Luchino Visconti’s award-winning classic Conversation Piece examines the solitary life of a
retired American professor (Burt Lancaster, Sweet Smell of Success) who lives alone in a
luxurious palazzo in Rome. When he is confronted by a vulgar Italian noblewoman (Silvana
Mangano, Dune) and her bisexual boytoy lover Konrad (Helmut Berger, The Godfather Part III)
– he is forced to rent them an apartment on the upper floor of his home. Before long his quiet
routine is turned upside down and the introverted professor slowly succumbs to Konrad’s
charms, a relationship of desire and domination. Visconti’s penultimate film, touching on ideas
of class, sex, fascism, and an unsettling confrontation with mortality, is the culmination of his
career as a master of Italian cinema.
Audio Commentary by Film Critic Bilge Ebiri
Archival Interview with Film Critic and Screenwriter Alessandro Bencivenni
Alternate Italian Audio Track
Theatrical Trailer