Movies - The Damned

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The Damned (Italian:La caduta degli dei) Luchino Visconti, 1969.

Analysis of the major critical responses in English

Through an analysis of The Damned (1969) with some detailed comparative work ofThe Leopard (1962) this article argues that the work of Visconti is overdue critical revision. Visconti's oeuvre is highly sophisticated regarding the nature of history. In these two films Visconti analyses two critical turning-points in modern European history. Firstly there is the Risorgimento. Secondly he examines the accession to, and consolidation of, power of the Nazis between 1933-1934. These represent the major triumphs of nationalism of the 19th century often seen as progressive and the closure of this era of nationalism which by the 1930s can be seen as highly regressive. Post First World War Nationalisms had led to a tranche of reactionary governments across central and eastern Europe as well as in Italy and later Spain. For Visconti Nazi Germany represents the nadir of this wider reactionary nationalism. Historically Nazism was to play out the end of this movement in the most melodramatic of ways. The Damned functions as a film about the few critical months between February 1933 - June 1934 which saw the solid installation of a regime that would bring Europe crashing to its knees and end the period which the Risorgimento opened. For Visconti The Damned is nothing less than a representation of an attempt to turn back the tide of history.

Visconti's notion of anthropomorphic cinema combined a unique blend of Gramscian and Lukacsian Marxism. Visconti successfully used some great European realist works of the 20th century to represent the workings of history through cinema in ways which have yet to be matched. Recent scholarship of the Nazi period can be used to cross reference Visconti's approach. As a result Nowell-Smith's (2003) suggestion that Visconti shifts his interest in history towards culture can be questioned. The other main critical work in English on Visconti by is by Bacon (1998). Bacon's otherwise interesting and insightful work also fails to grapple fully with Visconti's understanding of history. As a result Bacon re-inscribes Visconti as a Liberal democrat. A careful reading of Visconti's work reveals a very profound and decidedly Marxist approach to history and representation.

The Damned has often been regarded as the first of Visconti's films described as 'The German Trilogy' the others being Death in Venice
(1973) and Ludwig(1973). Henry Bacon (1998) specifically categorizes these films together under a chapter 'Visconti & Germany'. Visconti's earlier films had analysed Italian society during the Risorgimento and postwar periods. Bondanella (2002) has seen the 'trilogy' as a move to take a broader view of European politics and culture. Stylistically 'They emphasise lavish sets and costumes, sensuous lighting, painstakingly slow camerawork, and a penchant for imagery reflecting subjective states or symbolic values.'1 comments Bondanella. Bondanella also notes that much critical discourse has confused the examination of decadence with a recommendation for its continuation. Visconti himself has commented that he was interested 'in the analysis of a sick society', and there is a marked difference between the representation of rising modernity and its links with the bourgeoisie in The Leopard compared with the stasis of Europe encapsulated by a sick fin de siecle Venice and a moribund Bavarian monarchy. These represent issues raised by the construction of the Bismarckian strong state and aspects of the weakness of the old empire of Austro-Hungary and its former ally Bavaria.

The Damned takes as its subject matter the relationships between the heavy industrialists in the late Weimar Republic on the cusp of Nazi success and the need for the Nazi leadership to discipline, and revise its fundamentals should it wish to reach the heights of power with the blessing of the powerful industrialists. This case study seeks to analyse The Damned through the lens of Visconti's notion of 'anthropomorphic cinema'. Nowell-Smith defines this as a situation where 'the movement of social forces is reflected in the actions and passions of individuals expressed through the representation of character' (Nowell-Smith 2003, p 151). Furthermore anthropomorphic cinema within The Damned relates the historical processes which Visconti develops to the differing ways in which Gramsci's notions of Hegemony can emerge as a regressive not only progressive force.

Critics have commented that Visconti has been strongly influenced by William Shirer's Rise and Fall of the Third Reichand also by Thomas Mann's Buddenbrooks. It is also noted that Visconti read other historical publications apart from Shirer. Shirer was an American journalist covering events in situ which he later turned into a book. It was certainly widely influential, however historiography of the Nazi period has moved on considerably since then 2. Visconti might well have been strongly influenced by Italian historiography of the time which in general has been viewed as 'ethico-political' by Martin Clark (1984) in a standard British text of Italian history. Clark notes that the 'mainstream Marxist' historians of Italy who were members of the Communist Party were strongly influenced by Gramsci. Gramscian ideas certainly helped formulate one of Visconti main theoretical lenses in constructing his historical films. Nevertheless it is stressed below that Visconti was not trying to construct a conventional drama-documentary of an historical event rather, I argue, he was trying to bring to the fore the notion of underlying historical processes at a deeper and more universal level. Through his cinematic practice.

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Movies - The Damned

Analysis of the major critical responses in English

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