Helmut Berger: "I didn't want to be another cutie in Visconti's arms"

Gala: You were an exclusive lover, but on your side, you often cheated on Visconti ...

H. B .: He went to bed early, but he wasn't fooled. One day, maliciously, he said to me, “I don't think it's normal that you sleep all day. You should see a psychiatrist. "I loved nightclubs, dancing, getting drunk in night Rome. I was often accompanied by Bianca Jagger, who was my mistress, before she married Mick. I also loved the company of Marisa Berenson. Luchino wanted me to marry her, so that I would stabilize myself. But I refused. I have never liked half measures, compromise, I have always followed my wishes, but I have no regrets.

Gala: Have you always assumed your bisexuality?

H. B .: Absolutely. The Catholic institutions in which I was a boarder restricted my sexuality. I drank a lot to uninhibit myself. I didn't like sex for the sake of sex, I needed to feel something. The women were much more possessive. I had great passions with Marisa, Bianca and Britt Ekland. With Rudolf Nureyev, it was a lot more bestial. Visconti knew all about these parallel relationships. He was sure Nureyev would be a passing fad and he was right.

Gala: Your quest for pleasure has led you to self-destruct. You've taken almost all the drugs. Do you regret it?

H. B .: I have tested everything, yes, sometimes without real awareness of the side effects. I can not explain it. I used to take drugs to gain confidence, to become another, a superhuman, when of course, that is just an illusion. I did so much bullshit ... Until trying to kill myself to join Luchino, after his death ... It was stronger than me, I was a diehard.

Gala: Are you nostalgic?

H. B .: No, I'm looking straight ahead. Today I live alone in my mother's house in Salzburg. I listen to music, I read, I tour from time to time. When I'm bored, I join my friends to party. Otherwise, of course. Like me, they have aged. I got it all, I gave it all. But I feel at ease.

From Helmut Berger's book: (roughly translated):

"During a trip to Volterra, I meet Visconti, who is shooting Vaghe stelle dell’Orsa. We watched the shooting. It was night, it was cold. I already felt its magnetism….Visconti noticed him, says Berger, and began to court him and shower him with gifts. Then I came to Rome. And from that moment Visconti is responsible for my happiness and my total unhappiness (…) ”.

I've never had a real father, he explained, so I was looking for someone to protect me, educate me, give me confidence.

And Visconti went further: he planned to adopt him. The days were full of promises but Berger continued to find no solution to his uneasiness. He was hurt by the fact that Visconti did not legitimize him socially. He was embarrassed, hesitated to acknowledge the role he had. “He didn't think it possible to publicly exhibit our relationship as a couple,” Berger noted.

He pretended not to suffer, but it was painful for him to never be treated with "tenderness" in front of others. The others were for example Alberto Moravia, Anna Magnani. Marlene Dietrich, Romolo Valli, Susan Sontag and who was he instead? He was the German hustler, as Olghina di Robilant described him in one of his social reports in “Lo Specchio”: “the German hustler who bewitched Visconti”.

In via Salaria, there were two lives. On one floor of the splendid villa, Visconti with the intellectuals and the stars; upstairs Helmut boy, fed up, listened to Louis Armostrong and Sarah Vaughan and then escaped secretly, without Visconti's knowledge.

"I have known everyone. But I was always the German hustler. "

The crises of jealousy were devastating, on both sides. Helmut Berger was jealous of Alain Delon, who kept asking the teacher to have him act. Berger threatened Visconti: " if you go around with that sidewalk guy, I'll leave you".

Visconti "rightly, was even more jealous of Rudolph Nureyev, whom Berger met six years earlier and with whom he lived a whirlwind passion. The day when Visconti caught him on the phone with the great dancer, he burst into his room like a fury, and then threw a liberty lamp at him, slapped him and tore the wire. Berger packed his bags and went to sleep in the hotel: but for one night only.

Helmut should be dead like Rudolph. I wonder how he dodged HIV.

The liaison with the director opened the doors of cinema to him. “Forming an actor, Visconti said, is like raising a child. It is supported when he tries to take his first steps, holding him by the armpits, in case he could trip; then he starts to move by himself, he walks, runs and even rides a bicycle ”.

With Ludwig, Berger was in the third phase, the one in which "the father gives his son an adult conscience ... it was his final exams as an actor". " The years passed, and amid the ups and downs and the whims of Berger, Visconti forgave the numerous mischief of his "son" and who now turned against him and covered him with insults.

The boy was loved by all, and by all he was found irresistible. He flaunted his bisexuality as a glittering destiny: I drink sexuality. Sex is like a glass of wine. It doesn't matter if it's white or red ”.

Hard times came. Visconti suffered a stroke and began living in melancholy in a wheelchair. Weakened by the pain, he spent hours and hours in front of the television: he remained nailed in front of the screen until the end of the programs. In those endless claustrophobic evenings Berger became less and less assiduous.

Later Berger will tell of having been expelled by Visconti's family, and that he would have wanted so much to remain next to Luchino, even when he was seriously ill.

When the director died, Berger said he felt like a widower and an orphan at the same time.

"My misfortune is that I was left a widower at 32".

In the church, under thousands of flashes, everyone wore dark glasses, everyone except him. The cameras framed him insistently, then Alain Delon, lingering on close-ups. They wanted to see who cried the most, but Helmut Berger didn't even shed a tear. He stared dazedly at the coffin, and to himself repeated to Luchino: “Get up, come on, it's a joke, you're not dead”.

R3 = Alain Delon secretly browsing DL.

Eurotrash.

Berger's casting of Ludwig was one of the most perfect in the whole history of cinema.

I met someone who knew Visconti. They said he liked to have sex on trains. It was a memory of the grand trains of his youth.

I've always liked that passage in one of the Visconti biographies where it describes him planting blue hydrangeas under pine trees, that stretched from his villa all the way to the sea, so it was one long vision of blue. What a man!

Burt Lancaster (who knew Visconto well) said that "Visconti never had the capacity to love".

Marisa Berenson on Helmut BergeR:

"I fell in love with Helmut when I saw The Fall of the Gods. I said to myself that I had to meet him, as it happened, two weeks later, in New York. What I don't like is that they always ask me The same. He has many qualities, for example, being very sensitive and of course he's introverted, very closed and likes to bump into people. "

[quote]"I didn't want to be another cutie in Visconti's arms"

But you WERE, Blanche, you WERE!

Helmut Berger said he fell in love with Burt Lancaster during the filming of "Conversation piece", He said that Burt had enormous humanity. and at a certain moment he thought of leaving Visconti for Burt but he couldn't leave his "old man". But he admitted "Thank God, the movie finished, I might have corrupted him".

That sounds as if Burt would have been open to the idea. I've always imagine Lancaster as bi.

"I worked in Europe with Americans like Liz Taylor, a great friend, and Henry Fonda. But Hollywood never attracted me. I accepted Dynasty because I knew Joan Collins and Linda Evans. I was promised a good life with limousines, but I only dreamed of the cold and flannel pants. "

- Helmut Berger .

A real biography of Visconti and Berger as a couple, both professionally and personally, is desperately needed.

Most of the Visconti bios are old, and they suffer from the time periods they were written in and the authors' lack of insight into his sexuality, as well as too much kowtowing to the Visconti family for access. Insight into his relationship with Helmut really suffers due to the latter, because the family has a certain narrative they want pushed about their relative, and they hated Berger, so he gets downplayed. Many of Visconti's associates seem to have viewed him as unworthy of the maestro and were jealous of his position in Visconti's life, so they're not much use either. Berger's own autobiography hasn't been translated into English except for some excerpts, so it hasn't contributed as much to the picture of their relationship as one would wish.

I find the two of them, together and apart, fascinating. Thank you for posting these pieces, OP.

R14 True, Visconti's family Hated Berger to the extent of hiding Visconti's will claiming it had been stolen and disappeared. Helmut Berger knew he was mentioned in Visconti's will, and Visconti's secretary also knew about it. Helmut said he didn't want to fight Visconti's family causing a scandal.

The family didn't even want the large Gardenia flowers that Helmut brought to Visconti's funeral (he put it at Viscont's feet) and they took it away repeatedly, Stubborn Helmut had to put it back each time!

At 1:39:25. Helmut talks about it.

Helmut Berger: "I've tried everything in life, but I'm always Visconti's widow" - 2019

Watching Helmut Berger today has a certain effect. The man who the English press called "the most beautiful in the world", the star who made recklessness and damnation an existential philosophy is today an elderly gentleman who sips a cappuccino in the armchair of his hotel, in Turin where he was guest of honor yesterday at the Lovers Film Festival.

The Austrian actor speaks softly, suffering from pneumonia from which he is slowly recovering. Behind the next 75 years, however, the piercing blue eye still flickers..

43 years have passed since Visconti's death. Does you still feel like his "widow", as you defined herself on the day of his funeral?

'How could it be otherwise? He was my teacher, of life and culture. He was a man who not only made cinema but also theater and opera . An unforgettable man. When he died the world collapsed on me ".

Why did you say that Italy has disappointed you?

«After Luchino's death, the Visconti family made the will disappear in which he had thought of me. I found it odd that no one took my side. Even Italian cinema has turned its back on me, despite the fact that the public adored me ».

Quentin Tarantino has called you one of the greatest living actors. Was he wrong up or down?

"Andy Warhol said so too. They can't both be wrong. '

Did Warhol ever know Visconti?

“Not him, but his assistants and one of his muses, Ultra Violet. Luchino didn't like me hanging out with Warhol's group and he didn't like him. I remember when his works came out, like the electric chair or Campbell's canned soup, he blurted out: "What is this bullshit?"

Is it true that it was you who introduced Mick Jagger to his future wife Bianca?

“I've known her for some time. she lived in Paris and we both frequented the group of Yves Saint Laurent and Karl Lagerfeld. There I also met Marisa Berenson and Grace Jones. Life was common. We went to the same group, the same night club, the same restaurant ».

How did you end up in the cast of Dynasty?

“My friend Ursula Andress was also friends with Linda Evans. It was she in 1983 who proposed me to production. When they called me, I took the first plane and flew to Los Angeles. It was a nice experience. Very Hollywood, sure, but the money was perfect, lots of it and on time. I spent them all ».

Have you ever felt discriminated against for openly declaring your bisexuality?

"Never. And you think I was the first to have the courage to say it openly. Besides, what should I have done?"

You have always consumed alcohol, drugs and free sex, squandered money, been in prison, attempted suicide. Is there any excess that you regret not having practiced?

«I have no regrets, luckily I have tried everything. I have lived four lives and am satisfied with all four. And anyway I'm still here ».

Louis II of Bavaria - who went down in history as a madman and a wasteful - said of himself: "I want to remain an eternal enigma, for myself and for others". Is "Ludwig" your autobiography?

“He was a king, I wasn't. But it's true, I felt the character was mine. We only worked at night, with impossible schedules. Visconti shot 16 hours of film and for six months I didn't see the light of day. To resume normal rhythms of life, I had to be treated in a clinic. The same happened to Romy Schneider. And even Luchino at the end of the shooting had a stroke and was paralyzed. We all paid for that effort, but the film remains extraordinary ».

As a "family group in an interior".?

“Another splendid film. Everything that Luchino touched became a masterpiece ».

Are you aging as you would have imagined as a young man?

“I never thought about old age, I didn't have the time. I lived my life day by day ».

How do you imagine you will die?

"I do not know. In the meantime, I am waiting for a good script to arrive ». -

Visconti's family and close friends were hateful and jealous of Helmut Berger:

On Visconti's will and family:

"I lived in Rome with Luchino, but when he died I was robbed of his will. It was the Visconti family: I knew that will was there, the secretary saw it and I read it. Instead it disappeared. Luchino had told me that I should never have to worry in my life, because in this job you never know what can happen. Instead those scoundrels robbed me: it's a greedy family, they couldn't stand me. I had relationships only with donna Uberta, Luchino's sister".

Visconti's friends:

"After Visconti's death, the whole world condoled me except for Luchino's great friends, such as Adriana Asti or Umberto Orsini. People who I always invited to eat with us and who instead betrayed me. They came to our villa in Ischia, they enjoyed my goodness, while behind my back, Asti brought other homosexuals (the last one was a Pole) to throw me out. "

Helmut Berger: Autoportrait - 2015

Those around me know my formidable ambivalence: I can be the nicest man, as well as the most disagreeable. Whoever has experienced this last aspect of my personality will not forget it.

I don't want to disappoint my friends across the world with this book, and that's the reason why I back down from some revelations and sincerely hope that I won't be condemned for my truths. Because at the risk of repeating to myself what I want is to be loved. Deep down inside I am shy. It is also to combat this shyness, to feel more at ease that I sometimes have a drink, or two, or three. These are the times when I can overreact.

Helmut talks a lot about this shyness, the plague of his youth, and the lack of self-confidence that will lead him to consume drugs giving him deceptive assurance.

He was born on May 29, 1944 under the name Helmut Steinberger in Bad Isch. Desired child, his father had always wanted a son, but ... there will be no dialogue between father and son. A mother who adores him, but under the thumb of a husband who listened only to his ambition.

"He was extremely severe with himself and with me. He knocked easily and sometimes with a hanger. While he was beating me, my mother on the doorstep, wept and begged him in vain, to leave her child alone."

From 7 to 17 years old, Helmut is in catholic boarding schools. Then a year of internship. A business school from which he will be fired six months later. Teaching in a Catholic establishment provided by priests had a devastating effect on her future sex life.

"For several years I suffered from feelings of guilt over my fantasies ... It was hell."

"I didn't care at all about the accounting. My father insisted that I continue in this direction."

He did not want to listen to the wish of his son who dreamed of becoming an actor and whose childish games and disguises in his mother's clothes had always repelled him.

"So, to give me a taste for acting , he beat me! He wanted to teach me that acting was a poor man's job. It was at this time that I developed a certain "I don't give a fuck" ... He wanted to be proud of me We were so different He was a worker, not a smoker, not a drinker.

My international success in the cinema did not change anything in the relationship that I had with my father. We ignored each other. But my childhood never harbored any desire for revenge in me.

It was only with Luchino Visconti that I learned to have confidence in myself, despite all my contradictions.

In the spring of 1964 Helmut enrolled at the University of Perugia, he worked alongside as a barman or waiter. An upcoming review focused on the historical civilizations around. In the back seat of an old Vespa he goes with a friend to visit the remains of Etruscan buildings. On the way back, they stop at a pizzeria.

In the Piazza, we fell right in the middle of the chaos of a film shoot. The prestigious director Luchino Visconti was shooting scenes from" Sandra "with Claudia Cardinale in the lead role. I stood there watching the shoot I found exciting. I was thinking about my old dream of acting and already seeing myself playing in the movie. In the evening the wind cooled and I was cold in my short sleeve t-shirt, but I was unable to move, like if I was held prisoner. How could I have known that fate had already cast the dice? "

Fascinated by the shoot, he didn't notice that Luchino Visconti hardly stopped looking at him, and he is as baffled as he is surprised when one of the assistants brought him a beautiful gray cashmere scarf with long fringes. During a break, Visconti spoke to him and invited him and his friend to lunch for the next day.

“During the lunch, the director did not leave me alone and his demeanor revealed an extreme attraction . Not wanting to be a toy for Visconti, I fled ..."

I accepted Visconti's gifts and invitations that followed, being careful not to let my heart soften too quickly. I wanted more! My ambitions now were cinema AND love. Visconti pursued me for weeks with his favors. But I was well aware that I couldn't make Visconti wait forever. He was my first real relationship and I told him right away. I confessed to him my shy candor and my virginity when it comes to same-sex relationships, even though that wasn't quite the truth ... With him, I didn't want to be a one-night stand. We became a couple in the fall of 1964 and we never left each other until his death in 1976 ...

Everything was not so simple, even if Helmut wanted to have a lasting relationship, in Paris he cannot keep still, and at night there are nocturnal escapades towards Saint-Germain-des-Prés. Difficult to get used to an orderly, aristocratic and artistic life. Helmut won't totally fall in love with Visconti until later.

"It was then I who began to court him. The eternal game of love .... I was a Gemini who did not plan anything, did not like to settle down, and who was only moved by his desires and dreams. I was totally unstable deep within myself. With Luchino I had found a balance. His confidence became mine and his love allowed me to love myself.

I wouldn't have succeeded with anyone else. His demand for perfection demanded everything of me. I had to work a lot ... (Well, fixing my thoughts between the two pages of a book is more difficult than I imagined! ...)

Before Luchino gave me my first big shot at the cinema with "The Damned" in 1968, I had already, thank God, had some experience with the camera.

Helmut speaks freely about his bisexuality. Marisa Berenson wanted to marry him, but wanting to put pressure on him by playing to make him jealous, he damaged her most beautiful evening dresses by cutting them into strips with scissors! The main criticisms he makes of women are wanting to get married and have children.

Romy Schneider's friendship is also very present in this book. "We looked very similar and were very close ... I have a lot of messages from her posted on the walls of my apartment. She consoled me like a beloved little brother when i feared an intimidating director ... i loved her so much. When Luchino fell seriously ill, she was immediately at my side, supported me and helped me with her advice. Although she was in the middle of filming, she immediately visited Luchino at the clinic ... "

During the filming of Ludwig, there were endless waits, the scenes were interrupted because of the guided tours of the tourists who sometimes passed in the rooms where the actors were shooting.

“During one of those breaks at Linderhof, I had sat impassively on a velvet armchair that looked like a throne. Perfectly made up and styled hair, we kept our historical costumes on for hours. Fearing Luchino's anger, which the slightest fold would enrage, I remained motionless on my throne at the Linderhof ... I even forced my eyes not to blink. My will may be implacable. Prussian discipline!

Meanwhile the tourists- des Americans- admired the stately pieces. Suddenly an old lady appeared in my sight ... Suddenly she pulled up the sleeve of my costume, probably because she liked velvet and wanted to check its quality. , unable to hold myself back any longer, I rolled my eyes and yelled "whew." The poor woman nearly passed out, she was so scared. "

Visconti's death was a terrible shock, a tragedy for Helmut Berger who a year later, on March 17, 1977, wanted to follow him to his death.

"I thought, I hoped to find him in his new world. What did I have to do here on earth without him?"

After Visconti's death, among those who had praised him, there were some who denigrated him. "Viscontian, became an insult. While Visconti's films had already become classics ... It hurt me to the last degree, even though.... Without Luchino, I was only half of myself ... All of these reasons also explain my suicide attempt and the dark thoughts that arose. regularly grabbed me. "

[quote]Visconti's family and close friends were hateful and jealous of Helmut Berger

The treatment of Berger by the Visconti family was pretty disgraceful. Berger has talked a little about how they kept him away from Visconti once he began to really decline and was spending so much time in hospitals - they wouldn't let him in. Romy Schneider's brother was a doctor who eventually had some part in Visconti's treatment and Berger says it was only with their help that he was able to see the hospitalized Visconti at all. I have a feeling there's even more to the stuff they did but he never goes into it too much in interviews.

If you read some of the Visconti biographies, it seems like friends of Visconti like Zeffirelli and others were whispering in the family's ears about Berger (the hypocrite Zeffirelli, meanwhile, adopted two of his lovers to ensure they'd get what he wanted to leave them in his will). Doubtless Berger wasn't an especially pleasant person, but he and Visconti were devoted in their way, and no one seems to give Visconti any credit for knowing what he was doing in the relationship. It's sad that so many of his friends let their hatred and jealousy of Berger overtake their loyalty to Visconti in the end, and so few if any spoke up for his wishes.

In the big Helmut Berger coffee table book, there's a sketch of Berger in profile by Visconti that I found moving. It's sort of gentle and melancholy, and says a lot without words about how Visconti saw Berger. He once described Berger in an interview as 'sweet, generous and sincere'. Obviously he saw something in him that others did not.

[quote]”I was twenty, he fifty-two. I was studying languages ​​in Perugia.”

I thought this said, “I was studying [italic]lasagna[/italic] in Perugia.”

Except for Helmut Berger, there are no interesting women today.

— Billy Wilder, referring to Berger's drag performance as Marlene Dietrich's Blue Angel in The Damned (1969)

R21 Thank you for this post.

Some of Visconti's close friends claimed that Helmut Berger "disappeared" when Visconti got sick and hospitalized and only visited him once, and when Visconti would repeatedly ask "where's Helmut?", they would cover up for his him and say that Helmut called.

On the other hand, Helmut said that he got kicked out by Visconti's family and wasn't allowed to be near him when he was sick and that Romy Schneider was a great help during that period and told him what to do, but I didn't understand what he meant by this, he didn't go into much details.

I'm inclined to believe what Helmut Berger said, because the family really hated him to the extent of rejecting his flowers at the funeral and making the will disappear indicate they were capable of doing anything including keeping Helmut away from Visconti during his illness. Unfortunately the party line in most Viscont's biographies that Helmut was just an opportunistic hustler and disappeared after Visconti became ill.

I also realize that Helmut wasn't particularly an easy person. He has his bitchy side and self destructive demons, but there are more to him than what appears. People who got really close to him like Visconti, Romy Schneider, Marisa Berenson and even Helmut's ex wife maintained that he is a very sensitive person and has an endearing caring side.

I really think that "Conversation piece" movie was autobiographical especially regarding Helmut Berger's character.

A quote from Visconti about Helmut Berger: " Although he comes across as a cynical person who does not care about everything, in fact he is very attentive and caring."

Helmut Berger standing up to racism says A lot about his character, like starting a street fight with the cops in Rome after the police had arrested a black man without any cause, he got himself thrown in jail for a week for this.

Also, in a video I saw, they were honoring Helmut Berger for his birthday in Germany, there were a crowd standing waiting to take a photo with him or an autograph. He pointed only at one girl in the crowd, a Muslim girl standing (wearing the Islamic scarf/clothes), He asked her to come, he took a photo with her and gave her a kiss. It was a real touching gesture,That says a lot about him as a person.

From another Helmut Berger's thread: "As usual, Helmut Berger was listening to the new hit single “Alone Again, Naturally,” which held some special significance for him, said Keith Baxter"

This was during the shooting of Ash Wednesday film in 1973, I bet it held a great significance for Helmut giving Visconti's illness at the time and the difficult situation Viscont's family put him through.

To understand Helmut Berger’s development, we need to go back into the early 1970’s where his popularity started. Aged only 25 years, he starred in Visconti’s „The Damned“ (1969), which was not only his international breakthrough, but also a ticket into a life of decadence and jet set.

Although Helmut Berger and Visconti lived a marriage-like relationship (as well as director and muse), Helmut was neither financially secured nor even accepted by Visconti’s family as his partner. But Visconti continuously indulged his spoiled and eccentric lover for 12 years, until he succumbed by a stroke and died in 1976.

With Visconti’s death, his family declared Helmut a „persona non grata“. Visconti’s family did everything to get rid of Berger as quickly as possible. Even at Visconti’s funeral, Berger faced difficulties to lay down a bouquet of gardenias at his lover’s coffin. The family told Helmut that Visconti’s testament was gone – which assured that Helmut would not inherit anything. Prior to this, Visconti had reportedly told his lover that Helmut would never have to worry about money in the future.

After Visconti’s death, Helmut lived by himself in Rome desperately trying to compensate for his loss with drugs, alcohol, and work. One year after Visconti’s death, he even attempted suicide to rid himself of his emotional torment.

For the next 20 years, Helmut Berger continued living in Rome until he had to move out of his apartment due to financial reasons. He moved back to Salzburg, and lived there with his mother who passed away 7 years ago. To this day, Helmut lives off a small pension in the same apartment he shared with his mother.

Billy Wilder on Helmut Berger: "It's a shame that Italy's best actor is actually Austrian."

Luchino Visconti talking about his masterpiece Ludwig:

"Being hemiplegic and in a hospital is strong motivation for the arrest of many professional lives, but I had work to finish. Ludwig was yet to be edited and the sound needed synchroniza-tion: ‘the will to work even more than the will to live’, as he would say, ‘...The fear of not finishing Ludwig ...I couldn’t stop worrying about Ludwig, not a minute. To the contrary, I must say that it is this worry which gave me the strength to fight the disease, the strength to make strenuous physical exercises every day.... That is why Ludwig is the film I love the most.’

Visconti's death:

"Visconti worked harder than ever, directing and preparing for the next day,staying up late, resuming his frenetic smoking. Many people were involved, and whenever someone moved him in his wheelchair, he would quip: ‘Lets move the cadaver!’ All along, he seemed perfectly aware that this was going to be his last movie. Doing it seemed to be enough to keep him alive for the time being. He used to say, ‘The day I will not be able to work anymore I will shoot myself in the head.’The surest sign that one is dead is to have one’s movies displayed on television, he thought: ‘It will be my turn soon. . . . It’s logic; but it is the sign that you are done.’

In the first months of 1976, Visconti was struck by influenza. On March 17, in his bed with flu, surrounded by flowers, his dogs and the pictures of Helmut Berger, he listened to the Second Symphony of Brahms in the company of his sister, Uberta. When the music ended, he looked at Uberta and said in Milanese: ‘That’s it. I’m tired.’ After that, he died.

Helmut.

Another scarf, another time. He is now 76.

This is sweet. Helmut with Dirk Bogarde. Must be some party for The Damned.

[quote]Unfortunately the party line in most Viscont's biographies that Helmut was just an opportunistic hustler and disappeared after Visconti became ill.

Yes, this is what I meant earlier about how biased most of the Visconti biographies are. They lean so heavily on interviews with key Visconti family members and with friends of Visconti's like Zeffirelli, whose disdain for Berger was well-known, that that it's clear those people had a hand in guiding what was written just through allowing access to themselves and others, whether the authors were fully aware of it or not. Most of them tiptoe around his sexuality or present it in a very curated manner. Meanwhile hardly any biographers interviewed Berger, his POV is mostly unrepresented in these books. That may be his own doing, he may have been unavailable at the time due to his personal problems, or maybe he just refused. Nevertheless there's such a gap in some cases between Helmut's versions of events and his viewpoint, and those presented as being the 'real' versions. I don't put it past Helmut to exaggerate or lie at times, but there are many things he's been consistently saying for years, and they aren't acknowledged anywhere outside of his own interviews and his two books. There are also many unanswered questions that no biographer has ever delved into.

Helmut's version of the way he was treated by the Viscontis just before and during Visconti's funeral is very revealing, and has the ring of something truthful to me. They apparently thought they were being generous is telling him he could say goodbye to Visconti prior to the funeral, so they could justify keeping him out of it. Then their behavior over the flowers he brought...it was clear they wanted Helmut swept under the rug and out of the way, that they viewed him as something distasteful and shameful. They knew Visconti was gay and were willing to look the other way, but they wanted no reminders. They certainly didn't want to allow property and money that would otherwise go to them and their heirs to go to Helmut, despite Visconti's wishes. So many surviving gay and lesbian partners have been treated this way over the years...Helmut's demeanor when telling that story in the linked BBC documentary is muted and utterly sincere. I don't doubt at all that this is what happened.

[quote]I really think that "Conversation piece" movie was autobiographical especially regarding Helmut Berger's character.

Someone here on DL described that film as a 'poisoned love letter' by Visconti to Berger, which is a fitting description. It's absolutely autobiographical. Burt Lancaster said he knew he was playing Visconti himself. Someone (can't remember who) said that if you knew Visconti and Berger, you recognized some of the autobiographical details that were included. Even the way Berger is photographed in the film...you can tell the man behind the camera is as beguiled by him as Lancaster's character is.

R34 Helmut Berger described Viscont's family as "greedy" and "scoundrels" It's a perfect fitting description because it's not like they were poor and desperate for Visconti's money after his death to do what they did. They were filthy rich themselves and didn't need Viscont's money (BTW I doubt that Visconti was going to leave everything to Helmut, but certainly he was a prominent heir in Visconti's testament). So the family hiding the will to deliberately deprive Helmut from the inheritance is a vile greedy act full of pure hatred.

Regarding Visconti's biographies , I don't think Helmut refused to be interviewed (on the contrary, he's always happy and willing to talk about Visconti). They interviewed Helmut for Burt Lancester's biography but not for Visconti's?! I believe NOT interviewing Helmut was at the special request of Visconti's family, They probably agreed to only cooperate with authors on one condition: not interviewing Helmut Berger. They wanted to diminish his presence and significance in Viscont's life and more importantly to prevent Helmut from giving his side of the events which would have exposed the family's greedy shameful actions (We took a glimpse of that in the BBC documentary).

"Someone said that if you knew Visconti and Berger, you recognized some of the autobiographical details that were included"

I don't know Helmut Berger personally but from reading a lot about him, I knew after watching "Conversation piece" film , that Konrad Huebel character was Helmut Berger. Of course "the professor" character had some similarity to Visconti but not like Konrad and Helmut.

Helmut Berger interview: (Exposing and trashing Visconti's family at the beginning):

“I lived in Rome, with Luchino, but when he died I was robbed of his will. It was the Visconti family: I knew that will existed, the secretary saw it and I read it. Instead it disappeared. Luchino told me that I should never worry in my life, because in this job you never know what can happen. Instead those rascals robbed me. They took from me the paintings that were in the house in via Salaria and in the villa in Ischia ... They didn't even give me back my socks».

And why do you think they would have behaved like this?

"It's the greed of that family. They couldn't stand me. I had relations only with Donna Uberta, Luchino's sister ».

What happened after Visconti's death?

«I attempted suicide. Because I didn't know what to do, where to go, I felt alone. I missed the ground under my feet, I didn't have a lira anymore .... In the world of cinema they are all fake. After Visconti's death, the whole world offered me condolences except Luchino's great friends, such as Adriana Asti or Umberto Orsini. People I always invited to eat with us and who instead betrayed me. They came to our villa in Ischia, they enjoyed my goodness, while behind me Asti brought other homosexuals (the last one was a Pole) to throw me out ... ".

How did he try to kill himself?

«Very easy. A little whiskey, a little pills ".

But did you really want to do it?

«Yes, I had calculated everything: they found me on the ground with foam in my mouth. They locked me up in an asylum. They called me Romy Schneider and Marisa Mell. So, after two nights, I decided to escape: I went to dance at the nightclub and came back at six, with the infusions ... ».

For years has been labeled "the most beautiful man in the world" ?

«no, that was something that the newspapers wrote ...».

What is it like to be so beautiful?

“It wasn't something I was aware of, I never looked too much in the mirror. I have always lived it as I live it even now ... So, bah ".

But then why the facial plastic surgery?

"The surgery had nothing to do with this. One day I saw myself as an Austrian ball, pfff !, and I said to myself: “I have to do something”. Doctor Carlo operated on me, then invited me to his house: they became my family. In their villa I recovered, I did physiotherapy. You know, I always suffer from back pain, because actors are paid to wait, not to act: I wait ten hours to make two takes ».

Who is "the most beautiful man in the world" for you today?

“Brad Pitt. And Johnny Depp. And Sean Connery. '

And Alain Delon? They say you didn't like him very much. It's true?

"I do not know him".

Has you ever limited himself?

"Only with sugar and salt"

What was the most embarrassing moment of your seven lives?

“Never felt embarrassed. I work for the paparazzi: they have families, and if they don't take scandalous photos their children don't eat, I have also been in prison: you know, in Rome they say that if you have never been in prison you are not Roman ».

This is all a repeat from the previous thread. Why OP?

Do you feel like a fallen god today?

"Na".

And how does you feel?

"A nice monster."

Was meeting Visconti your luck and also your bad luck?

“No, just luck. If he hadn't been there, he would have caught Pasolini at Termini station and I would have ended up in Ostia or Fregene. I could have even ended up with Zeffirelli ... For heaven's sake! I'm more of an Elizabeth Taylor or Faye Dunaway type'

Have you ever regretted doing something?

«Yes, I Promessi Sposi».

And not to have done?

"A son".

How is it going from shooting with Visconti to shooting Dynasty?

"Funny. I made Dynasty like this, to laugh, because Joan Collins was my friend and Linda Evans I knew her through Ursula Andress, another great friend of mine ».

Do you still have friends or do you feel lonely?

"Yes I have. Five are enough for me. I never feel alone. By the way: would you like to marry me? ».

But haven't you already been married?

«Yes, with a tramp What's it called ...? Ah yes, Francesca Guidato ».

Why this hatred towards her?

"Because she married me for the money, she came to sleep in my apartment, she tricked me."

Would it be okay if you titled this interview "a fallen god"?

"Naaaa. The title must be “The Forbidden Fruit” ».

And who is the forbidden fruit?

"I"

Luchino's Visconti's niece talks about her uncle and Helmut Berger:

Your uncle had declared himself openly homosexual. Was this also accepted peacefully, without embarrassment or hypocrisy?

«In the family, yes. There were no prejudices. My uncle made no secret, but no display of his homosexuality either. I lived here with him and with Helmut Berger and I assure you that I have never seen less than correct attitudes, both in words and in gestures ».

Helmut Berger fight with paparazzi after being caught partying with Cristina Onassis.

Marisa Berenson: "Helmut Berger was one of the great loves of my life":

In her book there are photographs of her with countless men: everyone from John Travolta to Larry Hagman to Jack Nicholson. She pauses on a picture of herself with the handsome Austrian-born actor Helmut Berger: 'He was one of the great loves of my life.

I've had several partners in life: love and passions and marriages but I've always felt largely alone. I chose that for myself, really. It gives me a sense of freedom and independence. But it's not easy being a young woman alone and it's not easy being an older woman alone.'

Helmut Berger interview - 2019

Helmut Berger was a European star in the 1960s and 1970s. He enjoyed fame and parties, but crashed violently, not least because of alcoholism, and ended up in the RTL jungle camp. "This jungle that haunts me as if I hadn't done anything else," he says

Visconti was his "father substitute". Visconti dies in 1976 and Berger falls into a crisis. A suicide attempt, excessive alcoholism, a decadent lifestyle followed, but hardly any new big roles.

Instead of acting, he is more talked about with appearances on talk shows. "I'm totally sunk," he explained in 1996

"I used to look better. But I don't look bad with my 75 either. That's because I stopped drinking excessively. Since then, I've seen my cheekbones again," the actor told German BILD.

But he doesn't want to be young again, as he told the paper. "No thanks! My youth was very exhausting. Not only for me, but also for the others. I was a wild guy and sometimes unpredictable.," said Berger.

Berger will celebrate his 75th birthday in Bad Ischl, where he was born. There he receives the city's cultural emblem at a ceremony, and a bust of the actor is to be unveiled beforehand on the forecourt of the Lehartheater, showing him in his brilliant role as Ludwig II.

"I'll treat myself to a few glasses of champagne. There are many friends from all over Europe. I have also invited a few old schoolmates. I still know their names today. My memory has always been good,"

A German singer called Wolfgang Flür talked about his meeting with Helmut Berger in 1981:

"Another artist was watching us kindly. Late at night, we were introduced to Austrian actor Helmut Berger who had shot very great films throughout his career and which after the death of his friend and director Luchino Visconti, lived as a "widow" in Rome, as he explained to us later with a smile. He didn't seem to live well. Helmut had been drinking a lot.

However, he was happy to meet us and invited us in the early morning to his apartment in a chic area of ​​Rome where he took us, despite his intoxicated state, with his Mini-Cooper. We followed him with the Mercedes...

The mood was heavy and numb in Helmut's apartment decorated with different styles of furniture and drapes - it was an amazing collection of items decadent and extremely expensive. Art was everywhere. I must say that the man had taste but he also had enough money to cover his tastes. A huge painting represented the portrait, painted in oils, of the very of the very narcissist Helmut Berger, in front of a mirror, admiring herself with love. I also discovered photos of him with Romy Schneider, my favorite actress at the time.

We settled in the living room comfortable and Helmut staggered to offer us a drink. After some painful attempts at discussion, the actor began to become sentimental. He confessed to us that he envied our artistic freedom. He himself didn't feel free and could only be artistically realized with Visconti.

Luchino had been his great love and now that he was dead he no longer knew how to continue. I felt sorry for him, especially when he started to cry. I believe he longed for such solidarity as ours but also perhaps Germany and its homeland. However, it seems he didn't know who he should contact there and who he might work with.

He said he had no group, no "gang" he belonged to. ... A little later, Berger asked to to show me something in another room . I had been a little afraid to move away from my friends like this but at the same time, I was very curious.

Helmut was out of it and he was on the verge of tears again. I sat down at next to him, and told him that he should come back to Germany to establish new contacts with the young directors of the moment. Before everything, I told him how much I hated alcohol abuse and the exaggerated effects that he was provoking. I had already read and heard a lot about his drug and alcohol scandals However, what does I didn't like him about him, that's how he ruined his reputation.

It was enough surprising but he listened to me calmly and attentively and he answered me that usually no one was allowed to talk to him that way. The one who dared to lecture him immediately received his fist in the mouth. I had also heard that Helmut liked to knock.

Suddenly he stood up and approached an imposing wardrobe. He turned and held out two shiny Italian boots. "Take them, you got them deserved, my treasure ”he said. What did this mean? It was a ritual that I did not know. What should i do now with Berger's shoes? Wear them?

I did not find this particularly enticing idea. He urged me, however to accept. He absolutely wanted to give me something and I didn't have to make so many fuss, he said.

I replied, "Can I try them, they will certainly not suit me." But on the contrary, the shoes suited me wonderfully; They were really classy and He said to me, "You look like me, psychologically and physically."

Ralf came to my aid. He wondered where we were all this time and was come to see discreetly. I waved at him to tell him that we had to leave as soon as possible because I had had enough of this now story with Helmut.

But we stayed a long time with him in his living room where he constantly had temper tantrums fits of tears.

Ralf thought that German films were quite successful in this moment with directors such as Rainer Werner Fassbinder, Volker Schlôndorff, Wim Wenders or Werner Herzog. We advised him to contact Fassbinder.

We wanted to give to Helmut the courage to try a comeback in the new German cinema but he just nodded and said, "No one will want me". However, I don't think he really wanted to.

Today I still admire Helmut Berger on German talk shows (for example the amazing way he empties his sparkling wine) and I hope always see him again in a great movie. Perhaps with age he reaches his true artistic maturity.

I envy the German pop music group, the Blumfelds who featured the actor in one of their music videos.

We have one thing in common, because Helmut would never have done anything that not suit his passions and tastes. When something pleases him, he invests fully or he does nothing at all. Just like me.

I think "What's My Trauma?!" could be a highly successful celebrity game show.

I always thought Marisa Berenson didn't truly understand the complexity of what she'd gotten entangled with when it came to Helmut and Visconti. She really thought she could get Helmut to settle down and marry her and have this conventional life, and she believed him when he told her that Visconti was just a father figure to him by the time she came along. Visconti encouraged the relationship because he thought it might ground Berger in a way their relationship never had, and because I suspect he thought that sort of bisexuality, the same as practiced by his own father, was a kind of ideal - one he himself had never been able to achieve.

R48 Was Visconti's father bisexual?!

Helmut and Marisa said (in different interviews) that Visconti wanted them to get married because he thought Marisa had a stabilizing influence on Helmut. Also, according to Marisa, Visconti thought that marrying Marisa was Helmut's only chance of happiness and normalcy in life.

OLIVIER ZAHM — At the same time, you were very open-minded because you fell in love with Helmut Berger, who was gay…

MARISA BERENSON — Bisexual, not gay — he slept with women and men. But it was a kind of dichotomy for me.

OLIVIER ZAHM — An unconventional lover?

MARISA BERENSON — I’m not a conventional woman. But my relationship with Helmut Berger was very pure. He had his life. But with me, he was different. He put me on a pedestal, which may have been too much, but we loved each other. I created a safe haven for him, I think.

OLIVIER ZAHM — Wasn’t Visconti also in love with Helmut Berger? Was he jealous of your relationship?

MARISA BERENSON — He was more like a father to Helmut. They were not in a romantic relationship anymore. And he wasn’t at all jealous. He encouraged our relationship because he thought I had a stabilizing effect on Helmut.

KATERINA JEBB — Was he a father figure to you, as well?

MARISA BERENSON — He was. At one point in our relationship, he said: “Please marry Helmut. You’re his one chance to be happy and have a normal life. I’ll give you the house.” but I was already thinking of leaving Helmut because it was too destructive relationship, even though I loved him.

Helmut Berger's side of the story:

But you were together with the model Marisa Berenson at the same time?

Sure, I'm bisexual. This is not a problem.

Don't you love one person more than the other?

I didn't feel like that.

Who is better to live with, man or woman?

Patchwork! The three of them, that was fantastic. Everyone had their job.

What was your part?

Hm, I was the referee when the two of them got into each other's hair. Incidentally, Marisa wanted to marry me and have children, and Visconti thought that was good too. But I said right away that it wouldn't work. She was a model. Not like Heidi Klum, but a real top model. She lived in New York, I in Italy. What would we have done with a child? I grew up in boarding school myself and think that a child needs a father and a mother.

But getting married doesn't mean having children.

I think so. That's part of it.

Would you have liked to have children?

Yes. But not with her.

Another interview:

Gala: You were an exclusive lover, but on your side, you often cheated on Visconti ...

HB: He went to bed early, but he wasn't fooled by anything. One day, maliciously, he said to me: “I don't find it normal that you sleep all day. You should see a psychiatrist. »I loved nightclubs, dancing, getting drunk in nocturnal Rome. I was often accompanied by Bianca Jagger, who was my mistress, before she married Mick. I also loved the company of Marisa Berenson, with whom we have long been engaged. Luchino wanted me to marry her, so that I would stabilize myself. But I refused. I have never liked half measures, compromise, I have always followed my desires.

[quote] I will never forgive Delon for manipulating their then five-year-old son Anthony into reaching Luchino. Delon made him write love letters to Visconti, signed with his little child's hand.

No comments on this? Delon was trying to pimp out his son??

From Helmut Berger's book:

It's probably because of alcohol that my relationship with women has always been particularly complicated. I love women, I love their presence, but they are too possessive. They always want to get married, to have children. , a cozy home, all this staging of care bears that paralyzes, makes you motionless, and which is anything but funny. As for the superb Marisa Berenson, she was not the emancipated and independent woman she made believe . We had a really amazing time, we had fun with each other like two addicts with their drugs, but every dinner party she wanted me by her side.

Marisa Berenson also had the right to taste the bitterness of my revenge when she tried to make me jealous with a Italian count. While we were on vacation in Saint-Tropez, she used her feminine cunning to get taken on the yacht this man, making sure I find out. Her trip and her affair were organized in such a way that our driver was obliged to tell me everything.

She wanted to make me mad with rage, so that I would finally marry her. We fell in love in 1970, just before the shooting of the Jardin des Finzi-Contini by Vittorio de If it.

Marisa felt that our engagement had lasted too long a long time already. Why do women always have to be so romantic and in a hurry? Go bene, basta, I said to myself. No one can blackmail me by arousing my jealousy.

Marisa was not going to be home for a few hours. Very calmly, I spread all her designer dresses on the floor of his dressing room and took great pleasure in cutting them one after the others in bizarre strips with my scissors.

On her return, she almost fell out of hand. Insults and vases flew. The reconciliation was just as passionate.

What’s the guy in the background doing? Waiting for a blowjob?

R53 "What’s the guy in the background doing?"

An extra on the set of The Garden of the Finzi-Continis film.

BAMBI scandal | Helmut Berger & Ursula Andress

it was Helmut Berger who, together with colleague and friend Ursula Andress, caused one of the few BAMBI scandals: In 1984, the two acting stars were supposed to give an award to film composer Giorgio Moroder. But both stammered and hesitated during the speech and spoke so confused that the audience chanted: "Practice, practice!" And they booed from the stage. After the award ceremony, the speech was shot in front of an empty hall for the TV broadcast. Then it worked - and the television viewer was spared the scandal.

Ursula Andress and Marisa Mell visiting Helmut Berger in the hospital after his suicide attempt - 1977

Florinda Bolkan interview:

The "sinful" nightlife of Rome '70s: In the Rome of the 70's she was a close friend of Helmut Berger's, which to call restless is an understatement. Today, he is a shaky and broken man who lives in a two-room apartment in Salzburg. He was once loved like a prince.

"We were two madmen who were unleashed in the nightlife of Rome, which still exists, but perhaps today is more turbulent. When Helmut let himself go and his destructive and self-defeating nature took over, I no longer saw him, dangerous for himself and those around him. If you have no respect for others...".

Were alcohol and drugs circulating in the premises? "Rome is a sinful city. We did everything that was on our minds, We were lucky, AIDS came after our youth".

Florinda Bolkan entered the court of Luchino Visconti thanks to Helmut Berger, the young blond Austrian lover of the great director; I tell her about that time, on a Greek island, the great director indulged in a whim of Helmut's, Florinda laughs and never stops: "That's how Helmut is, he loses all inhibitions .... We were young and beautiful. Of course I saw so many with Helmut that nothing surprises me anymore. At a party he rolled himself up in a carpet to hide from his friends".

I stood next to Luchino like a little dog, Flori sit here, he would say to me. I was a Brazilian idiot catapulted into a circle of intellectuals. He spoke to me as if I really belonged to that world. Luchino for me was the father who left me too soon.

A life in the shadow of Visconti, then, when the director died, Luchino's court killed her.

I found this recent comment on another Helmut Berger thread but the thread is closed (for me at least):

"A mostly very bad actor"

To each his own but that's only your own personal opinion.

"He 100% owes his fame and career to Visconti but he has even managed to trash and try to downplay that connection!"

Trash and downplay his Visconti's connection???! Where did you find that?? On the contrary, he is always praising Visconti and maintaining that he taught him everything as an actor and in life and owes him everything.

Most probably, your account/perception comes from reading a Visconti's biography (using Visconti's family and friends as the main source) or from some of Visconti's friends who hated Helmut and had always been jealous of his significance in Visconti's life and usually shed a negative light on Helmut.

"I think a fascinating biography could be written about Berger one day. Especially the Visconti years. But I don’t think HB can be relied upon as a reliable source. He has contradicted himself too many times over the years."

First person account is not reliable?? and you want a biased secondhand accounts?!!

Understandably, I don't think you really know anything about Helmut Berger other than the crazy bratty image he projects and people think of him . But reading a lot and really searching about Helmut Berger, He never contradicted himself especially when it comes to Visconti. He has always been consistent about his time and life with Visconti. I will also say that he's a reliable and brutally honest in most of his accounts.

"I met Helmut Berger in the 1960s while filming in Rome's Cinecitta. As disciplined as a Prussian, he is always the first on the set and masters his lyrics inside out. He is the lover, companion and long-term leading actor of the perfectionist master director Luchino Visconti, a gifted painter with the film camera, a prince whose clan hates Helmut to death, although the grand master and Dorian Gray were an excellent team when filming and partying .

They maintain Dolce Vita at the highest level, and in private life there is at most jealousy when Alain Delon or Roger Fritz come to visit.

Berger, the manliest diva in the world, is intoxicating, a jewel: clever, tasty, generous. He becomes a Mephisto when foreign matter circulates in his veins.

His charm can be so gorgeous that he can get all the women in the world if he wants. Insatiable in all directions. He also likes good-looking gents . But they are not allowed to be homosexual. He is looking for the straight man he wants to seduce.

Once at the Cannes Film Festival, I meet Helmut at 6 pm at the “Carlton”. The porter hands me the receiver at the reception, Berger is on the line: "Come on up, we're still having breakfast!"

The chambermaid opens the suite, and in the snow-white king-size bed, Berger and Bianca Jagger, the lost wife of the head stone Mick Jagger, sit in white bathrobes.

“Come on, take off your clothes, sit down, have a little breakfast, we still have time for the party in St. Maxime,” says Helmut. Bianca smiles a bit embarrassed when I sit down on the edge of the double bed as ordered. The maid brings fresh coffee and a few warm croissants to the bed.

The only one who speaks incessantly is Berger. Bianca listens in silence, spreads a jam roll, and I can see from her face that Helmut hadn't announced my visit. Berger, in his adorable way, didn't think that was important. He takes it for granted, as if the three of us have always had breakfast in bed together. Bianca, however, goes back to the bathroom with a smile after eating her omelette.

It will be a very fun evening. The motorboat that is supposed to take us to the party is on fire. We stay in the hotel.

When Luchino dies, the Viscontis are to blame for Berger's deep crisis; remain unresolved to this day.