Conversation Piece (Gruppo di famiglia in un interno)

From Luchino Visconti comes Conversation Piece, known in Italy as Gruppo di famiglia in un interno, a French-Italian drama of 1974. He directed, produced and co-wrote it with Suso Cecchi d'Amico and Enrico Medioli. His second-to-last film, it runs about 121 minutes and won the David di Donatello for Best Film. The title refers to informal group portraits popular in Britain from the 1720s.

Burt Lancaster, Helmut Berger, Silvana Mangano and Romolo Valli share the leading roles, with Claudia Cardinale and Dominique Sanda in brief appearances. The film was shot in English and dubbed into Italian at home. It deals with the collision of old and new, approaching death and the gap between generations. Visconti blends motifs familiar from Death in Venice with the satire of Rome's jet set found in Fellini's films.

Visconti directed part of the shoot from a wheelchair and described the film as an allegory of the bourgeoisie's defenselessness against decadence and fascism. It draws on Mario Praz's 1971 book Scene di conversazione. It opened in Italy on December 10, 1974, in Germany in March 1975 and in the US in June 1977 as Conversation Piece. Spain censored it over nudity and references to Franco's daughter and son-in-law; the uncut version appeared in 1983.