Page 49 - Cinematic Thinking Philosophical Approaches to the New Cinema

Luchino Visconti 39

their content but also by being the objects they are. They even sometimes
find figures for this. Konrad, the gigolo and the opportunist whom the
professor in Gruppo difamiglia in un interno suddenly views as a possible
son, is familiar in painting with the genre of conversation pieces, in music
with Mozart's aria "Vorrei spiegarvi, oh Dio," a new recording of which
he comes across in the possible fathers record collection. Yet the professor
hesitates to acknowledge the transformation that has taken place, thus
surrendering to the fatally ambiguous possibility that stands in the way
of change. Death, either accident or suicide, overtakes the younger man
who calls himself "son" in a note to the professor. That the transformation
has always already taken place is clear from the irreducibility of the expres-
sion. Hence it is not a matter of realizing possibilities, of awaiting their
realization, indeed of mourning the omitted or impossible realization. In
order to sweep clean the paths, to shake off the shackles of heteronomy, it
is necessary to acknowledge a reality, in other words the change that has
already occurred.
A biographer describes Visconti 's daily routine in a holiday resort:

During the morning, a procession of local antique dealers would come to sell him
all sorts of objects. Lunch was at 1.30 and at 5 p.m. he would interrupt everybody's
siesta because at 6 p.m. every day a procession of taxis took Visconti and his guests
down to a café in Porto d'Ischia. From there he would take a walk with his friends,
stopping at every shop to buy presents for everyone. Another ritual was that of buy-
.
ing the tuberoses.. . Inside the house the scent of these white, fleshy flowers was so
strong that it gave many of the guests a headache. At night television was obligatory,
however bad and irritating: when the woman announcer said good night at the end
of transmissions for the day, Visconti would shout at her "You swine!" 26

Translated by James Phillips