Film Forum

Italy/France, 1976
Directed by Luchino Visconti
Starring Giancarlo Giannini, Laura Antonelli, Jennifer O’Neill
In Italian with English subtitles
Approx. 129 min. 

A loose adaptation of Gabriele D’Annunzio’s 1892 novel, L’INNOCENTE is set in aristocratic Rome at the turn of the 20th century, wealthy and self-absorbed nobleman Tullio Hermil (Giannini) carries on an affair with a sophisticated yet possessive widow, Countess Teresa Raffo (O’Neill), while treating his devoted wife, Giuliana (Antonelli), with cold condescension. Wounded by his years of neglect, Giuliana takes a lover of her own with young novelist, Filippo (Marc Porel). When she becomes pregnant with Filippo’s child, Tullio’s wounded pride cannot be contained, setting off a chain of events leading to ultimate tragedy.

This 4K restoration of L'INNOCENTE was conducted by Film Movement Classics in 2026 to celebrate the film’s 50th anniversary. The film is presented in its original aspect ratio of 2.35:1. Black bars at the top and bottom of the screen are normal for this format. This new digital transfer was created in 4K resolution on an Arriscan film scanner from the original camera negative by Cinelab Service in Italy. Thousands of instances of dirt, debris, scratches, splices, and jitter were manually removed using Phoenix and color grading was performed shot by shot using Resolve Studio. The monaural soundtrack was remastered at 24-bit and all clicks, thumps, hum, and crackle were manually removed using isotope RX 8. All video and audio restoration was done at Heavenly Movie Corporation by Sebastian Alvarez del Castillo.

Presented with support from The Ada Katz Fund for Literature in Film

A FILM MOVEMENT RELEASE

Trailer

Reviews

“The lavish, colorful depictions of stately villas with their sumptuous furnishings and immortal art work and the characters’ exquisite attire are matched by the director’s carnal delight in the beautiful people themselves. He films Giannini, Antonelli, and O’Neill with a rapt tenderness, capturing their exchanges of glances across crowded rooms or empty space with closeups of a rare magnetic power. These ravishing images are matched by the mellifluous, modulated voices that pour out grief in lofty and delicate phrases—and conceal, with the same rhetorical flourishes, deeply calculated machinations of an imperial cruelty.”
– Richard Brody, The New Yorker

“A worthy finale to a distinguished career.”
– Time Out

 “Among the most beautiful and severely disciplined films [Visconti] has ever made. One of Visconti’s most terse, most dramatically economical films. There’s not a superfluous frame in it. Splendidly performed, L’INNOCENTE is a fitting coda to the Visconti career. A film of effortless command in which the director’s presence is everywhere felt—and nowhere intrudes.”
– Vincent Canby, The New York Times

“A fitting and majestic finale to a remarkable career that embraced neorealism and period romanticism with a grand yet disciplined operatic style.”
– Los Angeles Times