THE LEOPARD (IL GATTOPARDO)

Italy, 1963, 161 minutes, Colour.
Burt Lancaster, Alain Delon, Claudia Cardinals, Rina Morelli, Paolo Stoppa, Romolo Valli, Serge Reggiani, Leslie French, Pierre Clementi, Ottavia Piccoli, Giuliano Gemma.
Directed by Lucchino Visconti.

The Leopard is based on a famous Italian novel "II Gattopardo" by Tomasso de Lampedusa. Set in the 1860's, it portrays an old Sicilian noble family confronted by social and revolutionary change as the old aristocratic styles and beliefs go and egalitarian principles take their place; or so many would hope. However, the Prince of Salina, the Leopard, believes that "things must change if they are to remain the same". This seems a cynical comment on human behaviour and history. Nevertheless, it sums up so much social change throughout the ages. The nobility goes only to be supplanted by a group seeking the privileges of nobility. They make fools of themselves in their attempts, but succeed nonetheless and new traditions are founded.

Marxist Visconti has taken this prominent novel and together with his team of screenwriters has fashioned an elegant study of this Prince faced with Sicilian tradition, the threat of Italian revolution and the need for a detached attitude towards it in order to cope. There is a certain disillusionment here concerning the efficacy of revolutions. They succeed for a time, but only a short time and soon everything, although in different forms, is the same again. Visconti has recreated the period in some of the most beautifully patterned colour images the screen has seen. The film is worth seeing for this beauty alone. It is also worth the philosophical conversations that permeate it. The film was cut for English-speaking distribution and dubbed in only an average manner. Nevertheless, the film is well worth seeing for Visconti's work and for a vivid recreation of a past epoch and the issues that confronted it. (It could be compared with his earlier films on Sicily - La Terra Trema and Ossessione.

I. The significance of the title - the Prince says that "We are the leopards and the others will always envy us"?

2. Visconti's visual presentation of his story and theme- his design of so many of his frames as nineteenth century paintings and portraits, the use of rich colour tones to suggest the pageantry of the past, the landscape and its colours contrasting with buildings, the palaces and the Churches? The over-all visual impact of this Sicilian world?

3. Is the film merely the sad and romantic story of Sicilian aristocracy? Where do audience sympathies lie? In which characters are we most interested? Why? Where do Visconti's own sympathies lie?

4. The Prince - how does the film present him as a man? In his family, with his wife, at his desk, with his confessor, his mistress, on his lands, as ageing, regal, serene? How is he presented as a Prince - his rule, prayers, decorum, occupation?

5. How does the Prince embody what was happening in Sicily? How did he embody the ageing (and gradually sterile or decaying) aristocracy? How did he embody interest in the new order? Why was he sympathetic to Garibaldi and his followers? Did he agree with their principles, or did he merely see some necessity in accommodating himself to them for survival? How was the aristocracy being threatened? How was he threatened? Why did he vote as he did in the plebiscite?

6. "...the central theme, the self-interrogation of an aristocrat obsessed to account for his own survival". Is this true? Does it get to the core of the film?

7. The film is said to illustrate "Trasformismo" in Italian history.
Trasformismo - the process whereby seemingly dangerous elements are "transformed" into stable parts of the system. Is this true?

8. Social and historical themes worth discussing -
the change from old world to new; the prevailing factors?
the inevitability of changer the "fatalism" of change?
the nature of history; the combined factors that make change?
- the new order compared with the old - is it true that ultimately there is very little change? Is it true that to change one has to stay the same?
- how necessary is revolution? How violent does it have to be?

9. How pessimistic is the outlook about the film? Is it in favour of change? What is its verdict on the changes that took place in Sicily?

10. How much elegy is there for the age and the people who have gone?

11. The other characters:
- as persons, interesting personalities in themselves?
- as symbols of change or refusal to change, the new order of the old?
- the Princess?
- her daughters?
- Tancredi - why did he join Garibaldi? (a betrayal of his class?) Why and how did he change? His relationship with the Prince? A mirror of the Prince?
- Don Calogero - the new order, lack of social graces, finally aping the old aristocracy, his goods, values, principles?
- Angelica - her background, style, faux pas, love for Tancredi, contrast with Concetta, her changing, her relationship with the Prince?
- Don Ciccio and his companionship?
- Father Pirrone; the influence of the Church on the Prince; on Sicily?
- The Chevalley:
- Tancredi's friends?

12. The final ball - its significance for the theme? For the Prince? His
memories? A review of change? The dance with Angelica - their values, the contrast?

13. The final walk, the executions - the summing up of the theme, death, hope,
hopelessness, compromise? The mood and atmosphere the audience is left with?