The Leopard

I watched Luchino Visconti's adaptation of Giuseppe di Lampedusa's novel "The Leopard." This film is a spectacular portrayal of the wistful and melancholic nature of the fleeting age of nobility among chaotic societal upheavals of 1860's Sicily. Though long, the film is an accurate depiction of the flawed nature of class struggle, which remains relevant even today. 


I will write a detailed review of this film in the future.  For now, I'll leave one quote that is most representative of this film:

“Sleep, my dear Chevalley, eternal sleep, that is what Sicilians want. And they will always resent anyone who tries to awaken them, even to bring them the most wonderful of gifts. And, between ourselves, I doubt very strongly whether this new Kingdom has very many gifts for us in its luggage. All Sicilian expression, even the most violent, is really a wish for death. Our sensuality, wish for oblivion. Our knifings and shootings, a hankering after extinction. Our laziness, our spiced and drugged sherbets, a desire for voluptuous immobility, that is... for death again.”