Obsession

With his first feature film Ossessione (1943), Luchino Visconti (1906-1976) is a founder of neorealism in Italian cinema, a movement focusing on the struggle for survival of the poor working class in economically and politically hard times. They are rough and harsh

films, invariably shot on location. Ossessione poses the question: Is freedom in poverty to be preferred over being restrained but wealthy? Visconti based his scenario on The Postman Always Rings Twice, a classic crime novel by James M. Cain with a ruthless view of the bottom of society. 

Director Ivo van Hove says that this film shows passion as an idealized image of the love between two people and, at the same time, the inability to make it last forever. He explains: ‘Along a deserted road, the vagabond Gino stops at a garage and roadside restaurant, where he finds a job with Giuseppe and his oppressed wife Giovanna. Like a cougar – powerful and gracious – Gino enters the territory of Giovanna. They mate. The seduction between the two predators is so strong that they decide to kill Giuseppe. But this crime does not bring them together. Gino is unable to stay in the same place for long and Giovanna has become too much of a domestic cat. The power of nature and the power of society devour their desire, their passion.’ 

Obsession will be Van Hove’s fourth project based on Visconti. He also directed Rocco and his brothers (Toneelgroep Amsterdam and Ruhrtriënnale) and Ludwig II (Münchner Kammerspiele). In July 2016, he created Les Damnés with the Comédie Française for the Festival d’Avignon at the Cour d’Honneur of the Palais des Papes. 

This special international coproduction with the Barbican Centre and Holland Festival premieres in April 2017 in London with a cast of English actors and actors from Toneelgroep Amsterdam. It will be performed entirely in English, with Dutch surtitles. The role of Gino will be played by Jude Law, who has previously played exceptional roles in both theatre (Henry V, Hamlet, AnnaChristie) and film (Sherlock, The Grand Budapest Hotel, Side Effects, ColdMountain). Dutch actors Halina Reijn and Gijs Scholten van Aschat will play the roles of Giovanni and Giuseppe.