Old Fashioned World

Alida Valli, who starred opposite Orson Welles in Reed’s The Third Man and opposite Farley Granger in Visconti’s Senso, shines in this lavish costume drama made near the end of the Fascist era. The film is set, like Senso, in Italy’s Austrian-occupied north during the country’s 19th century Risorgimento ("Resurgence", or unification movement). Over the objections of his family, Franco (Massimo Serato), a young Lombard nobleman, takes Luisa (Valli), daughter of a humble clerk, as his bride. Franco’s mother disinherits him, but the young couple must soon contend with a far more momentous tragedy —one that drives Luisa to the brink of madness. Based on a classic novel by Antonio Fogazzaro, and well directed by Mario Soldati, Old Fashioned World was great success at home, and earned Valli a special acting prize at Venice. In its ornate, highly refined style and historical subject, the film is a pre-eminent example of the "calligraphic" school of filmmaking that, some argue, represented a withdrawal from contemporary Fascist culture. Despite their formalism and period settings, the best of these films — and Old Fashioned World in particular — are now seen, in their social concerns and psychological realism, as direct forerunners of neorealism. B&W, 35mm, in Italian with English subtitles. 106 mins.