Senso

Visconti isn't the worst of the classic Italian directors, but he's not a real stand-out either. Senso is the weakest of his films I've seen so far, so drenched in melodrama and kitsch that the 2-hour runtime felt at least twice as long. Quite a difficult film to sit through if you don't care about the drama and the romance.

An Italian countess is married to a Venetian nobleman but during the final days of the Austrian occupation she hooks up with an Austrian officer. The two have a passionate affair, though the countess suspects that the love might be a little one-sided, as the officer seems more interested in her money and reputation.

The colors are gruesome and the score is rather unpleasant, the performances are extremely over-the-top and the drama (let's call it sentimentality) is well beyond acceptable. I didn't care for any of the characters, I found the film terrible to look at and two hours was just way too long. One of the lesser Italian classics I've seen.