The Leopard

The Leopard (Il Gattopardo) (1963)

Runtime: 186 minutes

Directed by: Luchino Visconti

Starring: Burt Lancaster, Claudia Cardinale, Alain Delon, Paolo Stoppa, Rina Morelli 

From: Several different Italian and French companies

Would people be AGHAST that this was my first Luchino Visconti film? For the newer followers, I haven’t viewed much classic cinema as of late but in the thirteen (!) years I’ve been on Letterboxd, what’s been reviewed has run the gamut. It’s everything from The Room and Birdemic to some cinephile musts from the likes of Kurosawa, Tarkovsky, Fellini, Bergman, John Ford, Fritz Lang, Ozu, Truffaut, etc.

Yet, I imagine a few of the serious scholarly cinephiles will be surprised that Visconti was a blind spot until last night. A few weeks ago, the FXM movie channel during their retro block (meaning, unedited movies & no commercials) played The Leopard; despite a 3-hour runtime of a motion picture concerning a topic I knew little of-the unification of Italy in the 1860’s. I shouldn’t have been concerned when there was time last night to play the DVR recording.

To copy & paste the plot description currently on Letterboxd: “As Garibaldi’s troops begin the unification of Italy in the 1860s, an aristocratic Sicilian family grudgingly adapts to the sweeping social changes undermining their way of life. Proud but pragmatic Prince Don Fabrizio Salina allows his war hero nephew, Tancredi, to marry Angelica, the beautiful daughter of gauche, bourgeois Don Calogero, in order to maintain the family’s accustomed level of comfort and political clout.”

The film takes its time as the story slowly unfurled, presenting a tale where the particulars of Italy’s unification isn’t necessary-a viewer is not required to do even a bit of Wikipedia research beforehand, although that could be done for those curious beforehand or after viewing. The film was a rapturous experience as the end of an era is coming & Burt Lancaster’s Prince has difficulty accepting that truth. On the other hand, young cad nephew Alain Delon is more ambitious and probably will succeed in this new Italy, along with Don Sedara, a precursor to what later would be a Mafia Don.

The rest of the cast was also swell: Claudia Cardinale (a belated RIP to her; I never noted the death of this European starlet last fall) as the stunning lady from a rival family who is married to Delon for political reasons. There’s also Terence Hill in a supporting role, so early in his career that he’s billed under his birth name of Mario Girotti.

The showstopper is a long ballroom scene 45-minutes in length where my attention never wavered-rather, it highlighted several key components: there’s the lush score from Nino Rota, the great costumes, the lavish sets. Then, the film’s conclusion was note-perfect. The Leopard was well worth the long journey. Fascinating was that Visconti (who was from a noble family himself) and Lancaster (his hiring was forced on the director by the producers) initially did not get alone but after Ol’ Burt bowed up & yelled at the director, suddenly they were pals for the rest of Visconti’s life. Undoubtedly, in the far-future I’ll view another film from a great director I shouldn’t have overlooked for so long.