Luchino Visconti, ailing and partially paralyzed by a stroke a year or two before, managed to finish 'Conversation Piece' (the Italian title to me seems better -- 'A conversation inside a family). He called upon Burt Lancaster to play his protagonist, the retired American professor who has withdrawn from the world, devoting his hours to his passion of minor English 18 and 19 century art and to his books, in Rome. We see not the energetic hero of 'The Leopard', but a tired older man without qualities, in a well ordered arrangement of taste for tradition and patterns and philosophical musing. And his apartment is the embodiment of that world that is not only antiquated but which time has passed by. His is a bourgeois order that belongs in history books or literature. And into his quiet world burst with great energy is the modern temperament of a dysfunctional family of the upper class, filthy with money and decadent. The beautiful Sylvana Mangano is the marchesa who finagles the professor to rent a vacant apartment above his museum like apartment with its stuffy furniture, it corridors brimming with portraits of bucolic scenes from the English gentry or great men and family, It is in a sense as musty and locked away as the long f=vacant apartment he lets for the marchesa's kept German lover Conrad (Visocnti's own lover Helmut Berger), as well as her daughter and friend. And suddenly, the upper floor is transformed, as a contrast, with a modernism that is loud and vulgar and in stark contrast to the professor's mausoleum, as he quietly awaits death, as much as he values his solitude and the silence of his own carthusian-like order. The marchesa is temperamental, demanding and will have her way with her rent lover, if he doesn't slip through her greedy grasp. The professor's world is turned upside down, as he is drawn into this world of his madcap tenants. As such, images of his mother (Dominique Sanda) and his wife (Claudia Cardinale) in brief scenes bring him back to the world he has shunned. And with a turn of the wrist, Visconti has hooked up the older bourgeois order to the new one, but his professor remains aloof until it is too late. For, despite his reluctance, the marchesa, her daughter, her daughter's friend and mercurial Conrad, a refugee from the turbulent 1960 radicalism, in the professor's mind have become his 'adopted' family; yet, the professor maintains his value free mind and refused to become engaged and with responsibility, until the tragic end. And then you have to wonder. Somehow, 'Conversation Piece' sets off bells in our minds today: its vulgar display of money, the absence of responsibility, the money cultural of a decadent capitalist class. Visconti with a year or so from his own death still had a vision of his own class and its failure to live up to values it espoused. It won't please everyone's taste, but it is worth seeing for the curious.

(spoilers)

I don't know why they changed Visconti's italian title for US/UK release - because the entire film only works in reference to that title. What the hell does "conversation piece" have to do with this movie? The "Family Group" title is a cue to the subtext - of the inter-relationships between these characters. That is where the story lies, not in the "plot," the events.

Subtext

It only really works on the subtextual level - i noticed this when i saw it a second time. I did it by accident - i watched all but ten minutes one night, then decided to start again instead of trying to pick up the ending, and all of a sudden i noticed the subtle changes in the relationships between the characters, i noticed character motivations i hadn't noticed the first time.

These five people are not a family: there is a biological mother and daughter, the daughter's fiance and the mother's casual sex partner - and Burt Lancaster, the retired professor whose apartment they insist on renting. Visconti is saying something about the family, the upper-class family in particualar - what it has become. And it is a modern de facto family - with Lancaster at its head contrasting this state of affairs with the old-world family. The film is about the great difference between young and old, like Death in Venice - and how much had changed in that generation gap - especially true back then - think about the difference between the 50's and the 70's! This is why Lancaster is such an important choice - he is an icon of classic Hollywood, of that golden age in the 40's and 50's, inserted in a modern world, yet totally isolated from it, as if he'd rather not know that the world has gone on outside his apartment since the 50's.

So while the dialogue at times does not seem to ring true, it gains a deeper resonance the second time through, when you're more aware of character motivations and less concerned with "what will happen next."

Performance

I won't hear anyone say Visconti can't direct actors: some of the finest performances i've ever seen can be found in his debut film Ossessione. But i'll admit that several European actors sound like they've just done a crash course in speaking English before filming began, which understandably mars the film's genuineness.

Second time through, i reevaluated: indeed the performances aren't as subtle as in Death in Venice or Ossessione. Burt Lancaster is magnificent, naturally - the problem is limited to the italian actors, and it seems to be a product of their struggling with speaking, or perhaps just mouthing the english words. Don't get me wrong - the performances are still disappointing, especially for a Visconti film, particularly the two women and the dark haired young man. But i can't help thinking that these actors gave much better performances on the set than the (or the American/Italian actors who have dubbed their voices, perhaps - the maid certainly can't speak english) dialogue track indicates.

Watch Helmut Berger (Konrad Huebel), for instance, playing a number of emotional scenes. If you turn the sound down or try to ignore the sound of the speech - his performance is actually quite wonderful - on the set, when they filmed it, he gave a great performance - but by the time they recorded the sound, the actors were not able to recapture the emotion of the moment.

So the poor quality of the voice acting, and the hammy performances from the women in particular are a shame, because the music and composition are gorgeous.

To say it is a Visconti film is to say that it is exquisite to look at: beautifully composed, with rich tones.

The real subject of the mournfulness that underlies Gruppo di famiglia seems to be that Visconti was nearing the end of his life. The aging professor who can't understand the younger generation and understands only his art and music, is a personal expression from Visconti. This aspect of the character takes on a particular relevance when you consider that Visconti died two years later. Lancaster lived thirty more years! Visconti still made another film after this, but this is a definite swan song, a goodbye message from him. The last scene from Lancaster is touching and brilliant. One of the best things Visconti has ever done.

Burt Lancaster was 61 at this time and 11 years earlier he had been in The Leopard. Luchino Visconti after a stroke in 1972 he had to direct by sitting in a wheelchair. It is great that both should have been so good and interesting character's in such very difficult situations. The property is having the ceiling falling in, where an atmosphere of incest fear pervades of brothers with and sister, fight and sex with each others and their mother who seems impossible. Although Lancaster also loves the life and it seems that he had been all his time as every thing he can control and then wonders if it is more interesting.