Visconti's Palme d'Or winner in 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 alike, a deigned halfway house to tighten the bond with rich bourgeoise 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 motion, which is set stubbornly to alter each individual's destiny.
There are bountiful sumptuous, palatial passages in the film, which Visconti is particularly adept at limning with pleasing grace and enchantment, the maze palace, the opulent banquet and ballroom dancing, nostalgically pitch viewers to a soft spot of nostalgic evocation, but the siege section is inanely half-assed, out of his comfort zone, Visconti is innately incapable of shedding off his aristocratic backdrop to bring a discerning vision of warfare's true brutality.
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 (personally LUDWIG 1973 is more pertinent to my predilection), and its solemn beauty is undeniable.
above is written in March 2012
A second viewing a little more than 6 and a half years later, really improves the appreciation, Viscount's tome about the downfall of Sicilian nobility in the 1860s is revivified in its full glamor and exuberance by its BluRay clarity, and invites audience to the grand pageantry of a bygone era that is so opulent for the human sensoria.
In the center, Burt Lancaster's Prince of Salina, who gives an extraordinary performance drastically enhanced by a second time, it is sentimental, but never for a split second, he wallows in mawkish affectation, the Prince's dilemma is that he is shrewd enough to foresee a future that the bloom is off the rose for monarchy and aristocracy, by arranging Tancredi's marriage with a fiery if somewhat vulgar Angelica Sedara (Cardinale), he manages to find a bankable source for Tancredi's ascendancy, but in his heart of hearts, a deep dish disillusion (vain and sloth is the nature of the beast of his people) incubates within him, in the scene where he is lobbied by Cavalier Chevalley (French) to become a senator, his paradoxical response shows up the discrepancy in his wits and his actions, straddling between revolution and old money,his defeatist's capitulation is not for everyone, but very much to Visconti's liking. Lancaster emanates super humility and dignity on top of his beautifully poised presence, this reviewer must walk back my prior criticism.
Many highlights among its secondary players, Rina Morelli as Princess of Salina is the comical relief in her pitch-perfect paroxysm of hysteria, an out-of-sort Romolo Valli gives Father Pirrone a tremulous impression that precisely mirrors the church's stance when facing the shifting sands, Serge Reggiani's Don Ciccio is an earnest devotee and a half, who spurns the nouveau riche and is authentically vexed by Prince's stooping decision. Finally, gorgeous-looking striplings galore, Terence Hill, Pierre Clémenti. Giuliano Gemma, and an effervescent Alain Delon freewheels with pizzazz in terms of both Tancredi's opportunist career path and his torrid love interest, fecklessly shifting from a demure Concetta (Morlacchi) to a nubile Angelica, Claudia Cardinale, squealing with her trademark laughter.
A three-hour long epic, intermission is highly recommended to bestir oneself to the great ball extravaganza near the finish line, one of the most gorgeous movie ever made, Visconti's THE LEOPARD is a cinematic sinfonia concertante for us to bliss out.
reference entires: Visconti's CONVERSATION PIECE (1974, 7.1/10); Roberto Andò's THE PRINCE'S MANUSCRIPT (2010, 6.6/10).
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