Luchino Visconti's minimalistic film about the intellectuals of his generation
9/10
Author: Ilpo Hirvonen from Finland
8 September 2010
*** This review may contain spoilers ***
Luchino Visconti's career is unusual compared to his companions, because he started it in his forties - by directing Ossessione (1943). Shortly after Ossessione Visconti became well known as a controversial artist. After many decades of filmmaking he met his end in 1976, but still in his latest days managed to make few masterful films.
His second latest film is Conversation Piece (Passion & Violence) it's also a story about the disintegration of a family as many other films by Visconti have been; The Leopard, The Damned etc. The film was planned on the basis of the fact that Visconti was in a bad condition. He couldn't move much, so they needed to make a film that didn't require a lot of space, which was quite easy because Conversation Piece happens only in one building.
A retired professor (Burt Lancaster) collects paintings from the 18th century. He likes to live a peaceful, quiet life, but one day a woman appears to his door demanding him to rent the upper part of his apartment. Quickly we find out that three other people are moving there, two of her children and a friend of them. Slowly, but eventually a bond start to build between the lonely professor and the family.
The paintings the professor collects are called conversation pieces; paintings of the nobility or the bourgeoisie with their children, servants and dogs. Paintings, whose wicked backgrounds are fascinating to research. This film by Luchino Visconti is actually one of these conversation pieces. It's a portrait of a family, the most obvious scene that reveals this is the scene where the five main characters gather around the table. In this scene the characters are finally against each other and say the most cruel truths.
Conversation Piece is a film about an intellectual of his own generation who collides with the new generation and who cannot live in a harmony in the modern world. A major point in the film is that; nothing good can come of it when an elderly man tries to approach younger people as his children. They are too different, they can never understand each other. The professor is an egoist, manic collector who hates noise and other people. He can't accept that the actual things that mean are the people, their problems not the products and paintings they've left behind. He rather discusses with the paintings that people have left behind than with the actual people.
Luchino Visconti tells that through Burt Lancaster's character he tried to interpret the position of his generation's intellectuals. Through this character he was able to present a generation, a class which he was a part of too. Visconti's films are often stories about families about the disintegration of them. Only in Bellissima the family sticks together in the end. He says that he tells them as a requiem and the form of tragedy seems to suit him the best.
In result of the choices made by the characters they end up being face to face with themselves. The safety created by the family is gone and the privileges of money and power can't save them now. They are alone, and they cannot change their situations. Luchino Visconti has always been interested in researching a rotten society and even that Conversation Place takes place in one building, it manages to create an impressive portrayal of the Italian society in the 70's.
The professor never understands the events that happen around him. When Konrad (the most immoral of the youngsters) tries to reveal the fascist plot of a right-wing extremist, the professor doesn't understand it, because he doesn't think that the threat of fascism is real anymore. The scene is very touching - when Konrad actually is in need of trust, support and loyalty, the professor turns him a blind eye. When the fascists have murdered Konrad, the professor cannot believe it and he excludes in his grief. Conversation Piece is a very multidimensional film. I went to see it with high expectations, but somehow it still managed to surprise me.
It's a portrayal of a family and the disintegration of it It's also a survey of Visconti's generation's intellectuals, but it certainly isn't autobiographical, the other characters of Conversation Piece are also very well crafted. Conversation Piece is a story about loyalty, fascism, politics, loneliness, destruction of family, passion, love, the collision of young and old. It's a beautiful conversation piece.
