Luchino Visconti di Modrone, Count of Lonate Pozzolo was an Italian filmmaker, theatre and opera director, and screenwriter. He was one of the fathers of cinematic neorealism, but later moved towards luxurious, sweeping epics dealing with themes of beauty, decadence, death, and European history, especially the decay of the nobility and the bourgeoisie. Critic Jonathan Jones wrote that “no one did as much to shape Italian cinema as Luchino Visconti.”
Visconti in 1972
Family arms
Palazzo Visconti di Modrone in Milan
Grazzano Visconti Castle
Italian neorealism, also known as the Golden Age, was a national film movement characterized by stories set amongst the poor and the working class. They are filmed on location, frequently with non-professional actors. They primarily address the difficult economic and moral conditions of post-World War II Italy, representing changes in the Italian psyche and conditions of everyday life, including poverty, oppression, injustice and desperation.
A still shot from Rome, Open City, by Roberto Rossellini (1945)
Wandering Musicians by Italian neorealist artist Bruno Caruso (1953)
Bicycle Thieves by Vittorio De Sica (1948)
Shoeshine by Vittorio De Sica (1946)