History Film / TheLeopard

* EpicMovie: A three-hour EndOfAnEra period piece featuring an AllStarCast, SceneryPorn, big crowd scenes, an impressive ball sequence, and becoming a massive hit at the Italian box-office in 1963, and inspiring such directors as Francis Ford Coppola and Martin Scorsese? Yeah, that's an epic movie.

* EpicMovie: A three-hour EndOfAnEra period piece featuring an AllStarCast, SceneryPorn, big crowd scenes, an impressive ball sequence, and becoming a massive hit at the Italian box-office in 1963, and inspiring such directors as FrancisFordCoppola ans MartinScorsese? Yeah, that's an epic movie.

* {{Foil}}: They are inevitable:

* PlayingAgainstType: [[invoked]] Creator/BurtLancaster, star of adventure movies and FilmNoir, the son of working-class immigrant and a former circus performer [[WTHCastingAgency plays a member of the fading aristocracy]]. The film's producer cast Lancaster against Visconti's wishes and he was initially opposed to it but agreed after meeting Lancaster. He learnt that Lancaster grew up with Sicilian immigrants as neighbours and [[HiddenDepths he understood the political context, the culture and its grudges very well]].

* ReCut: Visconti's first cut was 205 minutes long, but was felt to be excessive in length by both the director and producer, and was shortened to 195 minutes for its Cannes Film Festival premiere. Visconti then cut the film further to 185 minutes for its official release, and considered this version to be his preferred one. The U.S English-dubbed version, in which the Italian and French actors were dubbed over (except for Creator/BurtLancaster, whose original English voice work is heard), was edited down to 161-minutes by 20th Century Fox.

''The Leopard'' (''Il Gattopardo'') is a 1963 film by Creator/LuchinoVisconti, adapted from [[TheFilmOfTheBook the book of the same name]] by Giuseppe Tomasi de Lampedusa, with a soundtrack by Music/NinoRota. It takes place in Western UsefulNotes/{{Sicily}} during the UsefulNotes/WarsOfItalianIndependence.

* AdaptationDistillation: The film adapts the first third of the book, cutting out the final part and the WhereAreTheyNowEpilogue at the end.

* BittersweetEnding: Tancredi learns that he will be nominated as a candidate for the new Italian Senate in Turin (which the Prince already suspected), and he has his upcoming marriage to Angelica Sedara to look forward to. However, Concetta is still pining for Tancredi, and although Don Fabrizio re-captured some of his former elegance and class while waltzing with Angelica, he is all too aware that the world his family has inhabited for centuries is crumbling into dust, symbolised by the final shot of him [[OffIntoTheDistanceEnding walking into a darkened alley]]. [[spoiler:In the book, this becomes a DownerEnding; Concetta becomes an OldMaid, Tancredi dies young and is revealed by friends to have truly loved Concetta but married Angelica because he needed money, and Don Fabrizio dies in poverty and squalour.]]

** In a humourous fashion, in the novel the Prince muses about how the times have changed, since his nephew (another Prince) has to marry a commoner who is richer than him and few centuries ago would have been suitable just for being a mistress.
** In a more pragmatic sight, the Prince is annoyed by what this marriage means: while in the past century aristocrats could bed any attractive lower-class woman they liked, now because of a little wealth built up, they can even talk about marriage between a BlueBlood aristrocrat and the grand-daughter of a farm-laborer whose father was cunning enough to get rich. Such marriage clearly represents the end of aristocracy's privileged status and the beginning of the bourgeois dominance.

* HistoricalVillainUpgrade: The film (and the book) portrays the Italian Risorgimento with a highly jaundiced view, where nationalist rhetoric allows middle-class NouveauRiche to grab property. Sicilians largely see the new nation as just another in a long line of exploiters out to use them.

* KissingCousins: At the beginning of the novel seems that is developing one between Tancredi and Concetta, who are first cousins. While is wife has always wished a match between the cousins, Prince Fabrizio doesn't approve a marriage between them, of course not for them being relatives, but because Concetta is a female and won't inherit the Salina's fortune and Tancredi needs a wealthy wife to become someone important. Concetta is clearly in love with Tancredi but it is left amibiguous if he did reciprocate. [[ShipSinking And then arrives Angelica and her huge dowry...]] [[spoiler:At the end of the novel, when Tancredi is already dead and Concetta is a OldMaid, by some random comments given by an old friend of Tancredi, Concetta learns that actually Tancredi loved her but preferred to marry Angelica because she was richer. Angelica's looks surely helped.]]

* BittersweetEnding: Tancredi learns that he will be nominated as a candidate for the new Italian Senate in Turin (which the Prince already suspected), and he has his upcoming marriage to Angelica Sedara to look forward to. However, Concetta is still pining for Tancredi, and although Don Fabrizio re-captured some of his former elegance and class while waltzing with Angelica, he is all too aware that the world his family has inhabited for centuries is crumbling into dust, symbolised by the final shot of him walking into a darkened alley. [[spoiler:In the book, this becomes a DownerEnding; Concetta becomes an OldMaid, Tancredi dies young and is revealed by friends to have truly loved Concetta but married Angelica because he needed money, and Don Fabrizio dies in poverty and squalour.]]

In terms of style, it combines the Hollywood EpicMovie (exotic locations, big stars, battle scenes) with the European art film. It is especially famous for its jaw-dropping use of colour, location shooting and the famous hour long ball scene of the finale. Burt Lancaster, cast against type, always considered the film his favorite of all his roles and the one he's proudest of.

* AdaptationExpansion: The film's ball-scene while largely featuring lines of dialogue and scenes from the book, expands upon it considerably. In the book, the ball scene was a largely internal moment, in the film it becomes a major setpiece. It also shows the battle scenes that were off-screen in the book.

* NobilityMarriesMoney: Impoverished patrician Tancredi needs NouveauRiche Angelica's wealth to pursue the political career he wish.

-> ''"We were the leopards, the lions, those who take our place will be jackals and sheep, and the whole lot of us -- leopards, lions, jackals and sheep -- will continue to think ourselves the salt of the earth."''

''The Leopard'' (''Il Gattopardo'') is a 1963 film by Creator/LuchinoVisconti, adapted from [[TheFilmOfTheBook the book of the same name]] by Giuseppe Tomasi de Lampedusa. It takes place in Western Sicily during the UsefulNotes/WarsOfItalianIndependence.

The film won the Palme d'Or at Cannes in 1963 and was a huge box-office success in Europe. It is generally considered one of Italy's greatest films and one of the greatest historical films ever made, and Creator/LuchinoVisconti's best known work. It would go on to influence several film-makers around the world, including Sydney Pollack[[note]]He actually worked on the American ReCut of the film and deeply regreted being asked to butcher a masterpiece[[/note]], Creator/MartinScorsese and Creator/FrancisFordCoppola (whose ''Film/TheGodfather'' films contain several homages to Visconti's film).

''The Leopard'' (''Il Gattopardo'') is a 1963 film by Creator/LuchinoVisconti. The film is an adaptation of [[TheFilmOfTheBook the book of the same name]] by Giuseppe Tomasi de Lampedusa. It takes place in Western Sicily during the UsefulNotes/WarsOfItalianIndependence.

The film won the Palme d'Or at Cannes in 1963 and was a huge box-office success in Europe. It is generally considered one of Italy's greatest films and one of the greatest historical films ever made, and Creator/LuchinoVisconti best known work. It would go on to influence several film-makers around the world, including Sydney Pollack[[note]]He actually worked on the American ReCut of the film and deeply regreted being asked to butcher a masterpiece[[/note]], Creator/MartinScorsese and Creator/FrancisFordCoppola (whose ''Film/TheGodfather'' films contain several homages to Visconti's film).