The Damned (La Caduta Degli Dei)
Dir. Luchino Visconti Germany / Italy 1969 167’ (18)
35mm transferred to digital video | In German and English with English subtitles
‘The most savagely subversive film by the iconoclastic auteur Luchino Visconti employs the mechanics of deliriously stylised melodrama to portray Nazism’s total corruption of the soul. In the wake of Hitler’s ascent to power, the wealthy industrialist von Essenbeck family and their associates—including the scheming social climber Friedrich (Dirk Bogarde), the conniving matriarch Sophie (Ingrid Thulin), and the cruelly deviant heir Martin (Helmut Berger, memorably donning Marlene Dietrich–like drag in his breakthrough role)—descend into a self-destructive spiral of decadence, greed, perversion, and all-consuming hatred as they vie for power, over the family business and over one another.
The heightened performances and Visconti’s luridly expressionistic use of Technicolor conjure a garish world of decaying opulence in which one family’s downfall comes to stand for the moral rot of a nation.’ —Criterion
Baltic Cinema’s Selected strand shows films selected by artists and partners, and special presentations. The Damned has been selected by Kuba Ryniewicz, currently exhibiting in Close to Home, as part of a season of films.
Level 1 Cinema
Doors open 18:00; Film starts 18:30. Pop-up cinema bar open from 18:00 for drinks.
Baltic Cinema is supported by Film Hub North
