The Sinking is Visconti's first independent film. Before that, he served as the assistant of the French director Jean Renoir for four years. There are a lot of scenes shot in the real scene in "The Sinking". The camera is often in constant swimming and pays attention to capturing the external performance of the inner activities of the characters, as well as the close relationship between the environment and the actions of the characters (a pair of lovers). The door of the closet is open during sex to show the beautiful clothes of Bragana, the lover who is troubled by the other side is unexpectedly reunited in the hustle and bustle of the bustling market, the Chino who drinks his sorrow is drowned in the shop that is booming In the tumultuous noises, the coincidence of the uninhabited wilderness and the "wilderness" of the characters' minds, etc.), all of which undoubtedly exposed Renoir's influence on him. The role of Renoir's poetic realism as a precursor to Italian neorealism is widely recognized. Therefore, the inheritance of style and characterization in "The Sinking" has led some critics to rely on rumors that lack conclusive evidence. "The Sinking" is regarded as the pioneering work of neo-realism films.
Italy was in the midst of political turmoil when Visconti set about filming The Sinking. Fascist armies began to rout in the Mediterranean. Just after the film was stopped, the Allies had landed in Sicily, and the ensuing campaign into Rome was protracted, making the final completion and release of "The Sinking" a long way off, and it did not come out until several years after the war ended.
When Visconti finally got the chance to make an independent film, his first idea was to adapt Verga's short story "The Intractable Lover", but the fascist censorship banned his plans, which may have been the same as Verga, the master of realism. It was related to his status as the spiritual leader of the "literary resistance movement" in Italy at that time. Visconti then accepted Renoir's suggestion to adapt the American detective novelist Cann's "The Postman Always Rings Twice". This novel had been adapted once in France in 1939, and in 1946 (when "The Sinking" had not yet been released) Hollywood put it on the screen (the film was released in Shanghai before the founding of New China, and it was translated as "The Slut") . A widely circulated but unsubstantiated rumor is that Visconti chose the subject in order to deceive fascist censors, and by the time the film was sent to trial, prosecutors were furious at the completely Italianized content of the film. The film was ordered to be banned, only to be lifted due to Mussolini's personal intervention. This double-edged rumor not only elevates Visconti as the trailblazer of Neorealism, but also subtly exposes the special relationship between the descendant of the aristocracy and the high-level figures of the Italian fascist government. In fact, Mussolini never lifted the ban on "The Fall," and the film's troubles didn't end with the fall of fascism. According to a textual research article by Marcel Mardan in 1959 describing the filming of "The Sinking", the reason why the film was cut beyond recognition when it was released after the war was because its moral content was criticized by the Church and the Daoists. and the opposition of public opinion, and even "rebuked by the authorities of the American occupation forces". Therefore, blindly emphasizing the Italianization of the film's content and the "political significance" of its realistic style not only simplifies but also distorts Visconti's artistic intentions. Moreover, the existence of such "political significance" is doubtful, because whether it was banned by the fascist authorities, or the film was not completed because of the war, it was never released before the end of the war.
The significance of the realistic style of "The Sinking" in the historical environment at that time cannot be ignored, but it is by no means a work whose value is multiplied by the thickness of politics and history. "The Sinking" should even be said to be a work that lacks political and historical perspective. What is Italianized is only the place where the story takes place, while the Italian society in the film is clearly neutral, with no trace of fascist rule. The political and historical markers that must be seen in neorealist films depicting the realities of civilian life during the Italian fascist period (both before and during the war) are absent in The Sinking. This alone is enough to combine "The Sinking" with all of Visconti's subsequent films (all of them take a certain historical judgment as an important part of the film, such as "Rocco and His Brothers", "The Panther", etc. ), while also distinguishing it from neorealist films. The Fall is ultimately a film about human nature, a film that reveals the destructive power of lust. It just wants to tell them that this destructive force is producing terrible tragedy everywhere, every moment.
This is even more apparent when comparing "The Sinking" with Cann's original novel and the Hollywood film of the same name. Some experts on Visconti films have made this comparison. For example, Norwell Smith has pointed out that in the original novel and the faithful Hollywood adaptation, there is a lot of randomness and contingency, and the story ends with ridiculous karma (Kino is not found to be the murderer, but the end sentenced in a car accident). "Visconti completely rejected all this. In his films, tragedy is not a joke from God, but the tragic ending is determined by the inevitable logic of the character's situation."
Underlying the tragedy is Chino and Kiowana's relationship to society. Chino is a tramp, accustomed to living a life of indeterminacy and unwilling to be bound by the bondage of others—a social bondage that the vast majority of people find it hard to get rid of. He had seduced Kiowana out of lust, not any way of changing his lifestyle. When he was finally freed from the bondage of women and returned to a free life, the power of lust led him back into a more terrifying social cage—murder, the prospect of having to marry a co-conspirator, and in childhood. The mediocre end of making a living in a hotel. After killing Chino, he was always out of tune with the new living environment, and he could not be at peace psychologically. In fact, it was the result of his inability to get rid of social constraints and to adapt to social needs. His encounter and love with Anita was not only revenge for Kiowana, but an attempt to get rid of sin and return to innocence. Yet the bitter fruit of lust - Kiowana's pregnancy - ended up destroying him.
Kiowana is also a tragic figure who is unable to break free from social constraints and adapt to social needs. Her euphemistic confession, "I had to count on a man to invite me to dinner," was a clear indication of her social status, and her marriage freed her from a life of prostitutes on the one hand, and enslaved her on the other. Painful situation. Kino satisfies her lust, but at the same time makes her unacceptable conditions. Contrary to Chino, Kiowana wanted freedom from poverty instead of poverty. She rejoiced at the insurance company's compensation, and was completely incomprehensible to Chino's angry reaction. In order to pull Chino back into the cage she set up, she did not hesitate to use threats and intimidation. The mutual demands of the lovers represent two opposing forms of relationship between man and society. Visconti's approbation of a way of life that transcends social demands (and is clearly unrealistic) is unmistakable, as the film inserts the Spaniard, a "positive character" who has absolutely no desire to adapt to society's needs. Passion, however, disrupts the order of life, throws the lovers out of all social relations, and destroys them.
Another noteworthy feature of "The Sinking" is that here Visconti touches for the first time on a theme that he has repeated in different ways in later films: the theme of betrayal. This is about human relationships. Visconti seems to want to tell people that betrayal is an inevitable form of relationship between people. In The Fall, adultery and murder are undoubtedly betrayals in the broadest sense. With Kiowana at the center, another cycle of betrayal formed. Kino, driven by lust, betrayed his friendship with Bragana (though only from Bragana's side); he betrayed the Spaniards for Kiowana. According to relevant sources, in the uncut version, it was the Spaniards who finally reported Chino to the police, thus completing the cycle of betrayal. Bragana's enslavement of Kiowana was a betrayal of normal marriage, and Kiowana's betrayal was a just revenge. It was also a betrayal for Kiowana to refuse Kino's several requests to leave the hotel. Here, betrayal and moral judgment are not necessarily connected. In Visconti's view, betrayal means the individual's inability to undertake certain obligations or responsibilities, and the end of the betrayal will be the beginning of tragedy.
A human and social rather than a political and historical interpretation of The Sinking does not, I think, diminish its value. Of all Visconti's films, The Sinking is also the only one that excludes political and historical interpretation. This creative process seems to be the exact opposite of some Italian neorealist film masters (such as Rossellini), which is very meaningful.
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