L'innocente
Set in aristocratic Rome at the turn of the 20th century, wealthy and self-absorbed nobleman Tullio Hermil carries on an affair with a sophisticated yet possessive widow, Countess Teresa Raffo, while treating his devoted wife, Giuliana, with cold condescension. Wounded by his years of neglect, Giuliana takes a lover of her own with young novelist, Filippo. When she becomes pregnant with Filippo's child, Tullio’s wounded pride cannot be contained, setting off a chain of events leading to ultimate tragedy.
Luchino Visconti’s final film L’Innocente (1976) is “among the most beautiful and severely disciplined films he has ever made” (The New York Times). A loose adaptation of Gabriele D’Annunzio’s 1892 novel, Visconti’s marital melodrama skewers masculine delusion and sexual double standards in “a fitting and majestic finale to a remarkable career that embraced neorealism and period romanticism with a grand yet disciplined operatic style” (The Los Angeles Times).
This 4K restoration of L'innocente was conducted by Film Movement Classics in 2026 to celebrate the film’s 50th anniversary. The film is presented in its original aspect ratio of 2.35:1. Black bars at the top and bottom of the screen are normal for this format. This new digital transfer was created in 4K resolution on an Arriscan film scanner from the original camera negative by Cinelab Service in Italy. Thousands of instances of dirt, debris, scratches, splices, and jitter were manually removed using Phoenix and color grading was performed shot by shot using Resolve Studio. The monaural soundtrack was remastered at 24-bit and all clicks, thumps, hum, and crackle were manually removed using isotope RX 8. All video and audio restoration was done at Heavenly Movie Corporation by Sebastian Alvarez del Castillo.
Cast
- Giancarlo Giannini
- Laura Antonelli
- Jennifer O'Neill
Blu-ray Features
Reframing L’Innocente video essay by author Ivo Blom
Booklet with a new essay by author Dan Callahan
Sound: Mono
Discs: 1
DVD Features
Reframing L’Innocente video essay by author Ivo Blom
Sound: Mono
Discs: 1
- "[L'innocente is] among the most beautiful and severely disciplined films [Visconti] has ever made. "The Innocent" is also one of Visconti's most terse, most dramatically economical films. There's not a superfluous frame in it. Further, it is splendidly performed by Mr. Giannini... and by Miss Antonelli, whose childlike face and voluptuous body combine to form a kind of ideograph that tells us what the film is all about. "The Innocent,"... is a fitting coda to the Visconti career. It's a film of effortless command in which the director's presence is everywhere felt — and nowhere intrudes."
- "The new restoration here is absolutely gorgeous with the prototypically lavish production design one would expect from a Visconti masterpiece coming through with shocking crispness and texture thanks to this new restoration."
- "The lavish, colorful depictions of stately villas with their sumptuous furnishings and immortal art work and the characters’ exquisite attire are matched by the director’s carnal delight in the beautiful people themselves. He films Giannini, Antonelli, and O’Neill with a rapt tenderness, capturing their exchanges of glances across crowded rooms or empty space with closeups of a rare magnetic power. These ravishing images are matched by the mellifluous, modulated voices that pour out grief in lofty and delicate phrases—and conceal, with the same rhetorical flourishes, deeply calculated machinations of an imperial cruelty."
- "[A] worthy finale to a distinguished career. It has a great performance from Laura Antonelli as the wife, and excellent ones from Giannini and Jennifer O'Neill as husband and lover."
- "The well-acted (especially by Antonelli), elegant and restrained film is a sumptuous work that has great sets, a good eye for period detail and colorful costumes. "
- "Another calculated and sophisticated tale of hypocritical aristocracy from Luchino Visconti, the 1976 film L'Innocente ends up finishing out the late director's career in a manner that plays to his strengths. At once bold and restrained, hot blooded in the bedroom but cold blooded everywhere else, L'Innocente is a steamy tale of passion and denial. It displays the director's mannered style and love of opulent detail, and also has excellent performances from Giancarlo Giannini, Laura Antonelli, and Jennifer O'Neill. "
- "The Innocent is a fitting end to a glittering career. Perfectly acted, directed and shot."
- "Like any "normal" nineteenth century male aristocrat, Tullio considers himself seemingly genetically consigned to being "in control", and part of L'Innocente's visceral impact is watching how quickly that illusion shatters once Tullio discovers there are several things he can't control, including the women in his life and his own emotions. This is another Visconti effort that is at least somewhat like The Leopard not just in its depiction of a historical milieu, but in the perhaps misleading distance that seems to exist between characters' facades and their inner worlds. Technical merits are generally solid, and L'Innocente comes Highly recommended."
Gallery
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Awards & Recognition
Cannes Film Festival
Sydney Film Festival
San Sebastian Film Festival
Toronto Int'l. Film Festival
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