Sandra (1965 film) explained

Sandra
Native Name:
Director:Luchino Visconti
Starring:Claudia Cardinale
Jean Sorel
Michael Craig
Music:Cesar Franck
Cinematography:Armando Nannuzzi
Editing:Mario Serandrei
Studio:Vides Cinematografica
Distributor:Columbia C.E.I.A.D. (Italy)
Runtime:105 minutes
Country:Italy
France
Language:Italian

Sandra (Italian: '''Vaghe stelle dell'Orsa'''|lit=Glimmering stars of the Great Bear) is a 1965 drama film directed and co-written by Luchino Visconti, and starring Claudia Cardinale, Jean Sorel, and Michael Craig. A modern-day retelling of the Electra story, the film centers on the incestuous relationship between a young Italian woman (Cardinale) and her brother (Sorel), on her return to their ancestral home of Volterra. It premiered at the 26th Venice International Film Festival, where it won the Golden Lion.

Plot

Visconti's retelling of the Electra story starts with Sandra/Electra (Claudia Cardinale) returning to her ancestral home in Italy. On the eve of an official ceremony commemorating the death of her Jewish father in a Nazi concentration camp, she revives an intimate involvement with her brother (Jean Sorel), which troubles her naive husband (Michael Craig).

As ever with Visconti, he is ambivalently drawn to the decadent society he is ostensibly criticising; and Armando Nannuzzi's camera lovingly caresses the creaking old mansion, set in a landscape of crumbling ruins, where the incestuous siblings determine to wreak revenge on the mother (Bell) and stepfather (Ricci) who supposedly denounced their father.

The title, culled from the poem "Le ricordanze"[1] by Giacomo Leopardi, could be translated as "Glimmering stars of the Great Bear", and has a strong resonance with the movie's plot:

English translation:

Cast

Production

The movie was shot on location in Volterra, a Tuscan town fifty miles southwest of Florence. Casa Inghrami and the Palazzo Viti were both used as settings for the family mansion there.[2]

It was initially reported that the principal actors would voice their own parts in the English-language version of the film.[3] Ultimately though they were dubbed by others.

This is the third of four films Claudia Cardinale made with Visconti, after Rocco and His Brothers (1960) and The Leopard (1963), followed by Gruppo di famiglia in un interno (1974).

Awards

The film won the Golden Lion at the Venice Film Festival.

Notes and References

  1. Leopardi's poem full text at http://www.pensieriparole.it/poesie/poesie-d-autore/poesia-18146; English translation at Google Books
  2. TUSCAN-LANDSCAPE WITH FIGURES OF VISCONTI AND 'ELECTRA' By DONALD LaBADIE. New York Times 6 Dec 1964: X13.
  3. TUSCAN-LANDSCAPE WITH FIGURES OF VISCONTI AND 'ELECTRA' By DONALD LaBADIE. New York Times 6 Dec 1964: X13.