Checked out THE LEOPARD, the full, uncut, subtitled criterion version. and while it is without doubt a large, elaborate, well filmed spectacle, it has one glaring flaw... it's not that engaging. The first hour is interminable, with perhaps one of the largest, and most listless battle scenes ever caught on film.
When Visconti moves away from his uneven 1st hour, and his failed attempt to film the anarchy of the revolution, and gets back into personal relationships, his specialty, the film picks up.
While it never attains the sumptuous, wrenching power of Visconti's black and white Neo-Realistic masterpieces, such as the absolutely harrowing and brilliant ROCCO AND HIS THREE BROTHERS (also starring Alain Delon), it has moments of subtle satire, and dripping beauty. One of my favorite scenes in the movie is the return of the Noble family, after the revolution.
They come back to the town that has moved on, and they sit in church surrounded by people making a new destiny, the masses full of life and energy, and the Leopard and his family by comparison are dusty relics, looking mutely on, as the world leaves them behind, A brilliant visual moment.
However there are too few of those moments to sustain the films length. And much like the nobles it details, the film (mostly about indulgence and boredom) winds slowly down, slowly, like a tired machine. And finally, mercifully... stops. An interesting flawed film, far from great, far from the director's best, and not one I'd want to sit through again. ** out of ****.
When Visconti moves away from his uneven 1st hour, and his failed attempt to film the anarchy of the revolution, and gets back into personal relationships, his specialty, the film picks up.
While it never attains the sumptuous, wrenching power of Visconti's black and white Neo-Realistic masterpieces, such as the absolutely harrowing and brilliant ROCCO AND HIS THREE BROTHERS (also starring Alain Delon), it has moments of subtle satire, and dripping beauty. One of my favorite scenes in the movie is the return of the Noble family, after the revolution.
They come back to the town that has moved on, and they sit in church surrounded by people making a new destiny, the masses full of life and energy, and the Leopard and his family by comparison are dusty relics, looking mutely on, as the world leaves them behind, A brilliant visual moment.
However there are too few of those moments to sustain the films length. And much like the nobles it details, the film (mostly about indulgence and boredom) winds slowly down, slowly, like a tired machine. And finally, mercifully... stops. An interesting flawed film, far from great, far from the director's best, and not one I'd want to sit through again. ** out of ****.