I’m not exactly pining for the return of jaded cruelty-and-snobbery dramas like Luchino Visconti‘s L’Innocente, but it’s a little sad that films of this sort have pretty much disappeared. The darkly perverse Italian kind, I mean, with that upper-class erotic element that Visconti used to explore from time to time. I don’t miss those dopey Italian sex comedies that Laura Antonelli used to make in the ’70s. But I do miss the special combustion that came from Visconti + Antonelli + class contempt. (I can say this, can’t I? Without getting ripped?)
DVD Beaver frame capture from Koch Lorber DVD of Luchino Visconti’sL’Innocente — Giancarlo Giannini (l.), Laura Antonelli (r.).
