The Leopard (60th anniversary)

In May 1963, Luchino Visconti's masterpiece, The Leopard, with Burt Lancaster, Claudia Cardinale and Alain Delon, an epic adaptation from the famous eponymous novel by Tomasi di Lampedusa, won the Palme d'Or for its premiere. We celebrate the date with the exhibition of the complete version of the film, in a magnificent digitally restored copy. Martin Scorsese, responsible for the restoration, places it among the best films in the history of cinema, and as one of those that most influenced him: “If I had to choose 5 films, The Leopard would be one of them. It was one of the films that taught me the most”, he said, adding: “I live with it every day of my life”.

It is one of the highest moments in the work of Luchino Visconti and in the history of cinema, a dramatic and opulent recreation of the tumultuous years of Italian Unification. The aristocracy lost its power and the rebels, led by Garibaldi, fought for a new democratic Italy. Burt Lancaster, in one of his best roles ever, fabulously plays the Prince of Salina, an aging man who watches the decay of his class, culture and fortune before the rise of a new generation, represented by his upstart nephew (Alain Delon) and his bride (Claudia Cardinale). Adaptation of the eponymous novel by Giuseppe Tomasi di Lampedusa,  addresses the theme of the end of an era and the birth of another, with compromise solutions and the complicity of power with the former ruling classes. Hence, the famous phrase “For everything to stay the same, everything must change”.