Luchino Visconti - Il Gattopardo ( 1963 )

'Il Gattopardo' is a marvellous film, a magnificently realised slice of 19C history presented through the lives of engaging but humanly fallible characters. Don Fabrizio, Prince of Salina, is a shrewd, benevolent man of 45, trying to navigate a passage for his family through the social and political turmoil of the Risorgimento in Sicily. (I was stunned that some reviewers thought there was too much discussion of politics in the film - it is essential to the story and its context!) Burt Lancaster gives surely his greatest performance as Don Fabrizio, coming to terms with the fact that he is among the last of a dying breed: born too late to dwell in an unchanging aristocratic world, but too early to adapt fully to the modern world, unlike his nephew Tancredi Falconeri (Alain Delon). As he tells the royal envoy from the mainland: "We are the leopards, the lions; after us will come the jackals and hyenas".

Luchino Visconti directed this rich, emotional, and intellectually rewarding study of the aristocracy in 19th century Sicily. Starring Burt Lancaster (his voice well-dubbed in his very best role), this would qualify as a character study if its canvas weren't so large.
As Garibaldi burns his way to a possible worker's revolution, the upper class seems to circle in a different orbit, taking vacations while the situation is at its least stable. With mutton chops beard and careful bearing, Lancaster is very much the Leopard, slyly shifting alliances when it's to his advantage. That's why his protégé (Alain Delon) is so likable to him, a young leopard certain to earn his own place.
This is more a film of character and theme, taking its time to show the contrasts between rich and poor, young and old. The famous ballroom sequence at the end of the film ties it all together with sensitivity and sadness.

Tancredi embodies the best and worst of the rising generation: he is dashing and full of vitality, but he breaks the heart of his shy, sensitive cousin Concetta (Lucilla Morlacchi), and is just as fickle in his political loyalties - although this ensures he will survive in the new Italy. His engagement to Angelica Sedara (Claudia Cardinale), daughter of the nouveau-riche mayor, secures the family's future. Angelica is a fine example of how well the characters are drawn: no idealised romantic heroine, but a vital, beautiful girl with a vulgar streak.