The Leopard DVD

Abstract

In 1963, Luchino Visconti completed his Italian Risorgimento epic The Leopard (Il gattopardo, 1963) - one of the best Italian films ever made and a classic of world cinema. In it, the director conjures an era of aristocratic elegance and charm, his own world in fact, being swept away by the energetic and unscrupulous upstarts of the rising bourgeoisie - "the jackals and the sheep" - opportunistically surfing the waves of Garibaldi's popular uprising. This successful transformation into film of the spirit of Giuseppe Tomasi Di Lampedusa's outstanding novel was made possible by the participation of several exceptional artists: the scriptwriter Suso Cecchi D'Amico, without whose genius neither The Leopard nor much of the best post-war Italian cinema would exist; the cinematographer Giuseppe Rotunno; the composer Nino Rota; the costume designer Piero Tosi; the resplendent Claudia Cardinale, and, last but not least, the experienced Hollywood star Burt Lancaster whose magnificent...