The damned = La caduta degli dei = Götterdämmerung

Author

Luchino Visconti

Call Number

• DVD FOREIGN (CEN, OSH)

Edition

Two-DVD special edition.

Languages

In English and German or dubbed Italian, with English subtitles; English subtitles for the deaf and hard of hearing.

Performers

Dirk Bogarde, Ingrid Thulin, Helmut Griem, Helmut Berger, Renaud Verley, Umberto Orsini, Albrecht Schoenhals, René Koldehoff, Florinda Bolkan, Charlotte Rampling.

Publication Information

[Irvington, NY] : Criterion Collection, [2021]

Physical Description

2 videodiscs (157 minutes) : sound, color ; 4 3/4 in. + 1 folded sheet (color illustrations ; 19 cm.)

Audience

Not rated.

Summary

"The most savagely subversive film by the iconoclastic auteur Luchino Visconti employs the mechanics of deliriously stylized melodrama to portray Nazism's total corruption of the soul. In the wake of Hitler's ascent to power, the wealthy industrialist von Essenbeck family and their associates--including the scheming social climber Friedrich, the incestuous matriarch Sophie, and the perversely cruel heir Martin--descend into a self-destructive spiral of decadence, greed, perversion, and all-consuming hatred as they vie for power, over the family business and over one another. The heightened performances and Visconti's luridly expressionistic use of Technicolor conjure a garish world of decaying opulence in which one family's downfall comes to stand for the moral rot of a nation."--Container.

Notes

Originally released as a motion picture in 1969.

Special features: New 2K digital restoration by the Cineteca di Bologna and Institut Lumiere ; alternate Italian-language soundtrack ; interview from 1970 with director Luchino Visconti about the film ; archival interviews with actors Helmut Berger, Ingrid Thulin, and Charlotte Rampling ; Visconti on set, a 1969 behind-the-scenes documentary ; new interview with scholar Stefano Albertini about the sexual politics of the film ; trailer ; new English subtitle translation.