Special Series
LUCHINO VISCONTI
Wednesdays, 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.
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.
This program is funded in part by an award from the National Endowment for the Arts
Films in this Series
