The Leopard - Criterion Collection
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Movie Reviews of The Leopard - Criterion Collection
Movie Review: Aristocracy's decline and compromises in 19th century Italy
Summary: 5 Stars
Several years ago I read this book and then discovered that it was made into a movie in 1963. I searched for the video or DVD and was not able to find it at that time. Therefore, I was really delighted when I found out that the film had recently been released on DVD.
This is the story of the decline of aristocratic power in the late 19th century in Italy, and the effects of this on one particular family. The film was made in Italy and stars Burt Lancaster as the Prince of Salina and Claudia Cardinale as young lady from the emerging middle class who wins the heart of the prince's nephew. The film is a full 185 minutes long. But it held my interest throughout and I was even sorry there wasn't more because I remember the book covered a larger span of time.
There certainly is pageantry here. We see the palatial estates in all their glory. We get an understanding of the family dynamics as well as the influence of the Church. There are wars and glory and disappointment in love. There is pomp and pageantry and a glimpse into the privileged life of the privileged few. Mostly, the wars take place off screen but we do feel their impact. We see the first elections and the competition for power. And, most of all, we watch Burt Lancaster, in a role that calls for a wide variety of subtle emotions, as he watches his structured world fall apart and is forced to make compromises.
I learned a lot about the history of Italy as the film transported me to Italy for a very personal glimpse of an era I knew little about. And, it spite of it being made more than 40 years ago, the cinematography is excellent, even by today's standards. Definitely recommended.
Movie Review: Visconti's Masterwork
Summary: 3 Stars
For so long, The Leopard has only been available here in its cut, American dubbed version. Now, Critierion has released the full length Italian version, with Burt Lancaster's voice nicely dubbed into Italian. The result is a drama that's deeply perceptive and, often, moving.
Like much of Luchino Visconti's work, this relies on character -- so film fans who enjoy high-concept, plot-driven vehicles might not find this completely to their lliking. For everybody else, Burt Lancaster delivers his greatest role as a wealthy landowner who supports, then rejects revolution as it sweeps over Sicily. Alain Delon plays his protoge, a handsome, low-born firebrand who comes to be like a son.
The Leopard is unusually effective in its handling of theme. As one generation succeeds another, it's a metaphor for the social change that would soon overtake the island. And the final sequence, set in a ball, is classic cinema -- as Lancaster roams through the corridors of his life, only to see how the change of generations ignites his melancholy.
True, this nearly three-hour work may have a couple stretches that tax the attention, but I think Visconti deliberately aims for a pace that complements his material. This is a 19th century world with horse-drawn carriages, where conversation was a prime amusement. Enjoy the film on its own terms -- and certainly do so more than once.
Movie Review: Contains both Italian and US versions
Summary: 5 Stars
Don't listen to 'A Viewer' - who for some reason has got their wires crossed!
This Criterion DVD release of The Leopard contians both the original fully restored Italian 181 minute version, plus, on a second disc, the US version which is shorter, inferior, and has as its only compensation, the real voice of Burt Lancaster. 'A Viewer' seems to be under the impression that Criterion only have the edited and botched US version. NO!!!! This is a lovingly restored print of a great film, in its UNEDITED, ORIGINAL form.
And mighty fine it is too!
Movie Review: In response to "The Wrong Version"
Summary: 5 Stars
You must have misunderstood. This DVD has the 185 minute Italian language version of the film. As a special feature, it also includes the 161 minute English language version with Burt Lancaster's voice over. This is THE definitive transfer of The Leopard.Movie Review: 185 minutes of grandeur may be all we'll ever have...
Summary: 5 Stars
The legendary 205 minute version of Luchino Visconti's "The Leopard", which won the Palme d'Or at the 1963 Cannes Film Festival, probably doesn't exist any longer. Shortly after it premiered, this epic movie was (like other roadshows of the day) trimmed by about 20 minutes. This was due in large part to the strong opposition the film received from Italy's powerful Roman Catholic Church. (Among other things, the Church perceived "The Leopard" to be anti-clerical and objected to the way it had been portrayed in the film, as well as in the 1958 novel on which the film was based.)
Chief among the cuts made to the original version of "The Leopard" was a scene removed from the "Battle of Palermo" sequence. At the very end of this section, just after Alain Delon is wounded in battle, there had been a scene inside a Catholic convent. It depicted the convent's nuns willingly aiding Garibaldi's soldiers, and tending to the injured, including Delon. (In the recut version, soldiers are seen banging on the convent door, a nun opens the door, and the men rush inside, nothing more. Guess the church didn't mind the soldiers going into the convent, but they sure didn't like whatever may have gone on in there.)
Reportedly, the church was also displeased with the hypocritical nature of Burt Lancaster's character, especially his adulterous activities. At one point, there had been an encounter between Lancaster and a prostitute in the confines of the lady's bedroom. Eventually, that rather racy scene ended up on the cutting room floor. And it wouldn't be a surprise if that was due to the church's disapproval of the lady and what went on in that bedroom. (In the edited version, the Prince arrives at the prostitute's door and she lets him in, but that's it. I guess visiting a prostitute was okay, but actually getting into bed with her was another thing. Sort of like that convent scene. But then again, maybe not.) In the end, it's more than likely that a few other swell scenes (possibly another bedroom encounter for that randy Prince) met an early end thanks to the hyper-critical (lack of) taste of some supremely snippy church censors.
Well, producer Goffredo Lombardo, already worried about making his money back on Signor Visconti's overblown production, certainly didn't need the church ordering Catholic filmgoers to stay away from any theater showing it. So, it's been said, he decided to cooperate with those pesky censors and made those (now regrettable) requested cuts. Lombardo may have gone and made a few cuts of his own, too, simply to bring down the film's rather unwieldy, often complained about, length. ("Variety" whined, "... at nearly 3 and 1/2 hours, the film is way overlong. Several sequences fail to trenchantly move forward the story.") In the end, trimming 20 minutes probably allowed a lot of theater owners to add an extra showing of the picture. And anything that could help out at the box office was okay with Signor Lombardo.
Now, the reason I say that the missing 20 minutes of "The Leopard" will probably never be found is simply because it was so often the practice of the time to make these type of cuts to a film's original negative, and eventually just toss the deleted footage away. (Back in 1963, filmmakers weren't into preserving each and every excised scene the way they are now. Nobody was even thinking about videos, much less DVDs.) Besides if the missing footage had survived, I would think it would have been found by now, wouldn't you? Especially after Criterion's painstaking DVD restoration (not painstaking enough, as they've chopped off a good portion of the lefthand side of the image in an apparent effort to create a faux Super Technirama aspect ratio). Add in the fact that Titanus, the studio that made "The Leopard", went bankrupt soon after releasing the film. And that the rights to the movie were transferred to 20th Century Fox in Hollywood. And you end up wondering just where that excised footage would be now anyway.
But still you never know. Maybe, just maybe, someday someone will find those long lost 20 minutes. Perhaps in an old original print from the film's opening run, a print that has long survived, as the Leopard yearned to, the ravages of time and decay. But until then, we won't have it so bad. We've finally got "The Leopard", at 185 grand and glorious minutes, (plus the 163 minute English-language version), on DVD at long last. Plus we've got a few nice stills of some of those deleted scenes on Criterion's supplemental section DVD. You really can't help but figure that this Leopard, as old as he may be, ain't too shabby. Just the way he is.