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| Burt
Lancaster, Alain Delon, Claudia Cardinale, Paolo Stoppa,
Rina Morelli, Romolo Valli |
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Anamorphic
widescreen |
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Dolby Digital
5.1 |
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DTS |
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Trailer(s) |
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Featurette(s) |
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Documentary |
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Audio commentary
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Deleted scenes
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Concept art
/ storyboards |
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Multi-angle
feature |
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Prince Don Fabrizio Salina (Burt Lancaster): Something had to change
for everything to stay the same.
Sicily in the 1800s. Prince Salina,
a great landowner, has to watch the decrease of his power and influence
after 'Il Risorgimento', the unification of Italy. The upper classes
try to ignore the nationalist movements and the prince is uncertain
of his own feelings.
 Visconti's
luscious ode to the glory days of the Italian aristocracy is sensitive
and cerebral in equal measure. The lavish production starts off
spectacularly with an epic battle that establishes the context
for the historical drama that follows, but is otherwise entirely
untypical of the film's style. The rest of the film relies almost
solely on cinematography, production design and its famously iconic
casting to communicate the themes in this deliberately paced, impeccably
groomed production.
First-time viewers may find the fact that rather little actually
seems to happen in the film a tad off-putting at first. But once
one allows the richness of the film's themes (both historical and
personal) to sink in, it is a film that you keep coming back to,
while the visual beauty of the entire production is simply unparallelled.
An absolute classic of Italian cinema that belongs in any serious
movie lover's collection. |
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The three-disc Criterion Collection
release served as the basis for this review.
The anamorphic widescreen
image is framed at an aspect ratio of approx. 2.21:1. This
amazing high-definition transfer was drawn from a newly discovered
70mm print and supervised by the film's cinematographer Gioseppe
Rotunno. The image is slightly narrower than the 2.35:1 Techniscope
version, but this was clearly the ratio the film was framed
for, and the depth of color and amount of detail on display
in this near-flawless presentation is simply incredible.
The original mono sound mix is presented in Dolby Digital
1.0, and although it is perhaps faithhful to the film's original
sound design, the track sounds disappointingly thin and tinny.
The musical score would have benefitted most of all from
a more full-bodied soundtrack, while the voices - most of
which were dubbed - are rarely in synch with the image.
 Laden
with extras, this three-disc DVD set is as sumptuous as the
film itself. From the excellent audio commentary on
the first disc to the newly produced hour-long documentary on
disc two, this release even includes the full American cut
of the the film, running a good twenty minutes shorter than
the director's cut, but featuring Burt Lancaster's own
voice. It may be of interest to scholars and completists
more than anyone else, but it's a terrific way of rounding
out this definitive release of such a classic film.
Dan
Hassler-Forest
Reviewed:
October 18, 2004
Click
here for IMDB info on The
Leopard.
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