Reviews of The Leopard
Displaying all 3 reviews
lasttimeisaw
5Mar12
English Title: The Leopard
Original Title: Il gattopardo
Year: 1963
Language: Italian
Country: Italy, France
Genre: Drama, History
Director:
Luchino Visconti
Writers:
Giuseppe Tomasi di Lampedusa
Suso Cecchi D’Amico
Pasquale Festa Campanile
Enrico Medioli
Massimo Franciosa
Luchino Visconti
Cast:
Burt Lancaster
Alain Delon
Claudia Cardinale
Paolo Stoppa
Romolo Valli
Rina Morelli
Lucilla Morlacci
Pierre Clémenti
Terence Hill
Giuliano Gemma
Howard Nelson Rubien
Rating: 8/10
Visconti’s Palme d’Or winner in Cannes 1963, a lavishly epic film recounts Italian’s royal dignity clashing with the new revolutionary era (triggered by Garibaldi’s upheaval), a historic keystone erecting in the base of this ancient country, a superior nobility runs in the blood of its people.
Sociologically and psychologically the film rings very true to Italian audience, the specter of a glory’s downfall is haunting both Burt Lancaster’s Prince of Salina and all the viewers, a condescending compromise with rich merchants is a shrewd move but younger members of the family (Alain Delon’s Tancredi Falconeri, the nephew of the prince) have descended into some sort of opportunists, the society lumbers everyone with the inexorable progress, which is set stubbornly to alter each individual’s destiny.
There are bountiful enchanting parts in the film, particularly with which Visconti are adept at, the maze palace, the opulent banquet and ballroom dancing, nostalgically right pitches to soft spot of evocation, but the siege section is risible and inane, out of his comfort zone, Visconti has to condemn his wealthy backdrop to impede his vision of the true brutality of warfare.
The cast is no more showy than the settings and the costumes, Burt Lancaster laboriously portrays his character with contrived sentiment which is too unrealistic to be credible, Alan Delon and Claudia Cardinale are poised concretely as eye-candies, along with other numerous sidekicks (including a dashing Terence Hill, whose name was still Mario Girotti then), whom one could almost assume as hollow and detached as any walking-dead.
Nevertheless, THE LEOPARD cannot be bypassed in the history of films, its the summit of Visconti’s career (arguable LUDWIG 1972, which also obtain an 8/10 rating, occupies my predilection), and its solemn beauty is undeniable.
- Currently 4.0/5 Stars.
ruby stevens
26Aug11
for things to stay the same, everything must change. another epic about the collapse of the aristocracy and the death of all that’s graceful and beautiful in life? set against the backdrop of garibaldi’s campaign to free sicily from the bourbons, it’s interesting for several reasons. visconti, who was an italian count and a marxist, brings great melancholy and depth to the story as well as extraordinary lavish set pieces like the 45 minute ball that closes the film. and i think he couldn’t have done it with anyone but his leading man, burt lancaster. i’m sure europeans were scandalized when the american ‘cowboy’ was cast as a sicilian prince because the producers insisted on an international star and olivier wasn’t available. burt more than rose to the occasion, with his regal bearing and the tragic humanity in those marvellously expressive eyes. he’s magnificent and it’s hard to imagine anyone else could be better. then there’s alain delon and claudia cardinale at the height of their respective beauty and a rousing score by nino rota. if you’re into historical costume drama, u could do alot worse. i watched the restored italian version 3:15; the english version is i believe 40 mins shorter
- Currently 5.0/5 Stars.
Wayne Rockmore
3Nov09
I first saw The Leopard about two years ago and my memory of it was that it was a great movie. I just watched it again and I now think it is one of the best movies ever made! This is, as of this date, the only Luchino Visconti movie I’ve ever seen and based on The Leopard I am anxious to view his other films. Someone once said that the ending of a movie, a story, should be both unpredictable and inevitable at the same time. I thought of that statement while watching The Leopard and it seems to make good sense. From the very first scene in The Leopard, where everything is wonderfully and efficiently set up, we sort of know how this tragedy will end, even if we don’t know precisely what will happen and how. That is not to say that The Leopard has some big rousing climax or that anything comes as a big surprise to the audience. In fact, the movie ends it’s story at a point where we pretty much what will happen to the characters over the next few years and so it is not necessary to show it. The central character of The Leopard is Prince Don Fabrizio Salina and we see him coming to terms with all of the political changes occuring in Sicily in the 1860’s, knowing that a certain way of life that has existed for centuries is coming to an end. The Prince’s nephew tells him that “If we want things to stay the same, things will have to change.” It offers the Prince temporary consolation but deep down he sees his aristocratic age ending, opening the door for revolutionaries, opportunists, and general chaos. This is all summed up in another great line towards the end of the film where the Prince says, “We were the leopards, the lions, those who take our place will be jackals and sheep, and the whole lot of us – leopards, lions, jackals and sheep – will continue to think ourselves the salt of the earth.”
The Prince is played by Burt Lancaster. How Burt Lancaster came to be cast in this, of all films, is a miracle. This is an Italian language film, made by an Italian filmmaker and starring European actors. I’ve read that when Visconti was prepping the film he needed 20th Century Fox to finance it, which they would only do if he would cast Burt Lancaster in the lead. Well, Lancaster was cast and in my opinion gives the best performance of his long career. Once in a lifetime, or in some cases not even that, an actor gets to play a role that stands far above and beyond anything anyone would have thought them capable of. They come to own that character, to embody the character in such a way that is is impossible to imagine another actor doing it. I’m thinking of Tom Cruise in Born on the Fourth of July, Humphrey Bogart in The Maltese Falcon, John Wayne in The Searchers, and recently Jeremy Irons in the remake of Lolita comes to mind. There are many more examples that can be cited. Once you see the actor in that role there is the sense that they will probably never top that. It’s a rare but perfect combination of actor and role. That is the sense that I get watching The Leopard with Burt Lancaster. It’s one of the great, standout, tragic perfomances.
There is so much more that can be said about The Leopard, it is that good. All I can do is say, if you haven’t seen it then you owe it to yourself as a moviegoer, a movie buff, a movie lover, to see it as it is one of the essential great movies! I loved it!
- Currently 5.0/5 Stars.