Century film "The Leopard" in full beauty | Movies | '
One can not credit the American director Martin Scorsese high enough that he founded "The Film Foundation" in 1990 with a few comrades. Since then, more than 800 films have been restored with the support of the "Foundation" and secured for the future.
Luchino Visconti's Italian-French production "The Leopard" ("Il Gattopardo"), premiered at the 1963 Cannes Film Festival, is undoubtedly one of the great masterpieces of film history. But like so many cinematic epics with several hours of playing time, "The Leopard" also suffered the fate of having been cut, edited and circulated by the distributors over the years.
"Film Foundation" ensured perfect restoration
Although the film was reconstructed in recent years, but only Scorsese's "Film Foundation" made sure that Visconti's epic now in almost original form – 186 minutes long – as DVD and Blu-ray in the best possible sound and image quality (4K) again is present.
One of the most beautiful couples in cinema history: Claudia Cardinale and Alain Delon
It must be admitted that such an opulent film, which was also shot on 70mm material (later came mainly the 35mm version in the cinemas), in home theater loses a little power. But at least: even – or maybe – in the digital Netflix era, a movie like "The Leopard" would not be visible otherwise. This is about nothing less than the salvation of buried cultural treasures.
"The Leopard" is one of the treasures of cinema history
"The Leopard", which is regularly voted the best film of all time (including last 2012 in the famous, conducted every ten years survey by the British magazine "Sight & Sound"), was in 1963 after the award with the Golden Palm in Cannes Success at the box office – at least at the European.
In the US, despite starring starring Hollywood star Burt Lancaster, but not. Since then, the film has repeatedly run in new versions in the cinema or came out on various analog and digital media.
Also Don Fabrizio (Burt Lancaster) has feelings for the beautiful Angelica (Claudia Cardinale)
Now you have the opportunity to watch the movie on a brilliant Blu-ray edition. This is remarkable in several ways. Luchino Visconti's three-hour epic, based on the eponymous novel by Giuseppe di Lampedusa, tells the story of a historic change of scenery: around 1860, Sicily was struck by the fighting of the troops of Giuseppe Garibaldi and the Bourbon royal house. The liberators of Italy on the one hand, the feudal establishment on the other, nobility against the bourgeoisie: "The Leopard" portrays the struggle between new and old multifaceted and polyphonic.
Burt Lancaster: One of the best roles of his career
Burt Lancaster plays Don Fabrizio, the Prince of Salina, who knows his time is over, but is also smart enough to open up to the new in moderation: "Things have to change to stay the same", is his credo, knowing that the old world with the privileges of the nobility can only last for a certain time.
Don Fabrizio's nephew Tancredi Falconeri (Alain Delon, just recently awarded the Golden Palm at the Cannes Festival) is being promoted by his uncle – also through the marriage he initiated with Angelica Sedara (Claudia Cardinale), who comes from a middle-class milieu and thus also for the future is up
Also for his youthful role of Tancredi in "The Leopard" Alain Delon got the Golden Palm of Honor in Cannes
The fascinating thing about "Il Gattopardo" even today is that Visconti abstains from any one-sided and striking assessment. Don Fabrizio stands for the old, but also for beauty, art and opulence. He knows that his time and that of the feudal system is over in Europe, yet his director makes him an unforgettable film character between melancholy and grief. Thus, Don Fabrizio / Burt Lancaster is also a reflection of his director: Luchino Visconti came from an old noble family and described himself but throughout his life as a Marxist.
Alain Delon as an opportunist young nobleman with bourgeois goals
Tancredi Falconeri initially admired Garibaldi's ideas of freedom, but later changed sides, also to ensure his survival and career. His initiated marriage with the commoner Angelica is to be seen against this background.
Anyone who sees the film today will be well aware of current references to time. Opportunism and career thinking, the struggle between the different social strata and spheres, between the poor south and the rich north – you do not just have to look at present-day Italy to understand the timeliness of a movie like "The Leopard".
Legendary is the 40-minute ball sequence in "The Leopard"
"We were the leopards, the lions, the eagles, and our place will be occupied by sheep, jackals, and hyenas, but in one we are like leopards, jackals, hyenas, and sheep, all believing themselves to be the salt of the earth." , Don Fabrizio ponders the passage of time in the film.
He was fascinated, according to Visconti by his masterpiece, "the most up-to-date aspect of a tendency to drive the world into something new, following the rules of the old, and to give precedence to the latter in an ambiguous and hypocritical way."
From "The Leopard" conclusions can be drawn into the presence of Italy
"Past is used by Visconti," writes Corina Erk in a recent monograph on the director to analyze current political circumstances, in this case the modernization of Italian society during the phase of transformation from 1959 to 1964 from the agricultural to industrial society and the accompanying changes in the social classes. "
Marxist and old nobility: Luchino Visconti united many lives – and expressed this in his films
If one looks back at Luchino Visconti's "Il Gattopardo", one can continue to draw current relevance from today, to the Italy of a Matteo Salvini and a Luigi di Maio (five-star movement), the transition from the analogue to the digital era, etc.
Thus, a film from 1963, which is now in full glory again, is also a film for the new millennium.
Luchino Visconti: "Il Gattopardo" ("The Leopard") has appeared in Germany on DVD and Blu-ray with the provider "Koch Media". Martin Scorsese and the "Film Foundation" have the movie classic with a 4K scan of the original material and restored under the supervision of cinematographer Giuseppe Rotunno. As extras there are u.a. Interviews with the producer of the film, Goffredo Lombardo, on DVD / Blu-ray.
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