The Leopard - Criterion Collection
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Movie Reviews of The Leopard - Criterion Collection
Movie Review: The Leopard, a Review
Summary: 3 Stars
I have just come to America and this is my first time righting in the Amazon jungle.
The Leopard has many spots, it is true. It stars a man who looks just like the American actor, Mr. Burt Lancaster, but he has a very strange voice and not at all like Mr. Burt Lancaster. Mostly he looks sad at all the pretty cinema Tographies. But he has nice sideburns, very thick, but this still does not make him happy, but only sad. And there is a man who looks just like Le Samourai but he too speaks Italian so he cannot be the Mr. French-Man Mr. Delon, and besides he do not have fedora and do not wipe the brim with his finger which is cool. I think Mr. Vic Conti, the director, he no Jean Pierre Melville, but what can you do? There is only one Mr. Jean Pierre and only one Vic Conti, so they cannot be the same. So it seems a leopard has many spots.
This Leopard also has I'm sure of it the American actress Claudia Cardinale and she even learned Italian to speak this movie.
So I give this one star because Miss Claudia is pretty but take it away because the Italian man who looks like Mr. French Delon does not wipe his fedora. But then I give one star back again because I like the sideburns on the man who looks like Mr. Burt. They are funny!
So now we are at one star but Mr. Vic Conti make also Death in Venice with Humphrey Bogart, and I always like Bogie movies. They are good! So Bogie plays Gustavo, a German, living in Venice, who is Italian. So I add one more star for Mr. Vic Conti who is a true globalist man, he allows a world of melting pots, and for me to come to America and be free to right in the Amazon jungle. Hip hip hooray Mister Vic Conti, you are a yankee doodle dandy!
And one more star just for being happy!
Movie Review: THREE HOURS I WILL NEVER GET BACK
Summary: 1 Stars
Some critics have said this film is painterly. I spent three precious hours of my life watching the equivalent of paint drying on the wall. Three hours I'll never get back. Three hours I could have spent painting one of my OWN walls.
This is the dreck Truffaut railed against when he wrote "A Certain Tendency..." for Cahiers du Cinema in the early fifties. This is the dreck that people with absolutely no taste find artful. I've seen home movies of graduation parties that were more interesting then this travesty.
Burt Lancaster was once in a MUCH better film called CRIMSON PIRATE... a film with more life in any of its sixty seconds than Visconti manages in three hours.
Movie Review: The Leopard (1963) - Luchino Visconti
Summary: 4 Stars
The Leopard is the most subtle epic ever made, and that's really it's true appeal. There is no tradegy, no melodrama, and very little action in it's three hour run time, yet it's a captivating film both beautifully shot and acted. The first hour is a little slow, but once the characters begin to materialize you'll begin to see the films underlying content. Hidden beyond the lush cinematography and incredible production design is an intimate portrait of a stern man accepting the changing times. While not a perfect film, The Leopard remains both an interesting and shining example of how a true character epic should be made. Movie Review: The Leopard
Summary: 5 Stars
This visually exquisite epic weaves the theme of societal upheaavl into a sumptuous cinematic tapestry. Alain Delon and Claudia Cardinale represent the incoming order, while a meticulously dubbed Burt Lancaster gives a flavorful, commanding performance as Delon's uncle. The film's final set-piece is a stunner.Movie Review: "The Leopard": Cream of the Crop(ped)
Summary: 5 Stars
I've noticed the concern of some reviewers that Criterion's transfer of the full-length (Italian language) version of "The Leopard" has been incorrectly cropped, with too much picture information missing from the left and right sides of the frame.
In Criterion's defense, it may be that their 2.21:1 image was extracted from an original Technirama frame having an aspect ratio of 2.35:1 (the European standard), rather than the expected and more common 2.25:1 frame (the standard used by Technirama in the U.S.). This may explain why there's a rather noticeable amount of picture info missing from the frame of Criterion's 2.21:1 transfer when comparing it to other editions of the film transferred at 2.35:1.
While Technirama's American films were photographed at an aspect ratio of 2.25:1, their European productions were more often shot at a ratio of 2.35:1. (Don't ask me why, it's a long story.) When it came to striking Super Technirama 70 prints (at 2.21:1) of these Euro productions, it was, therefore, necessary to crop a fairly wide and rather noticeable amount of visual info from both ends of the original (2.35:1) frame.
Of course, care in framing and camera movement was taken by the cinematographer when shooting to insure that no essential action was staged at the far ends of either side of the frame. [The variable framing component was an important feature of the Technirama process, allowing cinema prints to be made in various gauges and aspect ratios.]
Ultimately, there's never anything especially "important" or "essential" missing from Criterion's crop, though, let's face it, a 2.35:1 presentation might have been preferable to some people wondering why the picture on their dvd was "cut off". And besides, for many viewers, when it comes to a Visconti film, especially one as visually rich and detailed as "The Leopard", any missing picture info (no matter how "inessential") can be disappointing and rather regrettable.
As for a claim that there appears to be a greater amount of picture missing from the left, as opposed to the right, side of Criterion's frame, from what I understand the older Italian dvd (mastered at 2.35:1) was not centered properly and Criterion's transfer has wisely corrected that mistake. (The only anomaly in Criterion's framing may be some slight, barely noticeable panning and scanning to compensate for the usual TV set overscan, a common practice in dvd mastering.)
In any case, the Criterion disc, framing and all, has been approved by the film's esteemed cinematographer Giuseppe Rotunno, and Criterion (while remaining essentially mum on the whole situation) claims to be completely happy with their transfer. Now, that's not a 100% guarantee of perfection, of course, but it's probably as close as we're ever going to get.