Il gattopardo (Der Leopard)

Luchino Visconti at his zenith. The swan song of a class, of an era that must give way. With solemn calm and sublime acuity, Visconti's masterful language of realism paints an epic picture of the nobility at the time of the Risorgimento, its splendour and fragility, its exhaustion and corruption in its attempt to survive. The camera movements are slow and suspended, with depth of field on rooms in colourful shadows. A thousand details and magnificent trivialities come together to create a fresco, the rebirth and vision of an era. The decline of the nobility, a misalliance with the new, which will bring no progress – the hypocritically liberal bourgeoisie, brimming with vulgarity. The world seen through the eyes of a man as proud as he is weary. The glorious final ball sequence is a vanitas frenzy, a dance of death in never-ending beauty. The entire film, according to Prince Salina's alter ego, the ‘Red Duke’ Visconti, is overlaid with an atmosphere of death. (H.T.)