Elective Affinities

What I think this would have looked like c. 1970

I was reading this for an assignment and I thought this would be a perfect sort of domestic-international co-production from 1970-1971. Visconti would have been all over this, as he was working on Death in Venice around this time. Maybe the literary bug would have caught on for this project? Pasqualino De Santis ("Death in Venice", "Conversation Piece") would be cinematographer for beautifully-bright landscape shots. I can sort of see the producers behind James Bond wanting to branch out into more "prestige" pictures. The ages of the women are a little strange around this time, BUT: 1) think of less Swinging Sixties Julie Christie and more "The Go-Between" and "McCabe and Mrs. Miller" Julie Christie; 2) people would still remember Doctor Zhivago at this point, so it would be sort of a Titanic-Revolutionary Road effect; 3) Mayerling would have just released a couple years ago, and it wouldn't be hard to see Catherine Deneuve as a young ingenue-type like in that film. This would 100% have at least ONE actor with bad ADR, and I would love it. There would still be a more formal and regal OST, but one song would probably be contemporary and be a small hit on the European charts.

Story added by ollie2803 on March 3, 2023