OSSESSIONE

The first film to be directed by Luchino Visconti, "Ossessione" was an unauthorized adaptation of James M. Cain's novel, "The Postman Always Rings Twice." Because it violated copyright laws, the film was banned in the United States until 1976, when it finally premiered at the New York Film Festival. The story closely follows Cain's original, in which a handsome drifter falls in love with an unhappily married woman. Together, they plot to kill off her older husband to collect his insurance. Today, "Ossessione" is widely celebrated as the film which single-handedly launched the Italian cinema's neo-realist movement.

Gino (Massimo Girotti), a drifter, arrives at a dusty trattoria in the Po Valley and falls into an illicit affair with the unhappily married Giovanna (Clara Calamai); the pair plot to murder her husband. Adapted from James M. Cain's The Postman Always Rings Twice, Luchino Visconti's debut was suppressed by Fascist censors and stands as a foundational work of Italian neorealism.