Review: Luchino Visconti’s ‘Conversation Piece,’ Starring Burt Lancaster, on Raro Blu-ray

The year is 1972. Master Italian filmmaker Luchino Visconti is struck down by a stroke, rendering him, one would think, unable to continue making films—and this just two years after hitting a late-career high point with Death in Venice. But like many artists kept alive by their muse, Visconti persevered, managing to complete two more films before finally succumbing to a heart attack in 1976. Adaptability being a key ingredient to any sort of artistic longevity, Visconti took his ailments not as hindrance, but as a challenge toward the realization of a new project.

Taken by a story written by past collaborator Enrico Medioli and intrigued by the cinematic restrictions afforded such an intimate character study, Visconti—now very limited in his physical movements and activity—saw both personal and logistical promise in this tale of aging, nostalgia, and generational divide, which was entitled Conversation Piece after an illustrated novel of family portraits of the same name by Mario Praz. And the finished product, which found Visconti working on just a few sets and stages and with only a handful of actors and longtime collaborators, while lacking the grandeur of such celebrated works as Senso and The Leopard, ultimately found inspiration in its limitations, and to this day stands as one of Visconti’s most personal, if necessarily least dynamic, works.

The perceived inability for an aging man to connect to a younger generation or even simply the outside world is a conceit that Visconti denied as reflective of his own situation at the time, yet Burt Lancaster—wisely playing his character of “The Professor” in direct correlation with the man he’d come to know so well over the prior decade—quickly identified the familiar traits that Visconti, Medioli, and co-screenwriter Suso Cecchi d’Amico imbued in this character. Resistant to change, the Professor has it instead foist on him when a divorced, hedonistic noblewoman rents the upper room of his old-style Italian duplex, her and her entourage—which includes her new lover, daughter, and her daughter’s boyfriend—upending the old man’s routine and convictions with their decadent displays of consumerism and sexuality.

Death looms large over Conversation Piece. And not just Visconti’s, but also, not coincidentally, the Professor’s; small glimmers of past lives (his wife, played by Claudia Cardinale, and his mother, by Dominique Sanda, both feature in brief flashbacks) and extracurricular interests (homosexuality is hinted at obliquely via a small hidden room where the Professor allows the marchesa’s young lover to spend the evening with him) are purposefully thwarted by his prized art collection which seemingly works as a salve against his discontent. The final scene brings with it a glimpse of realization on behalf of the Professor, one which Visconti himself may very well have never achieved. But Conversation Piece, as a “last will and testament” (as many have come to identify it), feels both like a stylistic and thematic reconciliation on the filmmaker’s behalf, and as such a work of important insight into one of the cinema’s great anomalies.

Image/Sound

This new transfer of Conversation Piece was made from a 4K restoration that was started in 2019 from the original 35mm camera negative. The depth of the image is strong, as are the details of the apartment interiors within which most of the film is set, with the wallpaper, books, and marble and wood crown molding all revealing rich textures. There’s also a strong delineation between colors and tones, particularly the array of reds, golds, and browns, while the film grain is tight and even throughout. On the audio front, the dialogue is crisp and clear, with options for both English and Italian languages.

Extras

Along with the image upgrade, this release also comes with a new audio commentary by critic Bilge Ebiri. It’s an engaging and informative track in which Ebiri discusses the personal nature of Luchino Visconti’s film, the emotional ebbs and flows of Burt Lancaster’s character, the role of class and social status in the film, and the elaborate production design. The archival Interview with film critic and screenwriter Alessandro Bencivenni that was on the 2012 Raro Blu-ray is also included, though the booklet from that release is not.

Overall

Raro’s second Blu-ray release of Conversation Piece presents Luchino Visconti’s penultimate film with a transfer of a new 4K restoration and a wonderful audio commentary.