Ossessione

Luchino Visconti, Aristocrat and Marxist, became interested in film-making when Coco Chanel introduced him to Renoir. His first feature, Ossessione, going by the working title of Palude, was adapted from James M. Cain's novel The Postman Always Rings Twice. The film, accompanied by a powerful and tense music score, was made in 1942 war-torn Italy and immediately banned by the Fascist dictatorship.
Massimo Girotti whose career spanned seven decades and was last seen in Ozpetek's La Finestra Di Fronte (2003) is Gino, a handsome, penniless drifter who works and sleeps where he can. He happens upon a trattoria near Ferrara, run by bewitching Giovanna, played by Clara Calamai. In desperation Giovanna has married fat ex-bersagliere Bragana, whose every move repels her. Gino's arrival offers a way out, the sexual tension smouldering from the moment the protagonists clap eyes on each other. Gino has his way with his new employer's wife as soon as the chance presents itself.
At this point, Gino is wildly independent and certain of his lifestyle. He begs his new lover to run away with him but she is petrified of finding herself destitute. Gino takes off anyway. Yet the power-strings within the relationship shift when Gino chances upon the unhappy couple at a street fair in Ancona. His passion is enflamed again and he agrees to Giovanna's murderous request. Within a month of the lovers' initial encounter our leading tramp has stepped into Bragana's uncomfortable shoes. Giovanna is exalted by her release and keen to enjoy the life insurance proceeds. She wants to marry again but Gino is tormented by inevitable regret and self-recrimination, wondering who this woman really is and what has she made of him.
Another nine years would pass before Marlon Brando's legendary method-acting would hypnotise America in A Streetcar Named Desire. Yet obvious comparisons can be made between Brando and Girotti in terms of masculine sensuality and sheer physicality of acting. Unfortunately, owing to its earlier censorship Visconti's debut work would not reach American screens until 1959.
Anna Magnani was originally set to play Giovanna but she instead fell pregnant. Clara Calamai, who only two years earlier in La Cena Delle Beffe, had been responsible for scandalising the whole country with the first ever nude scene in Italian cinema, is spellbinding as the ruinous and manipulative Giovanna. Visconti, with a view to representing Giovanna as she might have appeared in real life, ruffles up her hair and directs her, at times, without makeup. When Vittorio Mussolini, editor of the magazine Cinema, saw an early screening he stormed out shouting ' Italian women like this don't exist!'
Fatal lover themes do not date, as relevant today as in renaissance tragedy: the boy loves the girl and to keep that girl he must murder the other boy. When the lovers are left to face each other and reckon with their consciences they invariably ask of themselves: 'Was it worth it?'
Visconti went on to make La Terra Trema, Rocco E I Suoi Fratelli and the 1963 classic Il Gattopardo, yet inspirational Ossessione remains a starting point of reference for fans of neo-realism.