Abstract/Summary

This chapter is a study of Ossessione (Luchino Visconti, 1943), a film universally recognised as a masterpiece and foundational work of Italian neorealism, which has inspired new realist film currents and independent productions around the globe. Accordingly, it has been scrutinised from a variety of angles by successive generations of scholars. Yet, as is the case with any masterpiece of this magnitude, the possibilities of novel approaches to it are inexhaustible. In this chapter, I revisit the crucial topic of realism in Ossessione through a perspective hitherto underexplored in scholarship on the film, namely the contribution of opera and music to its realist endeavour. Under this light, Ossessione changes into an accomplished example of the aspiration to the total artwork.