The Damned (1969 film)

The Damned (Die Verdammten) (Italian: La caduta degli dei, lit. 'The Fall of the Gods') 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.