THE LEOPARD (Il Gattopardo) directed by Luchino Visconti (1963)
The sumptuous sets and lavish costumes together with the leisurely pace of this movie means that it should be enjoyed in a cinema.
Watching it at home, nursing a cold and making sure the cat doesn’t jump behind the TV are not the ideal circumstances to appreciate the subtleties of this drama.
The director’s cut was butchered by distributors, the savage editing and insensitive dubbing has meant that it has only been possible to see it in a form Visconti envisaged since 1990. This was when a fully restored Italian-language version, supervised by cinematographer Giuseppe Rotunno, appeared; a labour of love overseen by Martin Scorsese’s preservation group The Film Foundation. Continue reading
