Sandra (1965 film)


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

Plot

Visconti's retelling of the Electra story starts with Sandra/Electra returning to her ancestral home in Italy - and reviving an intimate involvement with her brother which troubles her naive husband - 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 and stepfather 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:
English translation:

Cast

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