The Leopard (2004)

The movie turns out to be a little better than the average. Starting from a romantic formula often seen in the cinema, it ends in the most predictable (and somewhat bland) way.

The story, direction, characters, and writing/dialogue is akin to taking a tranquilizer shot to the neck, but everything else was so well done.

Close shines in drama with strong language, adult themes.

Blistering performances.

A great subtle performance by all the main actors. This is where the heart of the novel comes through. Not through the director, but the actors. They have all picked up on the heart of the novel which is only revealed at its very end when Concetta is shown to be the hidden heroine. At the end of the novel we see Concetta in her old age, Tancredi's true love. How could the director have missed this? Perhaps he didn't want to see it as it doesn't fit into the neat 3 act Hollywood movie mold.Burt Lancaster is brilliant. But again here we have an actor giving so much more meaning to the movie than the plot is able to sustain. The ending of the novel is a shock and, of course, a disappointment but it exposes such a poignant moving and truthful loss that it really cannot be omitted.

No doubt about it, The Leopard with its DeMille like opulence is a thing of sheer beauty. As subject matter for an American audience I think that unless one has a knowledge of Italian history this film might just be a bit arcane for an American audience.Burt Lancaster who was hired for American and worldwide box office clout is the lead here. He plays the head of an honored noble house in Sicily which is seeing the end of power with the end of the Kingdom of the two Sicilies which is roughly the island of Sicily with the lower half of the Italian peninsula up to around Naples. Giuseppe Garibaldi is leading a revolt against the ruling Bourbon house there. Lancaster's nephew Alain Delon has joined with Garibaldi's army purely for reasons of self preservation for himself and the family. Delon is quite the opportunist. As for Lancaster he looks over the ruins of the society he was a leader in with a dour pessimism just like Ashley Wilkes at the end of the Civil War. In fact The Leopard bears more than a passing resemblance to Gone With The Wind. For one thing it was the epic novel only published work of two authors talking about long gone societies which they were told tales about as kids.Things take a conservative twist in Italy. The House Of Savoy which ruled the island of Sardinia and Piedmont area of Northern Italy kept itself in business and now was uniting Italy under a constitutional monarchy. One of the locals who's amassed a fortune Paolo Stoppa is in tight with these folks. Alain Delon is courting Stoppa's daughter Claudia Cardinale. A marriage between the two houses will insure financial security for Lancaster and relations and Stoppa gets the prestige of an old and honored name. Lancaster isn't crazy about Delon marrying beneath him, but he sure likes what he sees in Cardinale.I saw an abbreviated version of The Leopard with battle footage and the some of the climactic ballroom scene cut out. Lucchino Visconti certainly had the skill to bring off a portrayal of Italy's past. His characters are interesting and certainly Burt Lancaster is most impressive as a man some 300 years behind the time and he knows it. Lancaster has some sad predictions for Italy's future and again a knowledge of how Fascism came to Italy is helpful.The Leopard is an impressive film, but arcane for American audiences.

I do not know many films where an established English or American star is in a foreign film either speaking the specific language or dubbed over while all other actors are speaking their own language, but that is the case with this Italian film from the book 1001 Movies You Must See Before You Die. Basically, set in the 1860's, against the Sicilian landscape a dying aristocracy, led by the Prince of Salina, Don Fabrizio Corbero (Burt Lancaster), he is also known as The Leopard, and the film traces the slow waning of his noble home. We see how he turned from peasant and rose to become the enormously wealthy prince he is, but with the decline of his empire and personal fortunes he refuses to take steps and halt this or rebuild Sicily, but assuring his own position to marry Don Calogero's beautiful daughter Angelica (Claudia Cardinale) is the nephew, Tancredi, Prince of Falconeri (Golden Globe nominated Alain Delon). Angelica is introduced to society by Tancredi in the climactic sumptuous forty minute ball, but in the end the conclusion is unclear whether Don Calogero recovers his empire or any of his personal fortune. Also starring Paolo Stoppa as Don Calogero Sedara, Rina Morelli as Princess Maria Stella Salina and Romolo Valli as Father Pirrone. It is obvious that Lancaster has been dubbed over by an Italian voice, but he otherwise gives a good confident performance being the head of the family and of the aristocracy, I admit I did not really know everything that was going on, because it involved political stuff, like about the republican movement or whatever, but the performances and costumes are well done, and I know it is a most watchable period drama. It was nominated the Oscar for Best Costume Design. Very good!

Some films, sometimes, seem to emerge primarily from the urge to create the most sensual, beautiful spaces and then putting characters there to live and inhabit, explore and reveal those spaces. Kubrick's "Barry Lyndon" (1975), Bergman's "Fanny och Alexander" (1982), Tarkovsky's "Nostalghia" (1983), Zhang's "Da hong deng long gao gao gua" (1991), and many films by Greenaway come to mind as pinnacles of this modus operandi, or whatever one might call it. Then, Visconti's "Il gattopardo" (1963), of course.To think this is my first Visconti! I don't know about you, but for me this is the perfect start. I steered away from this film for a long time, not out of spite but out of energy and commitment. I've had enough bad experiences (read: dull, monotonous) with films that are not only masterful but could've appealed to me had I been patient enough not to rush to them. At worst these things take years to repair.While in my mind the visual side of the film speaks to me the most, the characterizations are as superb as one could conceivably hope for. Here even the most rudimentary knowledge of the historic period in question helps a great deal – so it happens that I'm very much into Italian history, not least because I've studied the language and culture and lived there for a while. But all the history and politics bring me back to a central theme that I love in all storytelling: characters playing parts, some involuntarily bestowed, others voluntarily taken on. And is there a stronger sense of pretense and inevitable clash of "interpreting" these given roles than in clear class-related structures? Everyone in the film plays a role, some with more conviction than others, some with more relish, but all of them contribute to a growing crescendo of submerged tension, intensifying towards an inevitable release. Some players are silent observers, some take on appearances and speak (sometimes still saying nothing at all), and Visconti indubitably seems to relish the underlying comedy. Lancaster is justifiably lauded for his performance. Considering he's working with and appears alongside Cardinale and Delon who both have strong magnetism, he towers over everyone with a presence that's inescapable, palpably human and visceral. He lights up the screen every time he enters, and the air around him almost vibrates. He is the point of reference not only for us but for everyone in the film, as his character should be.The film takes a lot of work. It's languid, demanding, but for the most part rewarding. The final 45 minutes are transcendental, where everything and everyone is brought together. Leopards and lions, jackals and sheep. Longing beyond one's own life, love beyond one's death. Perceived change from up close, immobility as seen from afar, just like the stars gazed at towards the very end.