Sandra (), also known as Of These Thousand Pleasures, is a 1965 drama film directed and co-written by Luchino Visconti, and starring Claudia Cardinale, Jean Sorel, and Michael Craig. A modern-day retelling of the Electra story, the film centers on the incestuous relationship between a young Italian woman (Cardinale) and her brother (Sorel), on her return to their ancestral home of Volterra. It premiered at the 26th Venice International Film Festival, where it won the Golden Lion.
Plot Visconti's retelling of the Electra story starts with Sandra returning to her ancestral home in Italy. On the eve of an official ceremony commemorating the death of her Jewish father in a Nazi concentration camp, she revives a sexual involvement with her brother, which troubles her naive husband. The incestuous siblings determine to wreak revenge on their mother and stepfather, who supposedly denounced their father to the Nazis.
Cast Claudia Cardinale as Sandra Dawdson Jean Sorel as Gianni Wald-Luzzati Michael Craig as Andrew Dawdson Renzo Ricci as Antonio Gilardini Fred Williams as Pietro Formari Amalia Troiani as Fosca - maid Marie Bell as Sandra's mother Vittorio Manfrino Renato Moretti Giovanni Rovini Paola Piscini Isacco Politi Ferdinando Scarfiotti as party guest
Title The Italian title, culled from the poem "Le ricordanze"Leopardi's poem full text at ; English translation at Google Books by Giacomo Leopardi, could be translated as "Glimmering stars of the Great Bear", and has a strong resonance with the movie's plot:
English translation:
Production The movie was shot on location in Volterra, a Tuscan town fifty miles southwest of Florence. Casa Inghrami and the Palazzo Viti were both used as settings for the family mansion there.TUSCAN-LANDSCAPE WITH FIGURES OF VISCONTI AND 'ELECTRA' By DONALD LaBADIE. New York Times 6 Dec 1964: X13.
It was initially reported that the principal actors would voice their own parts in the English-language version of the film.TUSCAN-LANDSCAPE WITH FIGURES OF VISCONTI AND 'ELECTRA' By DONALD LaBADIE. New York Times 6 Dec 1964: X13. Ultimately though they were dubbed by others.
This is the third of four films Claudia Cardinale made with Visconti, after Rocco and His Brothers (1960) and The Leopard (1963), followed by Conversation Piece (1974).
Awards The film won the Golden Lion at the Venice Film Festival.
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