Luchino Visconti was always a case of contradictions, born into a wealthy family with royal connections (he allegedly pawned some jewelry in order to finance his first film, Ossessione), he joined the communist party during World War 2 before finally committing to Marxism. He embraced the neo-realist movement, delivering drama’s about working class people. In 1954, he directed Senso, his first attempt at a grand, sweeping period picture, it was received favorably, he returned to neo-realism to make Rocco and his Brothers before adapting the novel ‘Ill Gattopardo’ by Giuseppe Tomasi Di Lampedusa.
Set during the civil war of unification between the armies of Francis II and the two Sicilies and the rebel army of insurgents led by Garibaldi, the film focuses on the fading fortunes of Don Fabrizio Corbera, Prince of Salina (Burt Lancaster) who can see the future fast approaching as the middle class look to take the reigns. Fabrizio emits a regal status to his family and priest but he’s not above visiting a woman in Palermo in the seedier part of that town to satisfy his carnal lusts. Fabrizio looks to his nephew Don Tancredi (Alain Delon) to continue the legacy but he has no real money behind him, the middle class comes in the form of Don Calogero (Paolo Stoppa) the local mayor of Donnafugata where Fabrizio has a summer home, he also has Angelica (Claudia Cardinale) as a daughter, it’s here that Fabrizio secures the future for his nephew.
Tancredi began the film as a soldier for Garibaldi but switched to the King’s Army once it was clear Garibaldi wasn’t going to win, an opportunist of the highest order. Fabrizio contemplates the future a great deal, both in regards to Sicily and also his place in it, he places a grim view of where everything is headed, he’s offered a position in the newly constructed senate but declines, feeling his ties to a past that no longer exists and his status make him unfit for the duties that would be required of him. The scene during which he turns down the offer is some of Lancaster’s finest acting.
The last section of the film focuses on a ball held by a neighboring Prince and it’s a truly sumptuous affair, with glittering gowns, dances and the finest catering. It’s here that the weight of age and time finally hits Fabrizio as he shifts around the mansion struggling with the heat, mocking the young women who flitter around in excitement like birds (or monkeys as Fabrizio prefers to call them), contemplating his death and the manner in which it will happen before finally taking a long walk into the night to an uncertain future.
Looking at the world today, Fabrizio’s grim view of the future, it doesn’t seem that far off, it reminds me of an old Who song ‘Imagine a Man’ about the contemplation of death, the future will always rush towards us as we wonder about our ties to the past as we get older.
cinematic horizons 