Sandra (film)
| Vaghe stelle dell'Orsa | |
|---|---|
 | |
| Directed by | Luchino Visconti |
| Written by |
Suso Cecchi d'Amico Enrico Medioli Luchino Visconti |
| Starring |
Michael Craig Claudia Cardinale |
| Music by | Cesar Franck |
| Cinematography | Armando Nannuzzi |
| Edited by | Mario Serandrei |
Release dates |
16 September 1965 (Italy) 16 January 1966 (U.S.) |
| Country | Italy |
| Language | Italian |
Vaghe stelle dell'Orsa is a 1965 Italian film directed by Luchino Visconti. It was released as Sandra (Of a Thousand Delights) in the USA and as Of These Thousand Pleasures in the UK.
Plot
Visconti's retelling of the Electra story starts with Sandra/Electra (Claudia Cardinale) returning to her ancestral home in Italy - and reviving an intimate involvement with her brother (Sorel) which troubles her naive husband (Michael Craig) - on the eve of an official ceremony commemorating the death of her Jewish father in a Nazi concentration camp. 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:
- Vaghe stelle dell'Orsa, io non credea
- Tornare ancor per uso a contemplarvi
- Sul paterno giardino scintillanti,
- E ragionar con voi dalle finestre
- Di questo albergo ove abitai fanciullo,
- E delle gioie mie vidi la fine.(...)
English translation:
- Glimmering stars of the Great Bear,
- I never thought I'd be back to see you
- Shining down on my father's garden,
- Nor talk to you ever again from the windows
- Of this house where I spent my childhood
- And saw the last of my happiness vanish.(...)
Cast
- Claudia Cardinale ... Sandra Dawdson
- Jean Sorel ... Gianni Wald-Luzzati
- Michael Craig ... Andrew Dawdson
- Renzo Ricci... Antonio Gilardini
- Fred Williams ... Pietro Formari
- Amalia Troiani... Fosca - maid
- Marie Bell ... Sandra's mother
- Vittorio Manfrino
- Renato Moretti
- Giovanni Rovini
- Paola Piscini
- Isacco Politi
- Ferdinando Scarfiotti ... party guest
Awards
The film won the Golden Lion at the Venice Film Festival.
References
- ↑ Leopardi's poem full text at ; English translation at Google Books
External links
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