The Damned (1969 film)

The Damned
American film poster
Italian	La caduta degli dei
Directed by	Luchino Visconti
Written by	Nicola Badalucco Enrico Medioli Luchino Visconti
Produced by	Ever Haggiag Alfred Levy
Starring	Dirk Bogarde Ingrid Thulin Helmut Griem Helmut Berger Renaud Verley Umberto Orsini Albrecht Schoenhals René Koldehoff Florinda Bolkan Charlotte Rampling
Cinematography	Armando Nannuzzi Pasqualino De Santis
Edited by	Ruggero Mastroianni
Music by	Maurice Jarre
Production companies	Praesidens Pegaso Cinematografica Ital-Noleggio Cinematografico Eichberg-Film
Distributed by	Ital-Noleggio Cinematografico (Italy) Warner Bros.-Seven Arts (International)
Release dates	14 October 1969 (1969-10-14) (Rome premiere) 16 October 1969 (1969-10-16) (Italy) 27 January 1970 (1970-01-27) (West Germany)
Running time	154 minutes[1]
Countries	Italy[2][3] West Germany[2][3] Switzerland[2][3]
Languages	English German
Budget	$2 million[4]
Box office	2,638,507 admissions (France) $1.2 million (US/Canada rentals)[5]

The Damned (Götterdämmerung) (Italian: La caduta degli dei, lit. 'The Fall of the Gods')^[a] is a 1969 historical-drama film directed and co-written by Luchino Visconti, and starring Dirk Bogarde, Ingrid Thulin, Helmut Berger, Helmut Griem, Umberto Orsini, Charlotte Rampling, Florinda Bolkan, Reinhard Kolldehoff and Albrecht Schönhals in his final film. Set in 1930s Germany, the film centers on the Essenbecks, a wealthy industrialist family who have begun doing business with the Nazi Party, and whose amoral and unstable heir, Martin (played by Berger in his breakthrough role), is embroiled in his family's machinations. It is loosely based on the German Krupp family of steel industrialists from Essen.

Principal photography of The Damned took place in locations throughout Italy, West Germany, and Austria. The film opened to widespread critical acclaim, but also faced controversy from ratings boards for its sexual content. In the United States, the film was given an X rating by the MPAA, which was lowered to a more marketable R after 12 minutes of offending footage were cut.

Visconti won the Nastro d'Argento for Best Director, and was nominated for a Best Original Screenplay Oscar with co-writers Nicola Badalucco and Enrico Medioli. Helmut Berger received a Golden Globe nomination for Most Promising Newcomer. The film won the Golden Peacock (Best Film) at the 4th International Film Festival of India.

Cite error: There are <ref group=lower-alpha> tags or {{efn}} templates on this page, but the references will not show without a {{reflist|group=lower-alpha}} template or {{notelist}} template (see the help page).