"A masterpiece – beautiful,
intelligent, deeply moving"
– The Observer
"One of the films I live by"
Martin Scorsese
I will admit that I
am biased. Il Gattopardo is one
of my top ten favourite films and one
of my top five favourite film scores.
The film had been allowed
to languish since its release in 1963
so that the colour film stock had deteriorated
badly, the colours either blanched or
too dark This new DVD incarnation, courtesy
of the British Film Institute (bfi),
boasts of being the complete, uncut
version of the film with fully restored
picture and sound – a high definition
digital transfer from the film’s original
70mm negative materials overseen by
the film’s director of photography Giuseppe
Rotunno and presented in its original
wide-screen aspect ratio.
I would like to take
argument with something of that statement:-
1) There is no denying
that the restorers have done wonders
restoring the visual elements of the
film – Garibaldi’s Red Shirts really
do look red again - but the sound quality
of the music?
Nino Rota’s music,
used practically intact from his Symphony
on a Love Song (recently recorded
by Chandos (CHAN 10090) and reviewed
on this site), was performed, for the
film, by a grand symphony orchestra
drawing on the best players of the permanent
orchestras of Rome (the Academia di
Santa Cecilia, The Opera of Rome and
Italian Radio) conducted by Franco Ferrara.
The recording was made in March 1963
in Studio A of the RCA in Rome, regarded
at that time as the largest and most
modern in Europe. Listen to the magnificent
Main Titles music on the soundtrack
recording (CAM 493267-2) to really appreciate
the full impact of this thrilling music.
If the music on this soundtrack album
could be so brilliantly digitally stereo
re-mastered, then one asks why not for
the film itself? Alas the sound quality
of the music on this new DVD lacks that
immediacy, that impact.
2) The assertion that
this is the complete version is open
to question too. Looking at the new
bfi release I had the feeling that some
material was missing since I saw the
film at London’s National Film Theatre
some years ago. Colleagues have also
expressed the feeling that, for instance,
a glorious high tracking shot from right
to left over roof tops of the beginnings
of the Battle of Palermo and the advance
of Garibaldi’s Red Shirts is missing.
I have heard that other footage or scenes
might not included too.
We have had to wait
many years for this masterpiece to emerge
on Video/DVD now that it has; it has
emerged in Italy, the U.S.A. and here
in England through bfi. The Italian
version (on Medusa DVD video) lasts
180 minutes and is accommodated on 2
DVDs in mono sound and with some extras;
the American Criterion version is spread
over 3 DVDs that comprise a 185-minute
film together with 20th Century
Fox’s cut, dubbed English-language,
American version plus a number of documentaries
about not only the making of the film
but also about Il Risorgimento – the
historic 19th century struggle
to unite Italy. The picture quality
varies – the Italian colours in the
Italian edition are inferior to the
bfi release. The widescreen frame of
the American release tends to include
just a little more detail at the extreme
left. One of a number of web sites springing
up and covering Il Gattopardo
suggests that there should be just over
200 minutes of film.
[
Web sites to look at:-
http://www.dvdbeaver.com/film/DVDCompare3/leopard.htm
http://www.criteriondvd.com/item_info.php?item_id=275
http://www.dvdtalk.com/reviews/read.php?ID=10979
http://www.dvdbeaver.com/film/DVDReview2/leopard.htm
The
Internet Movie Database (www.imdb.com)
also lists a "director's cut" with running
time of 205 minutes! ]
Il Gattopardo,
Visconti’s masterpiece of the Italian
Risorgimento and how it affected an
aristocratic Sicilian family had a checkered
career. (It is based on the international
best selling novel Il Gattopardo
by Giuseppe Lampedusa – and I recommend
the edition published The Folio Society
in 1988 with Raleigh Trevelyan’s erudite
Introduction that refers to the film).
The film had very mixed reviews in Italy
in 1963 because of the controversial
political nature of its content. The
much shortened English-language version
released in America by Twentieth Century
Fox greatly offended Visconti who threatened
to sue. It also suffered at the pens
of the American critics who could not
accept Burt Lancaster in the role of
the Sicilian nobleman Prince Don Fabrizio.
In fact Lancaster turns in a wonderfully
sensitive and dignified performance
of the ageing Prince who struggles to
maintain traditional values as everything
– political and social - changes around
him.
This bfi release also
features a full optional commentary
by David Forgacs and Rossano Capitano
that intelligently covers many of film’s
elements: art direction, costumes, settings,
and costumes etc. And the political
background to the Risorgimento Italy
and Sicily is explained well too.
Other bonus materials
include an interview with Claudia Cardinale
at the National Film Theatre who recalls
how strictly Visconti operated and how
uncomfortable it was for herself filming
in those heavy costumes, particularly
in the very long ball sequence which
incidentally has Verdi material as source
music.
The film is in the
Italian language with English subtitles.
Ian Lace
BFI (BRITISH FILM INSTITUTE) BFIVD595 [178
mins plus extra material] 
