''Senso '45'' (also released internationally as ''Black Angel'') is an Italian erotic

drama Drama is the specific mode of fiction represented in performance: a play, opera, mime, ballet, etc., performed in a theatre, or on radio or television.Elam (1980, 98). Considered as a genre of poetry in general, the dramatic mode has b ...

film written and directed by

Tinto Brass Giovanni "Tinto" Brass (born 26 March 1933) is an Italian film director and screenwriter. In the 1960s and 1970s, he directed many critically acclaimed avant-garde films of various genres. Today, he is mainly known for his later work in the Erot ...

, based on the novella '' Senso'' by

Camillo Boito Camillo Boito (; 30 October 1836 – 28 June 1914) was an Italian architect and engineer, and a noted art critic, art historian and novelist. Biography Boito was born in Rome, the son of an Italian painter of miniatures. His mother was of Poli ...

, also which inspired

Luchino Visconti Luchino Visconti di Modrone, Count of Lonate Pozzolo (; 2 November 1906 – 17 March 1976) was an Italian filmmaker, stage director, and screenwriter. A major figure of Italian art and culture in the mid-20th century, Visconti was one of the ...

's 1954 film. Instead of being set during the

Third Italian War of Independence The Third Italian War of Independence ( it, Terza Guerra d'Indipendenza Italiana) was a war between the Kingdom of Italy and the Austrian Empire fought between June and August 1866. The conflict paralleled the Austro-Prussian War and resulted in ...

, the film is set in

Venice Venice ( ; it, Venezia ; vec, Venesia or ) is a city in northeastern Italy and the capital of the Veneto Regions of Italy, region. It is built on a group of 118 small islands that are separated by canals and linked by over 400 ...

during the last months of the

fascist regime Fascism is a far-right, authoritarian, ultra-nationalist political ideology and movement,: "extreme militaristic nationalism, contempt for electoral democracy and political and cultural liberalism, a belief in natural social hierarchy an ...

Plot

Livia Mazzoni, the wife of a senior manager of MinCulPop, departs from

Asolo Asolo () is a town and '' comune'' in the Veneto Region of northern Italy. It is known as "The Pearl of the province of Treviso", and also as "The City of a Hundred Horizons" for its mountain settings. History The town was originally a settlem ...

, where she meets her lover Helmut Schultz, an officer of the SS. During her car trip, Livia remembers the sexual drift that brought her up to that point, overwhelming her in a whirlwind of erotic adventures, illicit trafficking, shady characters who move in the shadow of the disarraying

in the final months of

World War II World War II or the Second World War, often abbreviated as WWII or WW2, was a world war that lasted from 1939 to 1945. It involved the vast majority of the world's countries—including all of the great powers—forming two opposin ...

Cast

Anna Galiena Anna Galiena (born 22 December 1954) is an Italian actress, best known to English-speaking audiences for her appearances in ''Le Mari de la coiffeuse'', '' Jamón, jamón'', '' Being Human'' and ''Senso '45''. Movie career In her youth, Galien ...

as Livia Mazzoni *

Gabriel Garko Dario Oliviero (born 12 July 1972), better known by his stage name Gabriel Garko, is an Italian actor and former fashion model. Actor in both film and television, he has appeared mainly on the small screen. He started his career at the end of 19 ...

as Helmut Schultz *

Antonio Salines Antonio Salines (1 July 1936 – 22 June 2021) was an Italian actor and director. Biography Born in La Spezia, the son of the composer Enrico, at ten years old Salines started his career as a child actor, appearing in several stage works in the ...

as Carlo * Franco Branciaroli as Ugo Oggiano *

Loredana Cannata Loredana Cannata (born 14 July 1975) is an Italian movie, television and theater actress. Biography Born in Ragusa, Italy, Cannata studied acting while growing up in her native Sicily. She started early on to play leading roles in several ...

as Ninetta * Simona Borioni as Elsa

said that at first

seemed doubtful about accepting the role, but then she insisted on having the part, and stubbornly asked to audition. So she went to the director's studio in Isola Farnese where, in order to guarantee the utmost privacy, Brass covered the glass panels of the door with a dark cloth. The actress undressed completely naked and told Brass that her initial uncertainty stemmed from the fact that she had little pubic hair.

Production

re-adapted the source novella as ''Senso '45'' in 2002 when he read it and found himself unsatisfied with Visconti's rather liberal adaptation. The film starred

as Livia and

as her lover. The story of the film is much more faithful to Camillo Boito's work than the earlier adaptation in terms of tone and story, but the action was transported from the War of Unification to the end of

, with Remigio becoming a

Nazi Nazism ( ; german: Nazismus), the common name in English for National Socialism (german: Nationalsozialismus, ), is the far-right totalitarian political ideology and practices associated with Adolf Hitler and the Nazi Party (NSDAP) in ...

Lieutenant and Livia updated to being the wife of a high ranking Fascist official. Brass later explained that the change in time was made because he did not want to compete with Visconti's vision of

Risorgimento The unification of Italy ( it, Unità d'Italia ), also known as the ''Risorgimento'' (, ; ), was the 19th-century political and social movement that resulted in the consolidation of different states of the Italian Peninsula into a single ...

-era Italy. Unlike the 1954 version, ''Senso '45'' did not romanticize the affair between Livia and Remigio/Mahler (now named "Helmut Schultz" in the new adaptation). Rather, the film showed it as a clinical study of vanity and lust. The film won Italian cinema's "

Silver Ribbon The Nastro d'Argento, also known by its translated name Silver Ribbon, is an Italian film award awarded each year since 1946 by the Italian National Syndicate of Film Journalists (Italian: ''Sindacato Nazionale Giornalisti Cinematografici Italiani ...

" Award for best costume design.

Awards and nominations

Nastro d'Argento Awards (2002)

* Nastro d'Argento for Best Costume Design to Alessandro Lai and Alberto Moretti

References

External links

* {{Tinto Brass 2002 films 2000s erotic drama films Italian erotic drama films 2000s Italian-language films Films set in the 1940s Films set in Venice Films about Fascist Italy 2002 drama films