Conversation Piece (1974) on Netflix
A retired American professor lives alone in a palazzo. The Marchesa Brumonti persuades him to rent the floor above to her, her lover Konrad, her daughter Lietta and Lietta's fiancé Stefano.
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- Netflix3.9/5
- IMDb7.3/105,883 votes
- Rotten Tomatoes82%
Trailer
Plot summary
In Rome, an American professor who has retired into the palazzo he inherited from his Italian mother lives among paintings and books, seeing almost nobody but his housekeeper, Erminia. Then the Marchesa Brumonti, the loud wife of a right-wing industrialist, rings his bell and persuades him to rent the empty apartment upstairs to her, her young lover Konrad, her teen-aged daughter Lietta and Lietta's boyfriend Stefano. The tenants have the rooms rebuilt, hold parties and examine the Professor's apartment for traces of his past. The noise disturbs him, yet he is drawn to Konrad, once a gigolo and a radical in the 1968 protests, whose life contrasts with the Professor's upper-class upbringing and with his memories of his wife and mother.
Cast
Did you know?!Facts and trivia about Conversation Piece (1974)
Can contain spoilers, watch the movie first.
- Spain censored Conversation Piece for its nude and political content, which included a mention of Francisco Franco's daughter and son-in-law, but the film was re-released there uncut in 1983.
- Visconti based the lonely professor on art critic Mario Praz, whose book Conversation Pieces gave the film its English title. Praz said the film's situation, young and loud tenants moving into his palazzo and disrupting his peace, happened to him for real a few months after the movie came out.
- Before shooting even began, photos from the audition of fifteen-year-old Claudia Marsani, taken without a blouse, were put into circulation and Visconti was questioned about them. He said he had her undress because she had a nude scene and he wanted to be sure she was beautiful undressed too.
- Luchino Visconti offered the role of Countess Brumonti to Audrey Hepburn before Silvana Mangano was cast in the part.
- A stroke Visconti had suffered a couple of years before the shoot forced the filming to be as simple as possible: everything was shot on a set built entirely in the studio.
