The Leopard (PG)

Film

leopard.jpg

Time Out rating:

<strong>Rating: </strong>5/5

User ratings:

<strong>Rating: </strong>4/5
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Time Out says

Tue Aug 24 2010

Is this the most beautiful film ever made? Watching Visconti’s 1963 saga of Sicilian aristocracy swamped by the mid-nineteenth century is like stepping into an old master, where the eye lingers rapturously over folds of velvet and the changing light. Like Lampedusa, the author of the novel, Visconti was born into the nobility, and one senses their empathy with the story’s ruminative Prince, who realises his class is doomed. The writing and Burt Lancaster’s majestic performance add ideological complexity and emotional resonance – orchestrated by fine support including Alain Delon and Claudia Cardinale – but the film’s greatness lies in the way it makes the 1860s live. Visconti’s attention to detail is one element, but there’s something about the grace, squalor, tedium and elegance of the climactic ball sequence which goes beyond filmmaking into embodying a vanished way of life.

Author: Trevor Johnston

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Comments & ratings

Rated as: 4/5 (3 ratings)

  • it was a rainy sunday afternoon when i stumbled upon this review. yes it's annoying when reviews are recycled, but it made me get off the couch and head south into a warm movie theater for three hours of something different. it's slow, but so beautifully filmed that you get to savor each frame.

    jazz Sun Oct 17 2010
    Rated as: 4/5
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  • That ridiculous review below shows up as a review of the DVD on Amazon, cut and pasted to here. Is this going to turn up on every site that reviews movies? It should be taken off. I loved the film, but this review is so over the top and arrogant, it would turn anyone off of it. And, Mr. Khawaja, if there's only you, it's pretty dumb to descibe your own personal, solo opinion as "unanimous"!

    jaycee Sat Sep 18 2010
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  • Ha ha, true. Funnily enough I have just come across a word for word copy on the NY Times website from 2 years ago.

    Ian Fri Sep 3 2010
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  • Any PR who would employ Usman Khawaja to big up their films would have to be on pretty serious drugs...

    tom huddleston Wed Sep 1 2010
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  • I presume these long 'reviews' are PR spam from the DVD company. So they should be deleted. They don't form part of a conversation.

    Ian Wed Sep 1 2010
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  • Imagine being stuck in a lift with Usman!

    John Wed Sep 1 2010
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  • Very beautiful, and very well attended - by people of a certain age.

    Mike Tue Aug 31 2010
    Rated as: 4/5
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  • There needs to be a ban on ridiculous reviews that are that long by anonymous people.

    tem Mon Aug 30 2010
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  • Lampedusa's masterpiece of the fading Sicilian aristocracy was beautifully rendered by Visconti with the best performance Lancaster ever gave.He moves with animal grace and majesty. Delon and Cardinale provide superb support.

    Technoguy Fri Feb 29 2008
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  • THE OLD PRINCE'S SUNSET In this movie Luchino Visconti gives us a multiplicity of voices which represents a disappearing world as a whole. An old Sicilian prince is leaving the stage with gloomy regret. The Italy's kingdom is sweeping away the Two Sycily's kingdom and one must adapt oneself to new rulers. However in the background one realizes without true democracy little things are really going to get changed. The prince sure will change because is becoming irremediably aged. So he must be satisfied with a dance with his nephew's wife. In the past he would have had much more. Baroque church, gleaming halls, countryside bathed in sunshine. Garibaldi and his braves are very enterprisings in their lightning military operations. Burt Lancaster is perfect in his role of the prince on the wane. In italian the word 'Gattopardo' means somebody which is only seemingly going to get changed.

    Giuseppe Paolo Mazzarello Wed Dec 19 2007
    Rated as: 5/5
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