no doubt to establish the stylistic connection. So Visconti, and collaborator Franco Zefferelli, wanted to make an opera without the singing. This gives us grandeur, but rigidity, and even the mini riot that takes place in the opera house at the outset is aesthetically stylised. You need to buy into the approach at this point, and I simply didn't. It just seemed like a bad idea. Opera is a stage spectacle, all about grand gesture, posturing, formality; it cannot transmit subtleties, the format doesn't allow it. Take away the music and you are left with a banal story and a lot of fancy costumery. For Visconti, constantly wanting to remind us of his noble descent, that is enough - his main concern is showing us lavish interior decor, an obsession you'll find either stirring or stifling. For music we get Bruckner, whose indecisive, meandering drone is largely ignorable.Cinematically, the result is half-baked. Valli walks into a room full of Austrian soldiers. David Lean (who I equate with Visconti to some extent) would have made a significant scene out of this but Visconti just gives us soldiers draped around the place in various unnatural postures, as you might expect. One of them moves and strikes up a different posture – as you might expect. It's all cut and pasted from the Manual of Things Seen and Done Before. The camera stays back, wide angle, and doesn't lend much of a hand with the narrative, leaving the players to communicate with exaggerated gesture.A married Venetian countess falls for a young Austrian army officer - we know from the first scene that he is an utter cad, but she doesn't – or rather she does, but being a one dimensional clinging woman she is bound to hurl herself into disastrous folly. Hence the film mainly consists of Valli ringing the emotional changes over her illicit affair. Visconti indulged so much time in this that he must have thought he was dealing with an original topic. Along the way, there's the approaching end of Austrian rule of northern Italy and some slight comment on the collaboration of senior Venetian figures – but that point seems hardly worth making after all this time. There is a lengthy section where Valli's cousin (dashing hero figure) rushes on a military errand rather ridiculously right across the battle line of two approaching armies, but this section was apparently heavily edited, rendering it pointless and incomprehensible. The battle scenes are childish – a puff of smoke and the nearest two soldiers fall to the ground – this happens repeatedly.The script can't do anything with the stereotypical characters and the one-sentence plot and there are no stand-out lines. This is extraordinary considering the 'English dialogue by Tennessee Williams and Paul Bowles'. Probably it was there but smothered by Visconti's operatic technique. One wonders why these writers were attracted to the project (apart from a free holiday in Rome) – perhaps they liked the final humiliation of the countess, which is quite harsh – even gleefully misogynistic. She gets her own back though, and it seems the moral is that both men and woman, with their impulsive need for each other, no matter how noble the exterior, are stupid, weak and mutually self-destructive. That ridicules everybody (...or does it?).Funnily enough, the main problem is Alida Valli, who is required to over-emote in every scene (in total contrast to her depressive role in "The Third Man") – it's a little unpleasant to watch and she soon begins to annoy. She doesn't look right at all during the romance – too hard-edged. Farley Granger was actually the main point of interest. His slight woodenness suits the impossibly white uniform and cape he was made to wear (what sort of wash-powder did they have in those days?), and in the climactic drunken scene (enhanced by a delightful whore - the highlight of the film) he did as well as anyone could have done under a direction that demanded over-amplification of every attempted nuance. And his eyes expressed something beyond the paltry plot of the film as if betraying that this Italian job was an odd, intense experience for him for one reason or another. So, for all the film's grandeur, all I was left with was some vague speculation of a personal nature about one of its players. Perhaps his story – relating to the real world - is the film Visconti should have made.

In 1866, in the spring of Venice, an underground rebel movement against the Austrian occupation in Italy is getting stronger. The married Countess Livia Serpieri (Alida Valli) sees her cousin challenging the Austrian Lieutenant Franz Mahler (Farley Granger) for a duel in the opera and being arrested and sent to the exile for one year. When she meets Mahler, she first hates him but after a night together walking along the streets in Venice, she falls deeply in love for him, becoming his mistress. When the war starts, she moves to her property in the country missing Mahler. When he visits her during a night, she forgets her principles, decency and betrayals her cause with cruel and tragic consequences.I am one of the greatest worldwide fans of IMDb, but sometimes I am disappointed with the ranking of this site. How can a masterpiece like "Senso" be out of any worldwide serious list of the top 250 best movies? The "red noble" Luchino Visconti is one of the best directors ever and this masterpiece explores a wonderful, cruel and tragic romance in times of the Italian "El Risorgimento". Each scene in this movie looks like a picture of the XIX Century, full of details. The cinematography is one of the most beautiful I have ever seen, with a stunning recreation of a period. The story is fantastic, with a gorgeous Alida Valli in the top of her beauty, and Farley Granger splendid as a scum lover. The restored DVD released in Brasil by Versatil distributor is amazing, full of excellent extras. My vote is ten.Title (Brazil): "Senso – Sedução da Carne" ("Senso – Seduction of the Flesh")