Synopsis
The Leopard (Il gattopardo, 1963) is Luchino Visconti's historical drama, available to watch online on iFILM. On 1860s Sicily, Garibaldi's volunteers come ashore and the old aristocracy starts to crack apart. At its heart stands Prince Fabrizio di Salina, played by Burt Lancaster.
The prince harbors no illusions. He can see his class is finished, and he watches his own world fade with an almost detached curiosity. His dashing nephew Tancredi (Alain Delon) throws in with the winning side and falls for Angelica, daughter of a newly rich social climber, played by Claudia Cardinale. Fabrizio lets the match happen, having grasped a bitter truth: for things to stay the same, everything must change. The famous ballroom sequence that closes the film runs nearly an hour, staged with obsessive precision.
Visconti, himself born into nobility, adapted Giuseppe Tomasi di Lampedusa's novel and carried off the top prize at Cannes. This is slow, sumptuous filmmaking for viewers willing to give three hours to candlelight, brocade and the death of an era. Stream The Leopard (1963) online on iFILM.
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