Page 6-Wednesday, June 6, 1979-The Michigan Daily VISCONTI'S 'THE INNOCENT' By CHRI Cinematic classes run a lassoing Am films' broad c is so endem tithetical and mystique of t that their diss lost on movi Atlantic. For better o class hatred Stagey, dry op( STOPHER POTTER never caught on over here; though it savagings of the upper may be true that a privileged ruling n inherently high risk in elite rides its populace just as much un- erican audiences. Such der the thumb here as do the overt oncept of social structure aristocrats of the old country, such a ically European, so an- notion still seems heretical to most un- foreign to the egalitarian blinking Yanks. The upward mobility the American experience theory still works its magic; "I'm as ecting bite is often simply good as you are, buddy !" remains our iegoers this side of the chanted litany. AND THAT'S THE problem with a ir worse, the catechism of film like the late Luciano Visconti's The and fractiousness has Innocent, whose premise and plot are ,rasans s irrevocably knotted around a belief in the inherent dissoluteness and mass perversity of the ruling class. Placed in the nimble, witty hands of a Bunuel, this blanket premise might be pulled off; but consigned to the operatic, humorless ministrations of Visconti, the theme sags under its own ponderous self-rightousness. Unfortunately, righteous dicta were Visconti's stock-in-trade throughout his glossy, florid career. In The Innocent, the writer-director's trget for corrup- tion is one Tullio Hermil (Giancarlo Giannini), a bored, malignant aristocrat living in late 19th Century Rome. Brandishing his professed atheism like a sword, Tullio wields his belief as a nihilistic rationale for the emotional pain he wreaks upon those around him. Though married, he engages openly in an adulterous affair with a rich, vivacious widow named Teresa (Jennifer O'Neill). He blandly announces his unfaith- fulness to his gentle, equally gorgeous young wife, Giuliana(Laura Antonelli), telling her soothingly that from now on he wants to look on her as a "loving sister" to whom he can tell his problems. (In one of The Innocent's few hilarious scenes, a furious Tullio raves to Giuliana about how Teresa has stood him up at an outing, while Giuliana's face reacts with the agonized bemusement of one consigned to suf- fering yet still baffled as to how all this could be happening to her). PREDICTABLY, TULLIO proves as hypocritical as he is self-centered. When Giuliana launches a dalliance of her own with a successful young writer, Tullio turns lividly pious-he feels grievously, self-pityingly betrayed. As his affair with Teresa cools, he decides life with Giuliana perhaps wasn't so bad after all-besides, there's his now- wounded masculinity to consider. He seduces his wife back into love with him (presumably), then learns to his con- sternation that she is pregnant by the writer, who has since died abroad. Tullio and Guiliana settle back into pseudo-domestic bliss amidst their riches, yet the writer's unborn child bridles like a tumor on Tullio's cuckolded soul. Exercising his twisted, rapacious logic, he by turns sweet-talks then browbeats Giuliana in an attmpt to get her to agree to an abortion ("God is dead, it doesn't matter what we do.") Giuliana steadfastly refuses and the baby boy is born, spurring the morose Tullio into an even more monstrous solution. That this act and the film's subsequent denoument seem more lurid melodrama then stark tragedy is symptomatic of Visconti's entire, frustrating career. THE DIRECTOR possessed the eye of a cinematic genius, yet his heart was that of a pure operatist. Whether dissecting Nazis (The Damned), mad emperors (Ludwig of Bavaria) or the blankness. of the psyche (The Stranger),Visconti would conjure up the most haunting visual images imaginable, then cripple his vision with plots of such overripe kitchiness that one would leave the theatre with the queasy feeling of having eaten four banana splits in a row. Visually, The Innocent is often breathtakingly apt; Visconti's Beautiful People cavort from mansion to mansion, garden to garden as though the entire world were an endless velvet carpet, a spotless universe im- measurably far from the poverty and squalor indigenous to the time but never touching its rich. Unfortunately, Visconti loved to listen to his people talk, and talk they do: long, leaden orations whose social pomposity is matched only by their rhetorical tone-deafness. The director forces his cast to wallow in the ham of arched eyebrows, flaring nostrils and similar soap opera histrionics so heavy- handed they become almost a burlesque of the morality play inten- ded-a grotesque paradox for this most solemn, non-satirical of filmmakers. Remarkably, for all their fire. breathing theatrics, Visconti's actors J remain physically immobile; they strike poses, like grand opera soloists preparing to rifle moribund bellowings at an audience. Even the film's "notorious" sex scenes are so com- pletely stagebound that the participan- ts might as well have been modeling for a life-drawing class. Giancarlo Giannini surmounts Visconti's roadblocks enough to effec- tively convey the narcissistic malevolence of Tullio, yet Giannini never seems quite at home playing an aristocrat compared to the lower-class hotheads he made famous for Lena Wertmuller. Laura Antonelli's Olym- pian body fails to offset her inability to transmit anything more than a mar- tyrish masochism, but the usually bland Jennifer O'Neill comes off astonishingly well as the seductive Teresa-who serves as a kind of amoral Greek chorus to Tulilo's rancorous deeds. In fairness it should be noted that Visconti died before completing The Innocent and that Giannini himself completed the direction and subsequent editing nearly two years later. Despite the fragmentation inherent in most such interrupted projects, Giannini's consummation seems remarkably faithful to the film's conception, and the film itself innately emblematic of Visconti's long career. Regrettably, that is a dubious compliment at best. Cheap music buffs take note! Modern music lovers tired of outrageous concert prices will soon have an option more to their liking, as Eclipse Jazz will present free outdoor concerts periodically throughout the summer. June's offerings include Vantage Point, a jazz-rock-fusion group that will soon put in an appearance at the Mon- treux Jazz Festival in Switzerland, and the Steve Nordella Band, whose usual haunt is the Blind Pig. The two groups will play at Liberty Plaza (Liberty & Division) from 6:30 to 9:00 on Friday, June 8. On June 24, Antares, the Earthworks Jazztet, and David Swain all will strut their stuff at West Park beginning at 2:00. Eclipse promises free music at the Art Fair in July as well as other com- plimentary events during the sweltering months.