 Born in Milan into a noble family, in the early 1950s Visconti moved to Rome, against the wishes of his family, to pursue his dream to enter the cinema industry.After a few experiences as an actor and an assistant film editor under Mario Serandrei, in 1955 he wrote the early script and collaborated to the screenplay of Francesco Maselli's "The Abandoned" and in the second half of the 1950s he started working as assistant director, notably collaborating with Michelangelo Antonioni and his uncle Luchino Visconti.In 1959 he collaborated with Luigi Malerba to the libretto of the Franco Mannino's opera "Hatikwa", and in the same period he started working in theatre as an assistant director.