On Screen: “The Leopard”
The Leopard
With current global turbulence, it’s fitting to reflect on the strife that preceded the unification of Italy. That’s the background of Netflix’s “The Leopard,” a sumptuous, six-part period political drama adapted from Giuseppe Tomasi di Lampedusa’s acclaimed 1958 novel.
For most of its history, Italy consisted of disparate nations — until General Giuseppi Garibaldi unified the country. Previously, Sicily was ruled by feudal aristocracy from the House of Bourbon, particularly suave, charismatic Don Fabrizio Corbera (Kim Rossi Stuart), Prince of Salina, known as The Leopard, and his presumptive heir, son Paolo (Alberto Rossi).
In 1860, as Garibaldi’s army advances from the North into Sicily, Don Fabrizio’s favorite nephew Tancredi Falconieri (Saul Nanni) joins the ‘Red-shirt’ rebels, known as nationalists who champion ‘Risorgimento’ (‘resurgence’ in Italian), causing friction to erupt within the noble family.
“Sicily is no longer just an island,” Tancredi tells the Leopard’s shy, love-struck daughter Concetta (Benedetta Porcaroli), later breaking her heart by choosing to marry seductive Angelica (Deva Cassel), daughter of ambitious, corrupt village Mayor Don Calogero Sedara (Francesco Colella).
“We were the family of great leopards,” Don Fabrizio later laments. “Those who replace us are jackals, hyenas. Everything will be different — but worse.”
Scripted by Richard Warlow and directed by Tom Shankland, Giuseppe Capotondi and Laura Luchetti, the stunning, if slow-paced miniseries explores themes of power, romance, immorality, and societal change: “If we want everything to stay the same, everything needs to change.”
Authentically shot on location in Sicily by Nicolai Bruel, it epitomizes extravagant filmmaking, involving 5,000 extras and 130 carriages, carts and boats, plus 100 animals (including a magnificent Great Dane) and 12 animal trainers.
FYI: It’s is a remake of director Luchino Visconti’s classic “The Leopard” (1963) starring Burt Lancaster, Alain Derlon and Claudia Cardinale. And Deva Cassel, a brand ambassador for Cartier and Dior, is the real-life daughter of actors Monica Bellucci and Vincent Cassel.
In Italian with English dubbing and subtitles, on the Granger Gauge of 1 to 10, “The Leopard” is an exuberant, evocative, elegiac 8, streaming on Netflix.
Susan Granger is a product of Hollywood. Her natural father, S. Sylvan Simon, was a director and producer at M.G.M. and Columbia Pictures. Her adoptive father, Armand Deutsch, produced movies at M.G.M.
As a child, Susan appeared in movies with Abbott & Costello, Red Skelton, Lucille Ball, Margaret O’Brien, and Lassie. She attended Mills College in California, studying journalism with Pierre Salinger, and graduated from the University of Pennsylvania with highest honors in journalism.