SENSO (1954) Movie Trailer

This is an original trailer for the 1954 Italian film SENSO, directed by Luchino Visconti, and starring Alida Valli, Farley Granger and Massimo Girotti. It was adapted by Carlo Alianello, Suso Cecchi d'Amico, Giorgio Bassani, Giorgio Prosperi and Visconti from Camillo Boito's eponymous novella. Writers Tennessee Williams and Paul Bowles scripted the dialogue for the English-language version of the film. French filmmaker Jean Renoir was, reportedly, the supervisor of the French dubbed version.

SENSO is a tragic romance set in the year 1866, when the Third Italian War of Independence was coming to an end. During the Austrian occupation of her country, Livia Serpeiri (Valli), a beautiful Italian countess married to an older aristocrat, puts her marriage and political principles on the line by engaging in a torrid affair with a dashing Austrian lieutenant (Granger). Abandoning all reason, Livia is unable to see that she is only being used for her money and social standing, until it is too late, and she finds herself driven to the point of madness.

Gilded with ornate costumes by Macel Escoffier and Piero Tosi, and settings by Ottavio Scotti , this operatic melodrama is an extraordinary evocation of reckless emotions from director Visconti, one of cinema's great sensualists. The picture was brilliantly photographed in rich Technicolor by cinematographers G.R. Aldo (who died during production) and Robert Krasker. The stirring musical score was adapted by Franco Ferrara from the works of composer Anton Bruckner.