Luchino Visconti

Luchino Visconti was an Italian filmmaker and opera director, born into an aristocratic Milanese family, regarded as one of the towering figures of 20th-century cinema. He made his directorial debut with Ossessione (1943), an unauthorized adaptation of James M. Cain's The Postman Always Rings Twice now considered a foundational work of Italian neorealism, which was banned by the Fascist government shortly after release. He went on to direct The Leopard (1963), Death in Venice (1971), Ludwig (1972), and The Damned (1969), films that consistently engaged with decadence, decay, the erotic charge of beauty, and the collapse of aristocratic orders; he also staged operas, most notably a celebrated 1955 production of La Traviata at La Scala starring Maria Callas. He was openly gay within his circle, and his homosexuality inflected the sensibility of his art throughout his career. Death in Venice -- adapted from Thomas Mann's novella about an aging artist's fatal infatuation with a beautiful boy -- remains one of the most celebrated films about same-sex desire in cinema history.