Conversation Piece

+ intro by film critic Phuong Le

Gruppo di famiglia in un interno

Perverse aristocratic tenants wreak havoc on the life of a retired professor in this late entry from Luchino Visconti.

Please note, we will screen the Italian dubbed version of the film (with English subtitles), which is the only version held by Cinecittà. This season is presented in partnership with Cinecittà and this 35mm print is part of the Visconti programme that has been touring internationally since 2018.

  • Director

    Luchino Visconti

  • With

    Burt Lancaster, Silvana Mangano, Helmut Berger

  • Italy 1974. 121min

  • 35mm

  • Certificate

    18

  • English subtitles

Visconti and Lancaster reunited for this lesser-celebrated rumination on the emptiness and melancholy at the heart of human nature. Lancaster is a dignified American professor living a solitary life in a Roman palazzo. He reluctantly takes in tenants, only to realise that they are a quartet of depraved upper-class hedonists with ties to fascist causes. As they attempt to form a new ‘family’ of sorts, destruction awaits.

35mm courtesy of Cinecittà. Contains disturbing scenes.

See other screenings of Conversation Piece.

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