The Leopard

Luchino Visconti’s The Leopard is an epic on the grandest possible scale. The film recreates, with nostalgia, drama, and opulence, the tumultuous years of Italy’s Risorgimento—when the aristocracy lost its grip and the middle classes rose and formed a unified, democratic Italy. Burt Lancaster stars as Fabrizio Salina, the aging prince watching his culture and fortune wane in the face of a new generation, represented by his upstart nephew Tancredi (Alain Delon) and his beautiful fiancée Angelica (Claudia Cardinale). Awarded the Palme d’Or at the 1963 Cannes Film Festival, The Leopard translates Giuseppe Tomasi di Lampedusa’s novel, and the history it recounts, into a truly cinematic masterpiece.