Italian director Luchino
Visconti died just months before the premiere of his final film, the grim
period melodrama L’Innocente.
(Advertising materials in English-speaking territories bore the translated
title The Innocent.) In some ways,
the picture makes a fitting cinematic epitaph, since it touches on issues of
class and morality that infuse Vischonti’s more celebrated films, but in other
ways, it’s a comedown from the intellectually ambitious triumphs of The Damned (1969), Death in Venice (1971), and Conversation
Piece (1974). By comparison to those films, L’Innocente is a lurid soap opera without enough thematic weight to
support its narrative extremes. The picture also suffers for inconsistent
acting among the leading players, because American actress Jennifer O’Neill
delivers merely serviceable work. (During post-production, O’Neill’s dialogue
was dubbed into Italian by another performer.) Costar Laura Antonelli gives a
more impressive performance, though her many nude scenes are distracting; as
always, Antonelli’s erotic presence receives more attention than her
respectable acting skills. Of the three principal players, only leading man
Giancarlo Giannini truly elevates the material, investing his role as a
borderline sociopath with real menace.
Taking place in Italy circa the late
1900s, L’Innocente tells a simple
story about lust, pride, and revenge. The marriage of rich Italians Guiliana
(Antonelli) and Tullio (Giannini) has gone cold, not least because of Tullio’s open-secret
affair with another wealthy aristocrat, Teresa (O’Neill). As tension grows
because Teresa finds her position as the other woman more and more untenable,
Giuliana begins an affair of her own with Filippo (Marc Porel). He treats
Giuliana with respect, and their intimacy burns with a passion long missing
from Guiliana’s marriage, hence the extensive bedroom scenes between Filippo
and Guitliana. Despite having taken her for granted, Tullio becomes jealous of
his wife’s newfound romance, and his jealousy informs the dark events of the
movie’s second half.
Based on a novel by Gabriele d’Annunzio, L’Innocente could easily have been
presented as a taut morality tale running perhaps 90 minutes. As directed by
Vischonti with his usual stately pacing, the movie loses intensity at regular
intervals, even though the final half-hour, which is filled with horrific
tragedy, commands attention. The question, of course, is whether the preceding
hour and a half is enough to pull viewers along. For some, the answer will be
yes, thanks to sumptuous costuming and production design, in addition to
Giannini’s performance, the beauty of the leading ladies, and the general
tawdriness of the storyline. For others, getting through the film’s slow
stretches to reach the climax will require considerable willpower. And if
there’s a profound theme buried inside L’Innocente,
beyond trite assertions about how selfish men pay terrible costs for living
empty lives, it’s not immediately apparent after one viewing.
L’Innocente: FUNKY
