Sandra

Visconti moving the Electra myth into modern Italy. Its original title, Vague Stars of the Great Bear, comes from a poem by Leopardi. Sandra returns with her husband to Volterra, where she was born. The occasion is a ceremony: a garden is to be dedicated to the memory of her father, a Jewish scientist who died in a camp. In the town she meets her brother Gianni, and what exists between them is the thing the film circles constantly and never states in a plain sentence. The second matter is how the father died: the siblings suspect their mother and stepfather of informing on him. It is in black and white, photographed by Armando Nannuzzi. In place of a score it uses a piano piece by César Franck, and that is nearly its only music. Claudia Cardinale plays Sandra and Jean Sorel plays Gianni. It won the Golden Lion at Venice in 1965. An important work for anyone who likes Visconti's melodramas and films built on a family secret. The deliberate vagueness of the telling leaves some viewers with nothing to hold.