The Damned (1970)

Nazism, sexuality, capitalism - the old rule is exchanged for a new system of values. These are the building blocks of Visconti's The Damned, a film that starts out as an interesting exploration of class society only to end in a hodgepodge of Nazi uniforms, violence, sex and incestuous relations. Some of this is, I suspect, added most of all for shock value. But Visconti also seems to have something he wants to say about sexuality and a historical situation - it's just not that clear what it is. The only thing we see is various eruptions of repressed Desire. Sexuality, in this film, seems to come from a dark place. The conclusion is not, I think, that Visconti sets out to capture the wickedness of "perverse" sexuality. The film has very little of moralism to it. What we see is rather a world that under its sterile surface is boiling with repressed urges. To be honest, I found The Damned to be an extremely failure in this respect: I did not at all understand what kind of perspective the film takes on repression, and how it hangs together with the disciplinary system of Nazism (or capitalism). At the center of the film we have the steel dynasty. There is the question of who will manage the company in the future. The film opens with a grand party and here we see some important tensions among the business "family" having to do with the relation to the nazi power elite. Mostly, the central events take place within the persons associated with the firm and how the lineage of power is continued and disrupted. The only scene that really stands out from this is the very lengthy portrayal of the night of the long knives in which we see member of the SA having a drunken party only to be massacred by the SS (some of the main characters are involved in this killing spree). What works best in this confusing film is perhaps the settings, darkly lit, stylized, sinister; decaying elegance. The other good thing is Ingrid Thulin who plays the mother whose partner is scheming to change the power system and whose son has some - um - tendencies of his own.