“Conversation Piece”: In Search of Lost Time

Conversation Piece (Gruppo di famiglia in un interno) (1974)

A reclusive art professor’s attraction to youth reveals how out of step he is with the world around him

• Country: Italy

• Genre: Drama

• Director: Luchino Visconti

• Starring: Burt Lancaster, Helmut Berger

FILM STILL FROM Conversation Piece (1974). PHOTO COURTESY OF TITANUS.

Clinical Overview

An aging art professor lives alone in a Roman palazzo. His ordered life is disrupted when a loud family moves in. He becomes transfixed by the beauty and volatility of the matriarch’s young lover.

Diagnosis

The film suggests—rather than spells out—the sources of tension: sexual attraction, class difference, cultural change, and a man out of step with the times.

Prescription

A remake shifts the story to Miami during the pandemic. Housebound, dependent on others for basic needs and technology, the professor takes in a family out of necessity. The Latin lover resembles a cherished sculpture, blurring aesthetic admiration and desire.