Movie: The Leopard
May 19 @ 4:00 PM - 7:00 PM
The movie was released in Italy in 1963.
Adapted from the 1958 novel of the same name written by Giuseppe Tomasi di Lampedusa, who never saw it published as he died the year before it was published. “Set against Garibaldi’s 1860s campaign to unify Italy, the film follows the aristocratic Salina family as they reluctantly confront sweeping social change. Proud yet pragmatic Prince Don Fabrizio Salina consents to his nephew Tancredi’s marriage to Angelica, the beautiful daughter of the bourgeois Don Calogero, hoping the union will preserve the family’s comfort and political influence.”
Much of this movie was filmed in Sicily, but most interior shots were done in Rome. The movie was originally shot partly in English and partly in Italian. Scenes with Burt Lancaster, who stars as Don Fabrizio Corbera, were shot in English, and later dubbed into Italian for the Italian release. The other scenes were shot in Italian and later dubbed into English. The movie was 191 minutes long when presented at the 1963 Cannes Film Festival, wining the Palm d’Or. It was cut to 185 minutes for the official Italian release. The film is included in the Italian Ministry of Culture Heritage’s 100 Italian films to be saved.
The 1963 English release, for England and the US, did not fair well as it had been cut from the Italian release of 185 minutes to 171 minutes, and the English dubbing was considered extremely poor both in the translation and the synchronization.
The movie has circulated in 5 versions, with the lengths ranging from the original 205 minutes to the initial foreign release of 171 minutes. In 1983 the Italian version was approved for foreign release with the Italian language restored. Fox released a restored version in 2004 with English subtitles.
- Length 3 hr 5 min; “PG” rated
- Filmed in Sicily and Rome
- Film is in Italian with English captions
- Nominated for 1 Oscar (Best Costume Design, Color)
- Cannes Film Festival: 1963 winner of the Palme d’Or award (the highest prize awarded to the director of the Best Feature Film of the Official Competition at the Cannes Film Festival)
- Additional information is available from IMDb
- The plot synopsis and other information on the film can be found on WikipediA
Tickets may be purchased at the theater at time of the show or online. For online purchases, see the United Theatre web site for the movie.