Unlike Bronte, our previous movie, this film has much less graphic violence. It's not an account of a brutal civil insurrection, with all its attendant horrors, but rather a doomed love story set against the background of the decadence of the Austrian Empire and the first uncertain steps of the still infant new Italian state.

As we said above, the historical background of the film is the war of 1866. To set the stage for what happens in this movie, seven years before that, in 1859, Piedmont, in alliance with the French Empire had succeeded in wrestling the province of Lombardy from Austria. The initial objective of the war had been to capture also Venice, but France had pulled out before this could be accomplished. However, the war had been enough to trigger a series of revolutions in North-Central Italy which, when coupled with the extraordinarily successful expedition of Giuseppe Garibaldi to the South in 1860, resulted in the proclamation of the Kingdom of Italy in March of 1861, minus Rome and Venice. It would be the goal of the new state, in the ensuing decade, to unite, or redeem, these two provinces to the rest of Italy, even as the infant state was fighting a reactionary insurrection against the central government in the South. This is what would become known as il brigantaggio. At the end of Il Gattopardo, you may recall the references to Garibaldi's unsuccessful attempt to march on Rome in 1862. This is the attempt that ends in his defeat at Aspromonte because of the changed international situation.

But a particularly serendipitous opportunity for Italy arose, though, in 1866. Prussia, the most powerful of German states, under the stewardship of his great Prime Minister, Otto Von Bismarck, was seeking to unite the German provinces that were not part of the Austrian Empire. In order to do so, it needed to force the Hapsburg monarchy to give up its presidency of the German Confederation. This was the political entity that united the German states under the symbolic authority of the Austrian Emperor. Bismarck found a natural ally in Italy, which was seeking to take Venice away from Austria. In May of 1866, he proposed--and the Italians accepted--an alliance, which, in the event of a victorious outcome, would award Italy all the Italian-speaking districts south of the Alps.

War was declared shortly afterwards and Austria found itself having to divide its forces between the powerful Prussians in north and the Italian menace in the south. The Prussians exploited to the hilt their superior railroad network, superbly trained army, and excellent generalship. In a matter of weeks, they concentrated their army at the northern frontiers of the Austrian Empire and smashed their enemy at the battle of Sadowa on July 2nd, 1866. The Italians completely botched their land and sea campaign although enjoying a numerical advantage on the Austrians in both venues. On land, the rivalry and jealousy between the Prime Minister and supreme commander of the army, General La Marmora, and his chief subordinate, General Cialdini, led to an ominous splitting of the forces. The Austrians took advantage of this, confronted La Marmora's army at Custoza on June 24th, and, although still inferior in numbers, were able to inflict a setback on the Italians. This is the battle that you'll hear about in the movie. Custoza was a little more than a skirmish and the Italians, had they concentrated their forces, could have easily reversed the outcome. As it were, and as it would happen in many of the wars that they fought in the next eighty years or so, they lost their nerve and ordered a general retreat—to the astonishment of the Austrians. In the subsequent weeks, the Austrians at the battle of Lissa would also defeat the superior Italian navy. Only Garibaldi's volunteers in the Trentino, as usual, rescued the honor of Italian arms.

This is the background against which Visconti tells us about the futility of war and love. The protagonists are the beautiful but unhappily married countess Livia Serpieri and the dashing but scoundrel Austrian officer Franz Mahler. The movie opens with a pro-Italian demonstration at the staging of a Verdi opera in a Venetian theatre in the days leading to Italy's declaration of war on Austria. The countess' patriotic cousin, count Ussoni, challenges Mahler to a duel and the countess meets Mahler to see if she can save her cousin's life. The meeting leads to a torrid love affair and betrayal on both sides. The countess ends up giving the patriots' money that she has been entrusted with to Mahler so that he can buy his way out of the fighting, and Mahler thanks her by abandoning her and taking up with prostitutes. When the countess finds out, she denounces Mahler to the Austrian military authorities--as they are celebrating their futile victory at Custoza--and goes mad, while Mahler is summarily executed. So ends the movie, and so end, in Visconti's view, all the dreams of love and glory. The countess' behavior reflects the shallowness of Italy's patriotic pretensions and Malher's the decadence of the once glorious and powerful Austrian Empire.

As a postscript, Italy will gain the province of Veneto from the Austrians with a border, though, that excludes the Italian districts of Trento, Trieste, Istria and the Dalmatian coast. In a slap to Italy, the Austrian government cedes Venice to France, which then passes it to Italy.