ABSTRACT
The action of Senso (1954) takes place in 1866 at the time of the “Risorgimento.”1 Venice is under Austrian occupation. The performance of a Verdi opera (II Trovatore) at the Phoenix Theater is the occasion for a patriotic demonstration during which Marquis Ussoni, one of the lead ers of the “Resistance,” provokes a young Austrian officer, Franz Mahler. Ussoni is arrested upon his exit from the theater. To save him, his cousin, Countess Livia Serpieti, seeks to make the acquaintance of the handsome Austrian lieutenant, who easily takes advantage of the situation in order to try out on the imprudent countess his abilities as a skillful and cynical seducer. The result is that he becomes her lover. Such a limited summa ry hardly permits me to analyze the at once subtle and elemental dealings that unite for the worst this weak yet lucid young man and this beautiful older woman, who will sacrifice all honor and decency for him and ulti mately betray the cause of her friends in the “Resistance,” whom she had served as an advisor.
