Sandra (1965 film)

Vaghe stelle dell'Orsa is a 1965 Italian film directed by Luchino Visconti. It was released as Sandra (Of a Thousand Delights) in the United States and as Of These Thousand Pleasures in the UK.

It was shot and released in Italian and English versions.

Plot
Visconti's retelling of the Electra story starts with Sandra/Electra (Claudia Cardinale) returning to her ancestral home in Italy - and reviving an intimate involvement with her brother (Jean Sorel) which troubles her naive husband (Michael Craig) - on the eve of an official ceremony commemorating the death of her Jewish father in a Nazi concentration camp. As ever with Visconti, he is ambivalently drawn to the decadent society he is ostensibly criticising; and Armando Nannuzzi's camera lovingly caresses the creaking old mansion, set in a landscape of crumbling ruins, where the incestuous siblings determine to wreak revenge on the mother (Bell) and stepfather (Ricci) who supposedly denounced their father.

The title, culled from the poem "Le ricordanze" by Giacomo Leopardi, could be translated as 'Glimmering stars of the Great Bear', and has a strong resonance with the movie's plot:

 Vaghe stelle dell'Orsa, io non credea
 Tornare ancor per uso a contemplarvi
 Sul paterno giardino scintillanti,
 E ragionar con voi dalle finestre
 Di questo albergo ove abitai fanciullo,
 E delle gioie mie vidi la fine.(...)

English translation:
 Glimmering stars of the Great Bear,
 I never thought I'd be back to see you
 Shining down on my father's garden,
 Nor talk to you ever again from the windows
 Of this house where I spent my childhood
 And saw the last of my happiness vanish.(...)

Cast
Claudia Cardinale ...  Sandra Dawdson
Jean Sorel ...  Gianni Wald-Luzzati
Michael Craig ...  Andrew Dawdson
Renzo Ricci...  Antonio Gilardini
Fred Williams ...  Pietro Formari
Amalia Troiani...  Fosca - maid
Marie Bell ...  Sandra's mother
Vittorio Manfrino
Renato Moretti
Giovanni Rovini
Paola Piscini
Isacco Politi
Ferdinando Scarfiotti ... party guest

Awards
The film won the Golden Lion at the Venice Film Festival.

References

External links 

 

Category:1960s drama films
Category:1965 films
Category:Italian black-and-white films
Category:Italian films
Category:Italian-language films
Category:Films about Jews and Judaism
Category:Films directed by Luchino Visconti
Category:Golden Lion winners
Category:Films set in Tuscany
Category:Incest in film
Category:Films with screenplays by Suso Cecchi d'Amico