The Leopard / Il Gattopardo (1963, Luchino Visconti)

Novecento (Novecento) 2009-03-29 15:52:45 UTC #1

I watched the Criterion DVD of this last night and was pleasantly surprised to see small roles by Terence Hill and Giuliano Gemma, before their spaghetti debuts, in addition to the large supporting roles by Romolo Valli (later to play Dr Villega in ‘Duck, You Sucker’) and Claudia Cardinale.

This is a very deliberately paced and quite magnificent production. I particularly liked this line by Prince Don Fabrizio Salina: “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.”

stanton (Stanton) 2009-03-29 19:03:17 UTC #2

I didn’t liked Il gattopardo very much when I first saw it many years ago.

But now, now I wouldn’t whine if it appears on lists containing the (supposed) best 100 films.
A masterpiece.

Novecento (Novecento) 2009-03-29 19:40:27 UTC #3

Yes, I was overwhelmed with the production values but it took a while for the movie itself to sink in after I had finished watching. I should definitely re-watch it sometime and maybe would appreciate it more.

Apparently the original length was 205mins but even the Criterion release only had the 185min cut.

Admin (Sebastian) 2009-03-29 19:45:59 UTC #4

I love it. It’s an amazing movie, with a great ball scene…

Novecento (Novecento) 2009-03-29 22:22:57 UTC #5

That ball scene really was really excellent.

So much said with so few words…

John_Welles (John Welles) 2010-04-16 01:00:27 UTC #6

One of my very favorite films. Burt Lancaster was amazing in it, as was Claudia Cardinale. :

stanton (Stanton) 2010-04-16 02:57:13 UTC #7

When I first saw it I was a bit disappointed, but meanwhile I can enjoy it completely in all its splendour.

Novecento (Novecento) 2010-04-16 16:22:29 UTC #8

Yeh, it’s one of those really great films. Up there in my all-time favorite list I reckon. Has anyone ever read the original book?

Novecento (Novecento) 2010-04-16 16:24:03 UTC #9

Definitely takes a while to sink it and merits repeated viewings! Apparently there is a blu-ray release planned although I still don’t have a player

El_Topo (El Topo) 2010-04-16 16:52:10 UTC #10

Don’t worry Novecento i still have a Beta max player somewhere in my parents house.
Was ever a release with the 205 minutes i have the nornal edition DVD which it’s 161m I think

Novecento (Novecento) 2010-04-16 16:55:22 UTC #11

Wow, that is old! I’m waiting for multiregion bluray players to come down in price - apparently region encoding is very different from on DVD players.

I wonder about the 205 minute one too. If Criterion didn’t manage to get hold of it then it must be pretty rare. Maybe the Bluray disc will surprise us all.

El_Topo (El Topo) 2010-04-16 17:20:25 UTC #12

it was a gift of a rich relative, actually I do not have betamax tape but I remember in seeing the video clubs the racks for the beta films at least for a while

If criterion does not do it it’s certainly dificult to be done, they have done a wonderful job on other films like Dreyer Joanne of Arc, and others, those are expensive editions but for some films, and Gattopardo beeing one of them, I like to buy them, criterion must be rewarded for their effort.
Anyway Sometimes a movie got so many editions that you get confused I’ve lost the count to how many diferent editions of Blade Runner exist in the market

John_Welles (John Welles) 2010-04-16 17:43:16 UTC #13

For people living in Britain, I fully recommend the BFI (British Film Institute) release of it: each frame looks like a painting by one of the old masters. It’s 178 minutes long and has rather sparse extras (an interview with Claudia Cardinale, director biography, trailer and full feature-length commentary), but the picture quality is amazing.