The Damned (Italian title:
La caduta degli dei [literally "The Fall of the Gods"]) is a 1969 Italian-German
drama film written and directed by
Luchino Visconti. The plot centers on the Essenbecks, a wealthy industrialist family who have begun doing business with the
Nazi Party, a thinly veiled reference to the
Essen-based
Krupp family of steel industrialists.