The Leopard

(1963)

★ 7.7 IMDb · 974 votes

Genres: Drama

Year: 1963

Runtime: 185 мин

Country: France, Italy

Director: Luchino Visconti

Cast: Burt Lancaster, Claudia Cardinale, Ален Делон, Paolo Stoppa, Rina Morelli, Romolo Valli, Теренс Хилл, Пьер Клементи, Lucilla Morlacchi, Giuliano Gemma

Plot

As Garibaldi's troops begin the unification of Italy in the 1860s, an aristocratic Sicilian family grudgingly adapts to the sweeping social changes undermining their way of life.

In the 1860s, a dying aristocracy struggles to maintain itself against a harsh Sicilian landscape. The film traces with a slow and deliberate rhythm the waning of the noble home of Fabrizio Corbero, Prince of Salina (the Leopard) and the corresponding rise to eminence of the enormously wealthy ex-peasant Don Calogero Sedara. The prince himself refuses to take active steps to halt the decline of his personal fortunes or help build a new Sicily, but his nephew Tancredi, Prince of Falconeri, swims with the tide and assures his own position by marrying Don Calogero's beautiful daughter Angelica. The climatic scene is the sumptuous 40-minute ball in which Tancredi introduces Angelica to society.