March 11 – April 8, 2026
The midweek matinees are back at the Cinema with five films by Italian master Luchino Visconti, including his rarely seen neorealist masterpieces Ossessione, La Terra Trema and Rocco e i suoi fratelli. Plus new restorations of Il Gattopardo and Gruppo di famiglia in un interno.
Sag Harbor, NY – Following the success of its 2025 tribute to Rialto Pictures, Sag Harbor Cinema brings back its midweek special program of classic films with a five-week tribute to the Italian master Luchino Visconti.
“I liked the idea of following a tribute to an esteemed distributor of classic films, like Rialto, with an homage to a major individual director, such as Luchino Visconti. I also think this is an interesting moment in time to revisit post-World War II cinema at its height. Even more through the work of an artist who was the offspring of Italian aristocracy, a member of the Communist Party, openly gay and a devout Catholic, all at the same time. Together with, among others, Vittorio De Sica, Roberto Rossellini and Michelangelo Antonioni, Visconti gave birth to what is still considered by many to be the peak of Italian cinema, out of the rubble of a global conflict, of the Fascist government and of the national film industry,” says SHC’s Artistic Director Giulia D’Agnolo Vallan.
The series kicks off March 11th with Ossessione (Obsession), Visconti’s 1943 directorial debut. Inspired by James M. Cain’s 1934 novel The Postman Always Rings Twice — and released three years before Hollywood’s own adaptation of Cain’s novel — Visconti’s first feature is often considered to be one of the first Italian neorealist works, marked by its stark, humanistic portrait of life in wartime Italy. Clara Calamai and Massimo Girotti star as the doomed lovers, later portrayed by Lana Turner and John Garfield in American director Tay Garnett’s 1946 version.
On March 18th, the series continues with a rare screening of La Terra Trema (The Earth Trembles), Visconti’s 1948 drama — loosely adapted from Giovanni Verga’s realist novel I Malavoglia — set in a Sicilian fishing community and famously featuring a cast of nonprofessional actors from the village where it was shot.
Next, on March 25th, is Rocco e i suoi fratelli (Rocco and His Brothers), Visconti’s sweeping 1960 epic of late neorealism, which chronicles the historical contradictions facing postwar Italy through a family’s move from the rural South to industrial Milan. Starring Alain Delon, Claudia Cardinale, Annie Girardot and Renato Salvatori, it was described by Martin Scorsese as “one of the most sumptuous black-and-white pictures I’ve ever seen,” and “a simultaneous continuation and development of neorealism.”
On April 1st, the Cinema will screen Visconti’s best internationally known and most spectacular work Il Gattopardo (The Leopard). A lavish 1963 historical drama, now magnificently restored to its visual beauty and original length, the film is based on Giuseppe Tomasi di Lampedusa’s seminal novel. Set against the backdrop of the war for Italy’s unification, the film stars Burt Lancaster, Alain Delon, and Claudia Cardinale. The program concludes with Gruppo di famiglia in un interno (Conversation Piece), Visconti’s 1974 chamber drama starring Burt Lancaster as a reclusive professor whose life is disrupted by the arrival of a provocative young couple.
The Luchino Visconti matinee screenings are supported in part by an award from the National Endowment for the Arts.
The series will run from March 11th – April 8th, with one of the five films screening every Wednesday afternoon and evening. The full lineup and tickets are available at the box office or sagharborcinema.org.
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ABOUT LUCHINO VISCONTI
Born into Italian nobility, a member of the Italian Communist Party during World War II, openly gay, and staunchly Catholic, Luchino Visconti inhabited a complicated, at times paradoxical, role in Italian cinema culture. A leader in the neorealism movement who also worked with international stars like Burt Lancaster, Helmut Berger, Alain Delon, and Dirk Bogarde, Visconti produced an oeuvre of modest and humane dramas as well as decadent, sprawling historical spectacles. Deftly aware of the subtle and rich means of cinematic expression, he uniquely imposed the narrative customs of opera and the novel onto film, yet remained sharply attuned to the social and political climates of the 20th century.
His early landmark, Ossessione (1943), helped inaugurate Italian neorealism with its raw depiction of working-class life, while other works such as La Terra Trema (1948) deepened his commitment to social realism with his use of nonprofessional actors and on-location shooting. By the 1960s and 1970s, Visconti turned increasingly toward lavish historical epics like The Leopard (1963) and Ludwig (1973), as well as intimate studies of decay such as Death in Venice (1971) and The Damned (1969), uniting political history and private desire within an opulent, rigorously composed visual style.
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ABOUT THE FILMS
OSSESSIONE (OBSESSION)
Directed by Luchino Visconti
Italy | 1943 | 140 mins | Italian
Generally considered to be the first film of the Italian neorealist movement, Visconti’s debut feature is also one of the first adaptations of James M. Cain’s noir novel The Postman Always Rings Twice (1934). In the Po Valley of northern Italy, a hunky vagabond (Massimo Girotti) hooks up with an ex-prostitute (Clara Calamai) who’ll do just about anything to get away from her horrible husband and the rundown hotel where they live.
Restored by Istituto Luce Cinecittà, CSC-Cineteca Nazionale and VIGGO.
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LA TERRA TREMA (THE EARTH TREMBLES)
Directed by Luchino Visconti
Italy | 1948 | 160 mins | Italian
In Visconti’s Sicilian masterpiece, a fisherman’s budding leadership of the local labor force threatens the price-fixing schemes of wholesalers all too willing to put down an incipient rebellion. Based on a classic novel by Giovanni Verga, La Terra Trema was one of the most formally daring of all neorealist works, establishing the template for dozens of later films that would examine the emergence of political consciousness. The many extraordinary sequences are played out by a cast of actual fishermen, who are, to critic André Bazin, filmed as though “Renaissance princes.”
Digital restoration from Istituto Luce Cinecittà.
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ROCCO E I SUOI FRATELLI (ROCCO AND HIS BROTHERS)
Directed by Luchino Visconti
Italy | 1960 | 180 mins | Italian
Presented by Martin Scorsese and featuring an operatic score by Nino Rota, Rocco and His Brothers is a timeless story of modernity, class tension, and family drama spun across an epic canvas by director Luchino Visconti. Looking for opportunity, five brothers move north with their mother to Milan, finding fame in the boxing ring and love in the same woman. Famously labeled by Scorsese as “one of the most sumptuous black-and-white pictures,” Rocco lives up to its praise with its new 4K restoration, painstakingly worked upon by the Film Foundation and the Cineteca di Bologna. With an all-star cast including Alain Delon, Annie Girardot, Renato Salvatori and Claudia Cardinale, this cinematic tale remains equal parts breathtaking and heartbreaking to behold.
Restored by Cineteca di Bologna in association with Titanus, TF1 Droits Audiovisuels and The Film Foundation. Restoration funding by Gucci and The Film Foundation.
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IL GATTOPARDO (THE LEOPARD)
Directed by Luchino Visconti
France/Italy | 1963 | 165 mins | Italian
Martin Scorsese, founder of the Film Foundation, has described Luchino Visconti’s The Leopard as “one of the greatest visual experiences in cinema.” With operatic grandeur and an exquisitely Proustian attention to 19th-century period detail and atmosphere, Visconti adapts Giuseppe di Lampedusa’s novel about a Sicilian prince at the end of the Risorgimento (the Italian unification) who through political cunning ensures the survival of the old aristocratic order in the face of revolutionary ferment and moral decay. Justly celebrated for its breathtaking ballroom sequence, the film features brilliant performances by Burt Lancaster, never better as the august Prince Fabrizio of Salina (and bearing no small resemblance to Visconti himself); Alain Delon, as his calculating nephew Tancredi, who goes off to join Garibaldi’s forces; and Claudia Cardinale, as the ravishing daughter of a rich bourgeois.
Restored in association with Cineteca di Bologna, Pathé, Fondation Jérôme Seydoux-Pathé, Twentieth Century Fox, and CSC-Cineteca Nazionale. Restoration funding by Gucci and The Film Foundation.
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GRUPPO DI FAMIGLIA IN UN INTERNO (CONVERSATION PIECE)
Directed by Luchino Visconti
Italy | 1974 | 121 mins | Italian
A retired professor and art lover leads a solitary life in his abode in Rome. Countess Bianca Brumonti insists on renting a floor of his mansion. He agrees in exchange for a unique painting that he wants for his collection. The arrival of the countess’ eccentric family turns his quiet life upside down. Silvana Mangano and Helmut Berger star alongside Burt Lancaster in the roles of Bianca and her young lover – central characters in this family possessing rather unusual moral values. In the film, the professor succumbs to the charms of Konrad Huebel, despite his vulgar nature. A strange relationship – based on desire and domination – comes to exist between them. For some, this fictitious couple is a metaphor for the relationship that was formed between Luchino Visconti and Helmut Berger.
The restoration was carried out by CSC – Cineteca Nazionale (Centro Sperimentale di Cinematografia) using the original 35mm camera negative and the optical sound negative. Image processing, scanning to UHD 4K, and final grading were completed at Studio Emme, Rome. This new edition restores Visconti’s precise chromatic design, elegant interior compositions, and sonic detail with unprecedented clarity and fidelity.
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About the Sag Harbor Cinema
As a not-for-profit 501(c)(3), community-based organization, Sag Harbor Cinema is dedicated to presenting the past, present and future of the movies and to preserving and educating about films, filmmaking, and the film-going experience in its three state-of-the-art theaters. The Cinema engages its audiences and the community year-round through dialogue, discovery, and appreciation of the moving image – from blockbusters to student shorts and everything in between. Revitalized and reimagined through unprecedented community efforts to rebuild the iconic Main Street structure after a fire nearly destroyed it in 2016, SHC continues a long historic tradition of entertainment in the heart of Sag Harbor Village.