Ossessione

 

This review comes in lieu of my originally scheduled Sudden Fear review.  I watched this film a second time for my Italian class, so I figured I would post some brief thoughts of the film on here.  Perhaps I will at some point review some of the other adaptations of the source material, though the story is, I suppose, an archetype.

Luchino Visconti's first film as a director was 1943's Ossessione, an adaptation of James M. Cain's novel The Postman Always Rings Twice.  The film was deemed too controversial, and was destroyed by Italy's fascist government after just a handful of showings.  Fortunately, Visconti managed to hold onto a copy of the film's negative, from which all currently existing copies of the film were made.  This film is a real cinematic treasure, and we are fortunate that it was not lost to censorship. 

The plot is simple enough:  Gino is a drifter who winds up in an affair with Giovanna, the wife of a country innkeeper, Bregana.  Gino is a rolling stone, and he develops a case of wander-foot, convincing Giovanna to come and hop a train with him.  Giovanna gives up quickly, and returns home, while Gino continues on to another town alone.  Gino takes up with another vagobondo, Spagnolo, who encourages Gino to live his life freely, and to forget Giovanna.  Spagnolo serves as metaphor for the freedom of the open road, contrary to the metaphorical cage Gino finds himself in after breaking with the Spaniard and falling back in with Giovanna after a chance encounter.  With the exception of Spagnolo, all of these characters are doomed and all are fools. 

Ossessione is a dark and moody early noir.  It is easily one of my favorite in the genre.  Required viewing for fans of Italian cinema, film noir, 40s melodrama, and by people who love cinema.

Wikipedia has a pretty good entry on this film, which I highly recommend checking out (wait until after you view the film).  Particularly this section on "cinematic technique" which consists of excellent technical insight, as well as deeper general insight into the film.