Conversation Piece DVD, 1974

Aka Gruppo di Famiglia in un Interno. A retired American professor lives in an ornate Roman house. His well-ordered life is disrupted by the entrance of a decadent matriach and nubile daughter who rent the upstairs apartment. Their intrigues provoke flashbacks in his own life and he is forced to face his own latent homosexuality and approaching death.

Uneven and curiously studio-bound, yet utterly fascinating. The aristocratic salons of an old Roman palazzo are exquisitely framed in cinemascope as Visconti acknowled... more >

Uneven and curiously studio-bound, yet utterly fascinating. The aristocratic salons of an old Roman palazzo are exquisitely framed in cinemascope as Visconti acknowledges the limitations of aesthetic pleasure. Touching solitude, memory and death it makes for a subtle and deeply personal exploration of generations. Accordingly, Burt Lancaster gives an elegaic performance as the ageing connoisseur while Helmut Berger is an intriguing, compelling presence within a languid and ultimately rather moving narrative. < less

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