The Leopard - Criterion Collection
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Movie Reviews of The Leopard - Criterion Collection
Movie Review: Il Gattopardo
Summary: 5 Stars
Fantastic is all I can say. This is "Gone With the Wind" for Sicily! Burt Lancaster is great and whoever did the voiceover for him was perfect. I actually thought it was Lancaster.
Claudia Cardinale, who must have been all of 21 years old, was breathtaking. The slow, deliberate pace of the film was not a flaw; indeed, it was an asset. It permitted me to grasp the flow of life of the place and time.
Classic movie and it nails the Sicilian psyche perfectly - the one line says it all about Sicilians: "Their misery is exceeded only by their vanity!" I'm Sicilian and I can vouch for that. The other line which is right on is: "They don't feel a need to change because they think they are perfect." Wow! Watch it people, over and over.
Michele LaTona
Movie Review: A jump in the past
Summary: 5 Stars
I was born in Italy, I saw Il Gattopardo, this was the original title, in 1963, I was 22. By the way the Gattopardo is a mytical animal which was on the code of arms of the Principe di Salina; 'gatto' in italian is cat and 'pardo' is the second half of the word leopardo (leopard). At time all the actors were extremely popular, Claudia Cardinale was at the apex of her carrier, she was very beautiful and charming. The entire cast under the direction of Luchino Visconti permormed in an excellent way. It was for me a joy to be able to watch it again and again!Movie Review: The majestic Visconti epic...
Summary: 5 Stars
This is as magnificent as you have heard. All the accolades that this film has received it deserves, and then some. Luchino Visconti is one of the more underrated of Italian filmmakers. Fellini, Pasolini, and Rossellini get mentioned a lot, but one rarely hears about Visconti. He should be better known. The film has one of the greatest setpieces in film history, the ball sequence that takes up nearly an hour at the end of the film. It's so brilliantly conceived and riveting. Not one shot is wasted. The Leopard is a magnificent epic, one of the greatest ever made. I do have a small quip here. Criterion released this as a 3 DVD set. It has the original version, running 185 minutes and in Italian. There's a 2nd disc of extras, but the third disc is the mutilated American version. Why did Criterion release the American version at all? To me, it's a waste of money and of time. They could have easily just included select scenes from it, and compare and contrast it with the proper Italian version. The American version is dubbed in English, cut it by 20 minutes, and printed in Metrocolor, not Technicolor, which is the format the film was shot in originally. Why bother putting a crappy edition out? I doubt anyone is ever going to watch the whole American version. Stick with the great original version. Movie Review: "If we want things to stay as they are, things will have to change"
Summary: 5 Stars
"The Leopard" (1963), based on the novel of the same name written by Giuseppe Tomasi Di Lampedusa, is the best film I have seen this year. Directed by Luchino Visconti, this splendid Italian movie takes the spectator straight into late 19th century Italy, a time of social and political change, something "The Leopard" shows clearly and in a masterful way.
One of the main characters is Prince Don Fabrizio of Salina (Burt Lancaster), who realizes that he must do something, if he wants the House of Salina to remain powerful in a new world that is going to be dominated by the middle class, not the aristocracy. The answer comes to him in the form of his nephew Tancredi (Alain Delon), an ally of the new forces that says that "If we want things to stay as they are, things will have to change".
Prince Salina is bitter regarding the need for compromise ("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"), but he recognizes the wisdom of the path Tancredi suggests, and supports him. What is more, Prince Salina also gives his blessing to Tancredi's decision to marry Angelica (Claudia Cardinali), an extremely beautiful and well-connected woman from the middle class. Of course, that doesn't sit well with Concetta (Lucilla Morlacchi), Tancredi's counsin, who has fallen thoroughly in love with him.
I would like to point out that there is a lot more to "The Leopard" than the plot I just outlined, for example the beautiful Sicilian scenery, the wonderful music, and the political connotations of several scenes. From my point of view, this is the kind of film you can enjoy, but also learn from. On the whole, highly recommended!
Belen Alcat
Movie Review: The Leopard be Damned!
Summary: 4 Stars
I have enjoyed reading the reviews of The Leopard: Let us now bow our heads and praise Luchino... I first saw The Leopard in a big movie theater, in Paris in 1971, in Italian with French subtitles. My French, she is not so good, and my Italian, well, it is nonexistent! But I got the point! As the many reviewers of The Leopard point out, the film is beautiful, sweeping and grand, (a masterpiece!) the story of a nobleman faced with challenges brought on by changing times. And with every new problem, the old cat deftly avoids catastrophe and steers his family into the future. ... and the film is soooo boring!!! Its beautiful, but the story goes nowhere.
Some review writers of The Damned were shocked, some seemed to be amused, and others were disgusted. In my opinion, all these views reflect the writer's circumstances as much, if not more, than the merits or flaws of the actual film.
The Damned is simply the flip side of The Leopard. Same basic situation, but this time the old man is killed off right at the start, and the family then slides into degradation, perversion, etc. etc. until the most immoral member is left in charge, offering his mother poison as a wedding present. Nice? No. But not at all boring.
Perhaps I overstate the case, and maybe conflict and plot are less important in Visconti's films than character, music, sets, dialogue and costumes. I'll let others argue those points. What I do suggest is that neither The Damned or The Leopard should be praised or condemned too much without seeing, comparing and contrasting both of these remarkable films with each other. Only then can Luchino Visconti's films be evaluated as expressions of a cinematic genius and/or a regional chauvinist.