The Leopard

Garibaldi lands in Sicily in 1860 and the aristocracy ends. Prince Salina understands this before anyone else, and instead of resisting he clears the way for his nephew's rise and watches his own class withdraw. It comes from Giuseppe Tomasi di Lampedusa's 1958 novel, winner of the Strega Prize. Visconti resisted casting Burt Lancaster, whom the producers insisted on so the film could be financed. The friction turned into a lasting friendship, and Lancaster later called Visconti the finest director he ever worked with. The ball that closes the film runs over 46 minutes and was shot at the Palazzo Valguarnera-Gangi in Palermo. A class spends its own funeral dancing. The American version damaged it. In 1963 Fox replaced Visconti's Technicolor with inferior DeLuxe Color, dropped it from 70mm to 35mm and cut it from 185 minutes to 161. Visconti disowned it completely, saying he did not feel it was his film at all. The full 185-minute cut only got its due in America with the 1983 restoration. It won the Palme d'Or at Cannes in 1963. Who it is for: viewers who like costume and production design carrying an argument. Who it is not for: anyone wanting pace. It runs over three hours and the last forty-six minutes happen in one ballroom.