A Fusillade of Passion

THE DAMNED
Luchino Visconti, 1969

Fellini. Antonioni. Bertolucci. De Sica. Pasolini. Rossellini. And Visconti. Italian cinema would practically be nothing hadn't those names existed.

Among those filmmakers, Luchino Visconti is the one whose works I find very exciting. Most of his films are fearless; yet underneath that audaciousness lies a certain touch of overwhelming tenderness.

Death in Venice is Visconti's most popular work. (That film is a tearjerker.) While The Damned is, in my opinion, his best and sadly underrated opus.

A Dance Into Madness

(Photo belongs to its owner/s. I don't own or claim to own this photo.)

THE NIGHT PORTER
Liliana Cavani, 1974

Rainy Vienna as a backdrop. Isn't that interesting? In The Night Porter, Italian filmmaker Liliana Cavani tackles sadomasochism and the Stockholm syndrome. Thanks to Charlotte Rampling's iconic costume, The Night Porter became Cavani's best remembered film.

A Turning Point in Cinema

VANISHING POINT
Richard C. Sarafian, 1971

Vanishing Point is one of the most influential movies of all time. It even inspired a bunch of "car movies," most notably Quentin Tarantino's Death Proof. Audioslave's music video for their song Show Me How To Live is a homage to Vanishing Point. Primal Scream even has an album named "Vanishing Point," which includes a song called Kowalski (named after the film's lead character).