Sandra

A "complex, beautiful, baroque film about guilt and incest" (British Film Institute), Visconti’s updating of the Elektra legend won top prize at Venice in 1965. "In the decrepit splendour of an Etruscan city, an aristocratic family reunites to dedicate a garden to the memory of their patriarch. Convinced that their mother denounced their Jewish father to the Nazis and was responsible for his deportation to Auschwitz, Sandra (a resplendent Claudia Cardinale) and her brother (Jean Sorel) are forced to confront a series of guilty family secrets. Visconti masterfully interweaves themes of memory and myth...[Although it] is considered one of Visconti’s supreme achievements, Sandra is still very little known" (Cinematheque Ontario). Sandra was originally released in some parts of the English-speaking world as Of a Thousand Delights; its Italian-language title translates as "Twinkling Stars of the Bear," and comes from a poem by Giacomo Leopardi. "Here, as elsewhere, Visconti approaches more than any other modern director the silent film poetry of Murnau and Stroheim" (Phillip Lopate). "A great film...Sandra seems to me to be Visconti’s best film, in fact, since Senso" (Richard Roud). B&W, 35mm, in Italian with English subtitles. 100 mins.