Director Luchino Visconti showed a beautiful picture of aristocratic life in the film "Leopard". As Ivo Blom wrote in Reframing Luchino Visconti (2017), “When one sees Visconti’s films, one is always struck by the unparalleled beauty, richness The detail and pictoriality of the imagery are deeply blown away.” The random screenshots of the film are exquisite pictures:
Like The Rocco Brothers, Visconti is good at using "the fall of a family" to frame his thinking about social class.
The background of the story of "The Leopard" takes place in Sicily, Italy in 1860, at a time when a revolution was coming. From 1848 to 1870, Italy experienced three wars of independence, and finally overthrew the rule of the Austrian Empire and achieved national independence and national unity. In fact, the Italian War of Independence was a bourgeois revolution that removed feudal obstacles to the development of the bourgeoisie. But in this process, the bourgeois liberals advocated a "top-down" reform approach. Although it was ultimately successful, it also left a large number of feudal remnants in the unified Italy. During the revolution, many nobles also participated in the ranks of the revolution. The story unfolds against this background. From the perspective of Prince Sarina, with a calm, intelligent, elegant and time-sensitive gaze, he has witnessed the change of times and the gorgeous curtain call of the nobles.
The title of the film is "Leopard", which compares these elegant and noble aristocrats to rebellious leopards, while the bourgeoisie who came out of the common people are more like jackals, vulgar but menacing. Prince Sarina does not resist the rolling wheels of history, on the contrary, he calmly accepts social changes:
And the movie uses the comical image of Sedara, the mayor of the upper class, who relies on rich wealth and both sides, to set off the difference between "leopard" and "jackal":
In the heart of Prince Sarina, the "jackal" is naturally incomparable to the "leopard", but it is powerless to change this social reality - the feudal system will eventually decline.
In order to save the declining noble family, Prince Sarina agreed to the marriage contract between his nephew and the commoner, making marriage a lucrative means for both parties.
At the end of the film, Visconti records a grand, pre-revolutionary ball with lavish scenes, intricate costumes and sets. The happy scene is sad, and the laughing drum music is more like an elegy of the times. Prince Sarina stared at a painting of a man about to die, surrounded by his relatives and friends, howling and weeping, as if foretelling his own destiny. But Prince Sarina told his nephew, Doncredi, "I think about death a lot, but I don't fear it", and perhaps this is his best response to fate.
The group photo of Prince Salina and Don Credi is like saying goodbye to the era that is about to go away.
Before dawn, Prince Sarina walked calmly into the darkness after the gunshots. Like an elegant leopard, walking slowly into the afterglow of the sunset, gracefully bowing to the times.
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