Leopard Criterion Collection Burt Lancaster

Leopard Criterion Collection Burt Lancaster

An epic on the grandest scale, Luchino Viscontis THE LEOPARD (Il gattopardo) re-creates, with nostalgia, drama, and opulence, the tumultuous years of Italys Risorgimento, when the aristocracy lost it is grip and the middle classes rose and formed a unified, democratic Italy. Burt Lancaster (The Killers, Brute Force) stars as an aging prince observing his culture and fortune wane in the face of a new generation, represented by the gorgeous Alain Delon (Purple Noon, Le samoura) and Claudia Cardinale (8 , Once Upon a Time in the West). The Criterion Collection is proud to present THE LEOPARD in two distinct versions: Viscontis firstborn and the English-language one freed in America.

With this magnificent Criterion DVD release, Luchino Visconti’s 1963 historical drama The Leopard will at long last earn widespread acknowledgement as one of the most finelooking epics ever produced. In adjusting the usual novel by Giuseppe Tomassi di Lampedusa (an Italian equivalent to Gone with the Wind, set for the duration of the tumultuous Garibaldi revolution of 1860-62), Visconti was initially reluctant to cast Burt Lancaster as the melancholy Prince of Salina–the aging aristocrat “leopard” of the title–who accepts alter as inevitable for the duration of the struggle for a united Italy. But Lancaster (even with his voice dubbed in the wholly restored Italian release) delivered one of his finest performances, modeled after Visconti himself, and reacting to political and familial upheavals with the wisdom and whimsy of a man who knows that his way of life–and all he holds dear–must alter with the times. You won’t find a more intimate epic, and Giusseppe Rotunno’s masterful cinematography represents the pinnacle of painterly beauty, matched only by the authentic splendor of the film’s impeccable production design. The climactic hourlong ballroom scene–which even the hard-to-please Pauline Kael called “one of the greatest of all passages in movies”–is perfectly breathtaking. Anchored by Lancaster’s performance and the romantic pairing of Alain Delon and Claudia Cardinale, The Leopard is sheer perfection, entirely restored to it is 185-minute glory. –Jeff Shannon

Leopard Criterion Collection Burt Lancaster Photo

Leopard Criterion Collection Burt Lancaster Photo

Leopard Criterion Collection Burt Lancaster Pic

Leopard Criterion Collection Burt Lancaster Picture

Most helpful client reviews

157 of 165 humans found the following review helpful.
A Panoramic View of Sicily for the duration of Its Unification
By Bruce Frier
It is incomprehensible to me why this movie has not yet made it to DVD. I think it is effortlessly Visconti’s greatest work, and one of the masterworks of Italian film from a great era in general; and it is also a flawless adaptation of one of the finest Italian novels of the twentieth century. The film is a close study of a noble Sicilian family, and exceptionally of it is Prince (played by Burt Lancaster in what I think is also his best role), as they interact with the new middle-class parvenus of revolutionary Italy. The cinematic values of the film itself are stunning, from the tremendous panoramas of the desolate Sicilian countryside, to the stifling intimacy of the final ball (which lasts closely an hour on film without once being boring). What is most awful is the depth of the film. Even little gestures are cautiously observed and capture the subtle differences in meaning or opinion or attitude of an aristocracy in decline. I loved “Death in Venice” as well, but this film will have to justly be considered Visconti’s most tightly controlled and haunting.

107 of 112 persons found the following review helpful.
THIS DVD IS NOT CUT!!! SOME OF THE REVIEWS ARE ALL WRON
By valediggler
criterion gives a real royal treatment to this movie and it is higly earned by it…in a great deal of reviews persons say that the movie is cut and italian version is better blah blah…what they do not recognise is this 3 disc set has all two of them…check that out yourself:
DISC ONE
*The Film – Visconti’s introductory Italian version (185:52)
Audio commentary by Peter Cowie (film scholar)
English HoH subtitles (removable)
2.21:1 Anamorphic NTSC (Super Technirama OAR)
Italian Dolby Digital 1.0 Mono

DISC TWO
“A Dying Breed: The Making of The Leopard”, a new documentary featuring consultations with Claudia Cardinale, screenwriter Suso Ceccho D’Amico, cinematographer Giuseppe Rotunno, filmmaker Sydney Pollack, and numerous others (61:31)
Interview with producer Goffredo Lombardo (19:30)
Video consultation with professor Millicent Marcus of the University of Pennsylvania on the history of the Risorgimento (13:36)
Promotional Materials:
- Stills gallery of rare behind-the-scenes production photos
- Italian newsreel footage (3:11)
- Italian theatrical trailer (3:40)
- American theatrical trailers (2) (3:46)

DISC THREE
*The Film – alternate American release (161:23)Subtitles:NonePicture format:2.35:1 Anamorphic NTSC Soundtrack(s):English Dolby Digital 1.0 MonoCase type:Special CaseNotes:Black Triple Alpha case
Disc 1 is region-free (R0); discs 2 and 3 are encoded R1

65 of 70 persons found the following review helpful.
A genuinely masterpiece, if there was ever one
By Jorge Goded
I saw this film twice in Spain, the firstborn time at least fifteen years ago, in it is introductory version and length, not, as I have read here, an American dubbed-abreviated version. I think this is the best movie by Visconti, though to be reasonable I have not seen all of them. It seems amazing, however, it is relative obscurity, equated for example to the more or less overhyped Death in Venice, which I consider to be much inferior to Il Gatopardo. It is also one of my favourite films of all time. Lancaster’s performance is unforgetable, the ambience, the music, the story and the painful ending, all amount to a masterwork difficult to match. The Sicilian landscape is captured in all it is magic and grandiosity and dominates my memories of the film. Comparing it to Gone with the Wind is, I think, a bit frivolous, as, with due respect, the estethics of both films – one Italian-European, the other American – are light years apart, without at all questioning the merits of the American film. Sadly, the pervasive notoriety of GWTW is likewise light years apart from the obscurity of Il Gatopardo. Il Gatopardo genuinely deserves to be taken out from that obscurity and get a much higher acknowledgement as an all time classic. Will that ever happen? I doubt it, but at least I join the fans of this film in begging for it is integral and basi release in DVD, asap please.

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