Luchino Visconti - 1948
Early Visconti, shot on scratchy film whose speed gi ves overexposure and makes that remarkable, heoic, sculpted face of Antonio. There is something distinctly Russian in much of this. High and low angles, aggressive framing, tableaus of the workers confronting the bosses. Yet unlike the early Soviets, the scenes continue’ the workers retreat into the deep compostion after their pose.
But we also have many aspects that speak of later Visconti. Those huge long shots, stately movements on landscape, with figures, here dark clad, framed against the sea. And then the move in from this. The family saga, deeply in a discussion with the novel.
O.K., this is pretty hardcore neo-realism, in that it is slow, close, crying calls of the placce (rather like 'La Pointe Courte', in a different tradition), and the focus on everyday lives of workers. As is the sense of tragedy, and push to melodrama, though the way this is handled is Visconti's own.
As a critique of capitalism it is heroic, perhaps a little self-regarding but ultimately a powerful message.
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