Conversation Piece

Luchino Visconti’s award-winning classic Conversation Piece examines the solitary life of a
retired American professor (Burt Lancaster, Sweet Smell of Success) who lives alone in a
luxurious palazzo in Rome. When he is confronted by a vulgar Italian noblewoman (Silvana
Mangano, Dune) and her bisexual boytoy lover Konrad (Helmut Berger, The Godfather Part III)
– he is forced to rent them an apartment on the upper floor of his home. Before long his quiet
routine is turned upside down and the introverted professor slowly succumbs to Konrad’s
charms, a relationship of desire and domination. Visconti’s penultimate film, touching on ideas
of class, sex, fascism, and an unsettling confrontation with mortality, is the culmination of his
career as a master of Italian cinema.
The restoration—initiated in 2019 and finalized in its 4K master version in December 2023 was
carried out by CSC – Cineteca Nazionale (Centro Sperimentale di Cinematografia) using:
The original 35mm camera negative
The optical sound negative
(both supplied by Minerva Pictures Group Srl)

Image processing, scanning, and final grading were completed at Studio Emme, Rome,
with sound supervision by Federico Savina.