"Luchino Visconti was both a progenitor of Italian neorealism-crafting powerful depictions of the lives of laborers like the impoverished fishermen in La terra trema-and a virtuoso of opulent historical dramas, chronicling nineteenth-century Sicilian aristocrats in The Leopard. Though the working-class characters of Bellissima, Ossessione, and Rocco and His Brothers may seem to share little with the princes, countesses, and kings in The Leopard, Senso, and Ludwig, Visconti's films are connected by his primary concern: the expression of history as it is lived by people. His characters are caught between tradition and modernity, attempting to achieve or preserve a good life while navigating the unrelenting forces of social, economic, and political change."