The Innocent

The Innocent is a 1976 period drama film directed by Luchino Visconti and starring Giancarlo Giannini, Laura Antonelli, and Jennifer O'Neill. It is an adaptation of Gabriele d'Annunzio's 1892 novel The Intruder, about a chauvinist aristocrat who flaunts his mistress to his wife, but when he believes she has been unfaithful, he becomes enamored of her again. It was Visconti's final film before his death, released posthumously, three months after his death in March 1976. Plot In the late 1890s, Tullio Hermil is a wealthy Roman aristocrat. He has a possessive aristocratic mistress, Teresa Raffo, and neglects his wife, Giuliana. His interest in his wife is rekindled when he sees Giuliana's happiness after she has begun a love affair with a novelist, Filippo d'Arborio. She becomes pregnant by d'Arborio. Tullio urges an abortion but she refuses; d'Arborio then dies of complications from malaria. Tullio cannot tolerate the healthy male child delivered to Giuliana, although he tries. While the family are at Christmas mass he exposes the baby and it dies, apparently of natural causes. Giuliana, who knows Tullio has murdered the baby, leaves him. Tullio attempts to rekindle his affair with Teresa and takes her to his town house where they attempt to make love. When she tells him she no longer loves him, he shoots himself. Shocked, Teresa picks up her belongings and leaves the estate.