Count Luchino Visconti di Modrone is my beloved. Grand and operatic. Never fearing the theatrical or taboo (but never vulgar for vulgarities sake).
You see, we are exactly alike.
The Count was an interesting man. A member of the Italian aristocracy and the Italian Communist Party. He was open with his homosexuality, and photographs men in a way unlike any other directors I’ve seen.
He showcases their beauty.
Le Notti (based on the Dostoevsky short story) has an unusual cast, all actors I associate with different directors simply because I saw them in other movies first. Marcello Mastroianni (Fellini’s man), Maria Schell (Rene Clement’s girl), and Jean Marais (Cocteau).
Schell (with the most expressive eyes) plays Natalia, an innocent girl in a small city who pines away after Jean Marais, a lover who has left, but she insists will return to her. Natalia meets Mario (Mastroianni), a lonely wanderer who falls in love with her. Mastroianni tries desperately to convince Natalia to forget Marais and begin a new life with him. Will she or won’t she? I shall never tell. You must watch it yourself.