Visconti and Welles: Two Visions of Cinema

Two books explore the cinematic methods of Luchino Visconti and Orson Welles. Youssef Ishaghpour's 'Visconti. Le sens et l’image' (Éditions La Différence) analyzes Visconti's work as iconology, a synthesis of arts (painting, music, literature, theater, opera) epitomized by 'Ludwig' (1973). Visconti began with neorealist films like 'Ossessione' (1942-43) and 'La Terra trema' (1948), but with 'Senso' (1954) he shifted to epic, operatic forms. A Marxist aristocrat, he interrogated beauty and decay, as in 'Violence et passion' (1974) where a leftist professor's collection of Conversation pieces is disrupted by neo-fascist tenants. His 'Death in Venice' (1971) traces Proustian themes, with Aschenbach (a composite of Thomas Mann and Gustav Mahler, played by Dirk Bogarde) confronting mortality through the beautiful Tadzio. Jean-Pierre Berthomé and François Thomas's 'Welles au travail' (Éditions Cahiers du cinéma) details Welles's creative process. Welles, once called 'public energy no. 1', innovated with fragmented space and time, short focal lengths (18.5mm in 'Touch of Evil'), and arc lamps. He edited most of his films himself, despite studio interference, and pursued boundless creation despite abandoned projects like 'Heart of Darkness'.