The Leopard

Original title: Il gattopardo

1963
PG
3h 6m

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Burt Lancaster, Claudia Cardinale, and Alain Delon in The Leopard (1963)

Historical Epic Period Drama Drama History

The Prince of Salina, a noble aristocrat of impeccable integrity, tries to preserve his family and class amid the tumultuous social upheavals of 1860s Sicily.The Prince of Salina, a noble aristocrat of impeccable integrity, tries to preserve his family and class amid the tumultuous social upheavals of 1860s Sicily.The Prince of Salina, a noble aristocrat of impeccable integrity, tries to preserve his family and class amid the tumultuous social upheavals of 1860s Sicily.

See production info at IMDbPro

IMDb RATING

7.9/10

30K

YOUR RATING

See production info at IMDbPro

Nominated for 1 Oscar
- 10 wins & 6 nominations total

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Alain Delon's Top 10 Films, Ranked

To celebrate the life and career of Alain Delon, the actor often credited with starring in some of the greatest European films of the 1960s and '70s, we rounded up his top 10 movies, ranked by IMDb fan ratings.

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List

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Trivia
Director Luchino Visconti was disappointed that the producers of the film insisted on casting Burt Lancaster in the lead role, because he felt he was not right for the part. This caused tension between the two during the first few weeks of filming. Visconti's harsh treatment toward Lancaster eventually led to the actor publicly confronting him on the set. Visconti was so impressed with the passion and sincerity that Lancaster displayed during his tirade that the two developed a close and amicable relationship for the rest of the filming process.

Goofs
At the begging of the film, Prince of Salina uses de word "mafiosi" to describe Garibaldi's supporters. This word settled few years later, as a result of the popularity of the play "I mafiusi di la Vicaria" from 1863. The mafia organization as we know it, was just starting its activities as such during the post unification period.

Quotes
Tancredi Falconeri: If we want things to stay as they are, things will have to change.

Alternate versions
The original Italian theatrical cut of "The Leopard" ("Il Gattopardo") reportedly ran 205 minutes. General consensus that the running time was excessive led Visconti to edit the film shortly after its premiere. The version that won the Palme d'Or at Cannes reportedly ran 195 minutes (based on an Italian newspaper account of the day). Visconti's preferred cut ran 187 minutes. It is this version that is now available on DVD from the Criterion Collection. An English-dubbed version, re-cut by 20th Century Fox for U.S. and U.K. release, runs approximately 161 minutes, and is also included in the Criterion set.

Connections
Edited into Lo schermo a tre punte (1995)

Soundtracks
Titoli di Testa / Viaggio A Donnafugata
Composed by Nino Rota

User reviews133

Review

Featured review

The lost world

Could it be that Visconti's 1963 epic--long lying in ruins until its 1983 partial restoration--is the greatest movie ever made? The real subject of this movie, surely the wisest and most beautiful of all "period pictures," is the twentieth century--what has been gained and above all what is lost. Only a Marxist duke like Visconti could have had the split sensibility, and the anecdotal knowhow, to render Sicily just before its entry to modernity with the splendor and the caginess that radiates through every frame of this masterpiece. As the prince making final compromises before leaving the faded world he has inherited, Burt Lancaster gives one of the greatest performances in movies. Possessed of both an elegiac melancholy and a shrewd, dry-eyed appraisal of the failures and the glorious extroversion of its aristocratic world, THE LEOPARD is like a dream you can't bear to let go of. Contemporary viewers will see echoes of THE DEER HUNTER, 1900 and THE AGE OF INNOCENCE--and will see those films shrivel to the size of cocktail franks.