Masterwork: The Leopard
Search:
OssessioneSensoBellissimaRocco and His Brothers
Search somewhat less strenuously:
The InnocentThe Damned
Unseen by me:
La Terra TremaWhite NightsThe StrangerSandraLudwigConversation Piece
― Dr Morbius (Dr Morbius), Thursday, 2 November 2006 17:52 (seventeen years ago) link
― Ned Raggett (Ned), Thursday, 2 November 2006 17:55 (seventeen years ago) link
Rocco is bad opera.
A guy and I broke up shortly after watching Senso.
Mastrianni in The Stranger is supposedly wonderful; is it still out of print?
Haven't seen the Decadent Trilogy (Death in Venice, The Innocent,The Damned).
― Alfred, Lord Sotosyn (Alfred Soto), Thursday, 2 November 2006 18:14 (seventeen years ago) link
― Dr Morbius (Dr Morbius), Thursday, 2 November 2006 18:43 (seventeen years ago) link
― Dr Morbius (Dr Morbius), Thursday, 2 November 2006 18:45 (seventeen years ago) link
― Alfred, Lord Sotosyn (Alfred Soto), Thursday, 2 November 2006 18:54 (seventeen years ago) link
― Soukesian (Soukesian), Thursday, 2 November 2006 19:31 (seventeen years ago) link
― ryan (ryan), Thursday, 2 November 2006 19:53 (seventeen years ago) link
― Dr Morbius (Dr Morbius), Thursday, 2 November 2006 19:58 (seventeen years ago) link
― Eric H. (Eric H.), Thursday, 2 November 2006 20:41 (seventeen years ago) link
― Dr Morbius (Dr Morbius), Thursday, 2 November 2006 20:43 (seventeen years ago) link
I don't quite see Leopard / Godfather being too blatant aside from party finale / wedding opening. Which aren't that similar visually, even -- Coppola hops from table to driveway to Brando's lair, Visconti just follows Burt around.
― Dr Morbius (Dr Morbius), Thursday, 2 November 2006 20:46 (seventeen years ago) link
i really liked ludwig, but i know many people don't.
bellissima is very funny, and appunti su un fatto di cronaca is very moving.
and the leopard of course.
but my favorite is probably senso, with farley granger.
judging from photographs taken on set, luchino had some really nice suits.
― Amateur(ist) (Amateur(ist)), Thursday, 2 November 2006 21:33 (seventeen years ago) link
― Amateur(ist) (Amateur(ist)), Thursday, 2 November 2006 21:34 (seventeen years ago) link
Like Daniel Day-Lewis in The Boxer?
After screening L'Eclisse this weekend -- which has his most feral, feline performance post-Purple Noon -- I suspect that Visconti, as besotted with him as the rest of us, just gazed and gazed.
― Alfred, Lord Sotosyn (Alfred Soto), Thursday, 2 November 2006 22:39 (seventeen years ago) link
I got to see 10 seconds of Bellissima in Volver last night.
Debating the chops of Farley Granger takes its toll. I saw Granger do Q&A a couple years ago after the film, don't recall a damn thing he said!
― Dr Morbius (Dr Morbius), Friday, 3 November 2006 14:34 (seventeen years ago) link
― Alfred, Lord Sotosyn (Alfred Soto), Saturday, 4 November 2006 01:12 (seventeen years ago) link
"Always been curious about The Damned, as it was a regular late night cult feature in the seventies, before I could go to such things."
It fairly easy to get the DVD over here - it has some deranged scenes making a point about Nazis and their depravity. That deep.
I actually liked it, though I needed some recovery time after that.
Watched 'Obsessione' yesterday - the issues of trust are worked more interestingly than in 'The Postman Always Rings Twice'. The courtroom stuff I wasn't too bothered about, but you can see its function. Anyway, the latter does have a better ending.
― xyzzzz__, Wednesday, 6 February 2008 16:46 (sixteen years ago) link
I've missed so many screenings of The Leopard over the last two years that the powers that be decided to make a cracking film about the novel the film is based on (shown last night) and to show the film itself tonight on BBC four.
― xyzzzz__, Sunday, 14 December 2008 12:23 (fifteen years ago) link
Bah, I might miss a screening of Sandra tonight do to a last-minute time change for a company party. Hopefully I can make The Leopard tomorrow.
― The Wild Shirtless Lyrics of Mark Farner (C. Grisso/McCain), Saturday, 29 August 2009 16:58 (fourteen years ago) link
really dug Le notti bianche for its studio set artificiality, not that familiar with other italian films like that
― buzza, Tuesday, 16 November 2010 08:21 (thirteen years ago) link
senso out on criterion soon
― google street jew (s1ocki), Tuesday, 16 November 2010 15:37 (thirteen years ago) link
― otherwise, and twat (Alfred, Lord Sotosyn), Tuesday, 16 November 2010 15:42 (thirteen years ago) link
took break from 2010 film avalanche to see Conversation Piece, sort of a 1970s epilogue to The Leopard. Good Burt (alas dubbed Italian print) and Helmut Berger in bellbottoms.
― kind of shrill and very self-righteous (Dr Morbius), Sunday, 28 November 2010 00:19 (thirteen years ago) link
the English print is on yT:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=_aqMLCwmceQ
― kind of shrill and very self-righteous (Dr Morbius), Sunday, 28 November 2010 00:29 (thirteen years ago) link
I was skeptical of yet another restoration, but this time the color in The Leopard looks more amazing than I remember.
also didn't remember that Burt has two telescopes in his study, possibly a reference for Local Hero?
― kind of shrill and very self-righteous (Dr Morbius), Friday, 28 January 2011 01:52 (thirteen years ago) link
By far Visconti's best, and close to Burt and Delon's too. One of the few films to capture the sense of time present and time past in the same scene.
― Rich Lolwry (Alfred, Lord Sotosyn), Friday, 28 January 2011 01:56 (thirteen years ago) link
Anyone seen White Nights? The library just got a copy.
― ginny thomas and tonic (Alfred, Lord Sotosyn), Wednesday, 18 May 2011 17:38 (twelve years ago) link
Too long ago to offer a useful opinion
― the gay bloggers are onto the faggot tweets (Dr Morbius), Wednesday, 18 May 2011 21:25 (twelve years ago) link
Sounds like a Senso-type weeper (which means I gotta be in the mood).
― ginny thomas and tonic (Alfred, Lord Sotosyn), Wednesday, 18 May 2011 21:26 (twelve years ago) link
I like it, just like someone wrote upthread is wonderfully artificial, but something is missing: also Maria Schell is pretty terrible. But there is Clara Calamai, who also worked in Ossessione (always my favourite Visconti).
― Marco Damiani, Thursday, 19 May 2011 08:17 (twelve years ago) link
Caught Obsession last night as part of Neo-Realism rep series...easily the best Postman... rip. It was also amusing to see Visconti's taste for sprawl was already present there in the beginning (140 minutes--the thing has to be one of the longest noirs).
The Earth Will Tremble (La Terra Trema) in two weeks.
― Status Update...in my Seether? (C. Grisso/McCain), Tuesday, 13 September 2011 01:22 (twelve years ago) link
La Terra Trema tonight. Once again with the sprawl, all the better to crush the protagonists completely into the dust
― The Man With The Flavored Toothpick (C. Grisso/McCain), Sunday, 25 September 2011 04:53 (twelve years ago) link
^ LTT on disc tomorrow; I'd never seen it before. The amateur cast really delivers, and one can see it in a way as a precursor of Rocco.
― Literal Facepalms (Dr Morbius), Monday, 12 March 2012 18:44 (twelve years ago) link
senso is amazing.
i'm a fan of ludwig, actually, though that film has a bad rep. i thought it was kind of great.
― flesh, the devil, and a wolf (wolf) (amateurist), Monday, 12 March 2012 18:56 (twelve years ago) link
i think senso is his best though.
i like the leopard of course but i might be a little tired of it? i've seen like 20 restorations by now.
― flesh, the devil, and a wolf (wolf) (amateurist), Monday, 12 March 2012 18:58 (twelve years ago) link
The Stranger not out yet
― Exile in lolville (Alfred, Lord Sotosyn), Monday, 12 March 2012 19:04 (twelve years ago) link
watching Senso for the first time since '98? One of the few times I "identified" with a protagonist.
I have less patience with Valli this time -- she's not a resourceful actress, is she? I'm again impressed though with how his men and women interact with architectural spaces.
― guess that bundt gettin eaten (Alfred, Lord Sotosyn), Saturday, 27 September 2014 12:16 (nine years ago) link
Don't think I've ever thought see was much good in anything except The Third Man.
― Dear Catastrophe Theory Waitress (James Redd and the Blecchs), Saturday, 27 September 2014 12:21 (nine years ago) link
see=she. auto typo
― Dear Catastrophe Theory Waitress (James Redd and the Blecchs), Saturday, 27 September 2014 13:30 (nine years ago) link
yeah, valli is a weak point. farley granger though.
i really liked "ludwig" but nobody else seems to
― I dunno. (amateurist), Sunday, 28 September 2014 06:29 (nine years ago) link
A few powerful passages with a lot of boring ones.
― xyzzzz__, Sunday, 28 September 2014 09:07 (nine years ago) link
Or so it felt like at the time..
― xyzzzz__, Sunday, 28 September 2014 09:08 (nine years ago) link
4K restoration of Rocco showing at Film Forum in NY before it rolls out across the country
http://www.filmcomment.com/blog/rep-diary-rocco-and-his-brothers/
― skateboards are the new combover (Dr Morbius), Wednesday, 14 October 2015 17:01 (eight years ago) link
always disappointed me that Delon wasn't nude in it
― The burrito of ennui (Alfred, Lord Sotosyn), Wednesday, 14 October 2015 17:25 (eight years ago) link
sending you to meme jail
― skateboards are the new combover (Dr Morbius), Wednesday, 14 October 2015 17:31 (eight years ago) link
the new restoration of rocco is gorgeous (as is delon in the movie itself, mamma mia)
― donna rouge, Monday, 30 November 2015 19:20 (eight years ago) link
finally going to catch ossessione in a few weeks at the BFI. cant wait. was never keen on the leopard, but i might have a different view, now that im older, wiser, etc etc.
― StillAdvance, Monday, 30 November 2015 20:42 (eight years ago) link
#mindBlown
― xyzzzz__, Tuesday, 1 December 2015 12:19 (eight years ago) link
http://www.nytimes.com/1992/12/18/style/18iht-dub_.html
Professional dubbers, many of whom are the children of dubbers and who, unlike their colleagues in other countries, seldom do any other acting work, make big money.An in-demand dubber can easily make $200,000 a year, and one like Ferruccio Amendola, who "voices" Al Pacino, Dustin Hoffman, Sylvester Stallone and Robert de Niro, is reckoned to earn some $4 million.
― Lmao Blecch (James Redd and the Blecchs), Sunday, 28 May 2017 16:01 (six years ago) link
Threatened to sue because the Italian geezer was better than him, I assume.
― Punnet of the Grapes (Tom D.), Sunday, 28 May 2017 16:03 (six years ago) link
No doubt
― Lmao Blecch (James Redd and the Blecchs), Sunday, 28 May 2017 16:04 (six years ago) link
"beside himself realising two versions" seems like a neat productivity trick
it's a recognised use that i wd probably sub to something like "make" in this instance unless the writer was a prima donna not worth annoying :D
― mark s, Sunday, 28 May 2017 16:05 (six years ago) link
Realizin' Whoopee
― the Rain Man of nationalism. (Alfred, Lord Sotosyn), Sunday, 28 May 2017 16:09 (six years ago) link
The dubbing practice also made Italian cinema much freer than almost everywhere else. It's a huge reason why neorealism happened there, that they never cared about sound recording while running around in the ruins of Rome. It's also part of the reason why Rossellini so easily could make films with Ingrid Bergman, one of the most important collaborations in film history. So yeah, it's fairly important. It never stops being weird, though...
― Frederik B, Sunday, 28 May 2017 16:38 (six years ago) link
Exactly. Is it time to talk about the almost reverse way Poland dealt with foreign language imports?
― Lmao Blecch (James Redd and the Blecchs), Sunday, 28 May 2017 16:41 (six years ago) link
I don't know what you're talking about, so would love if you did :)
― Frederik B, Sunday, 28 May 2017 17:03 (six years ago) link
http://edubbing.blogspot.com/2007/10/polish-dubbing-no-emotions-attached.html?m=1Enjoy. The reader is called, obviously, the lektor.
― Lmao Blecch (James Redd and the Blecchs), Sunday, 28 May 2017 17:04 (six years ago) link
Also: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Lector
In Poland, a lektor is a (usually male) reader who provides the Polish voice-over on foreign-language programmes and films where the voice-over translation technique is used. This is the standard localization technique on Polish television and (as an option) on many DVDs; full dubbing is generally reserved for children's material.
― Lmao Blecch (James Redd and the Blecchs), Sunday, 28 May 2017 17:28 (six years ago) link
haha in the uk in the 60s the lektor technique was mainly used in children's TV, to repurpose foreign series like robinson crusoe (which was french)
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=OE10msGsCn4
― mark s, Sunday, 28 May 2017 17:34 (six years ago) link
Oh yeah, I'd heard about that! In the great Polish film The Last Family from last year, one of the characters does that. This guy: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Tomasz_Beksiński
In Denmark, all the Astrid Lindgren films were done like that, presented with a lector. A woman, though. Brings back memories :)
― Frederik B, Sunday, 28 May 2017 17:37 (six years ago) link
Speaking of Day For Night, it's Jean-Pierre Léaud's birthday today. Bon Anniversaire!.
― Lmao Blecch (James Redd and the Blecchs), Sunday, 28 May 2017 17:41 (six years ago) link
Ludwig is getting a bunch of screenings in New York:
https://www.filmcomment.com/blog/film-week-ludwig/
― xyzzzz__, Sunday, 10 June 2018 11:14 (five years ago) link
I remember Ludwig as downright constipated with period detail. But then if I had permission to film in Neuschwanstein I'd probably go over the top too.
― Polly of the Pre-Codes (j.lu), Sunday, 10 June 2018 12:25 (five years ago) link
lol yeah - when I saw it (this is about 10 yrs ago) I dismissed it as The Leopard but without the control. I like the review quite a bit - if that print comes around here I'd be up for a re-watch.
This is Nick Pinkerton on the same season: https://www.artforum.com/film/the-royal-treatment-75708
― xyzzzz__, Sunday, 10 June 2018 12:35 (five years ago) link
Ludwig is the culmination of a NY retro, so i'll have my last 3 blind spots covered.
https://www.filmlinc.org/series/visconti/#films
― the ignatius rock of ignorance (Dr Morbius), Sunday, 10 June 2018 13:37 (five years ago) link
more on LV (and Antonioni)
https://www.criterion.com/current/posts/5732-journeys-beyond-italy-with-visconti-and-antonioni
― the ignatius rock of ignorance (Dr Morbius), Monday, 11 June 2018 18:47 (five years ago) link
I didn’t see much similarity between Ludwig and The Leopard at all. Thematically and main characters are pretty divergent and Ludwig (necessarily for the subject) gradually moves toward camp bordering absurdity. I agree w Kael’s line about it being “footage in search of a style”. Most interesting thing to me are the ways his ambition is shown to have no hope of being realized fairly early on.
― Nerdstrom Poindexter, Monday, 11 June 2018 19:36 (five years ago) link
knocked off the last 2 features i hadn't seen
White Nights > Ludwig
Maria Schell (and Bill Haley and his Comets) crucial to the success of WN
― the ignatius rock of ignorance (Dr Morbius), Sunday, 8 July 2018 15:28 (five years ago) link
Bluray of Rocco:
https://www.slantmagazine.com/dvd/review/rocco-and-his-brothers
― the ignatius rock of ignorance (Dr Morbius), Monday, 9 July 2018 18:56 (five years ago) link
La Terra Trema is beautiful, hard to believe it was made 71 years ago
― Dan S, Wednesday, 17 April 2019 00:52 (five years ago) link
I saw Sandra projected (DCP) a few months ago. One thing that stuck out was the use of the Italian song that became "You Don't Have To Say You Love Me" on the soundtrack.
― a large tuna called “Justice” (C. Grisso/McCain), Wednesday, 17 April 2019 00:56 (five years ago) link
looking forward to seeing Sandra at some point
― Dan S, Wednesday, 17 April 2019 01:08 (five years ago) link
I want to visit Aci Trezza
― Dan S, Wednesday, 17 April 2019 01:57 (five years ago) link
uh, DEATH IN VENICE?? why has no one talked about this movie other than Alfred 13 years ago
― flappy bird, Thursday, 5 December 2019 06:17 (four years ago) link
I haven't read the Mann novella, and have only seen The Leopard, Senso, The Damned, and DIV. all great, but DIV is something else- so little dialogue, so many amazing images, incredible Bogarde performance, the music... it reminded me most of Bad Timing, an intellectual in a foreign European city flummoxed and destroyed by impossible passion.
The Leopard is extraordinary though...
― flappy bird, Thursday, 5 December 2019 06:20 (four years ago) link
You can watch the English version of The Stranger on a pretty good YouTube clip.
― TikTok to the (Alfred, Lord Sotosyn), Thursday, 5 December 2019 11:05 (four years ago) link
Seeing this revive suddenly made me search out (not that Visconti is not great on his own) all these great Italian cinematographers, like Rotunno (who did The Leopard and The Stranger; still alive at 96!), but also Vittorio Storaro (I guess he's been working with Woody Allen?) and Dante Spinotti (who hasn't been doing much of note since his run with Michael Mann and Curtis Hanson). Kind of fascinating to look at their filmographies and a) see how busy they were and b) watch their creative fortunes sort of ebb and flow.
― Josh in Chicago, Thursday, 5 December 2019 12:56 (four years ago) link
People kinda forget how many incredible cinematographers Woody Allen has worked with. He made three films with Zhao Fei!!! The guy who shot Raise the Red Lantern also shot The Curse of the Jade Scorpion. And yeah, Storaro too. Café Society is absolutely worth watching just for his cinematography alone, I haven't watched the two other films they made together. And honestly, while they're probably worth watching, I'm not really seeking them out...
― Frederik B, Thursday, 5 December 2019 13:28 (four years ago) link
He also worked with the Spanish cinematographer Javier Aguirresarobe, and Darius Khondji and Vilmos Zsigmond and ... yeah, lots of talented DPs in recent years. (And of course earlier years, too.) He and Scorsese have worked with pretty much everyone of note, but Woody has really made the rounds with the greats.
― Josh in Chicago, Thursday, 5 December 2019 13:37 (four years ago) link
Yup. And most critics just write about a couple of one-liners and gives four stars. Year after year.
― Frederik B, Thursday, 5 December 2019 13:39 (four years ago) link
well, not anymore (except in Italy)
― flappy bird, Thursday, 5 December 2019 18:19 (four years ago) link
A shame he couldn't work with incredible screenwriters.
― TikTok to the (Alfred, Lord Sotosyn), Thursday, 5 December 2019 19:09 (four years ago) link
I didn’t think that Death In Venice had the depth of the Mann novel, but I haven't ever seen another film that made Venice look as beautiful
― Dan S, Friday, 6 December 2019 02:16 (four years ago) link
(while at the same time kind of 1970s bourgeois)
lol, Alfred
― Irae Louvin (James Redd and the Blecchs), Friday, 6 December 2019 02:20 (four years ago) link
The novel The Leopard was great and the film The Leopard was really beautiful, especially the extended ballroom sequence
― Dan S, Friday, 6 December 2019 02:23 (four years ago) link
thinking about other films that had a memorable Venice setting The Comfort of Strangers and Don't Look Now come to mind
― Dan S, Friday, 6 December 2019 02:30 (four years ago) link
the Arrow release of Ludwig is great. I watched the five part TV version over two days, just intoxicating. better than The Damned but it has a foot in camp where Death in Venice and The Leopard don't. It's a shame that set is OOP, it looks incredible.
― flappy bird, Wednesday, 12 February 2020 06:44 (four years ago) link
Senso: I forgot what a dumbass Farley Granger is when A. Valli comes to visit him in his bender apartment. Why taunt? Keep the prostitute in the bedroom. Say not now, Countess. Surely the firing squad was not far from his mind!
Anyway, I watched Meet Me in St. Louis yesterday and Senso muted. Although MMIST is surely one of if not the height of Technicolor?
― flappy bird, Thursday, 6 August 2020 05:09 (three years ago) link
A really nice on set account.
https://www.bfi.org.uk/sight-and-sound/features/on-set-death-venice-visconti-bogarde
― xyzzzz__, Sunday, 28 February 2021 22:08 (three years ago) link
Except for swoony-gross tracking shots on blood-stained boy limbs to rub his Thanatos fetish in the audience's faces, The Damned is minor and often leaden Visconti. Not his fault that I've seen this material done better in later films.
― So who you gonna call? The martini police (Alfred, Lord Sotosyn), Monday, 19 April 2021 21:32 (two years ago) link
After The Leopard, his better films were the intimate ones. I don't know where Ludwig fits in that evaluation; it's an intimate film that happens to go on for four hours in the gaudiest locations imaginable.
― Halfway there but for you, Monday, 19 April 2021 21:54 (two years ago) link
Well, Death in Venice worked.
― So who you gonna call? The martini police (Alfred, Lord Sotosyn), Monday, 19 April 2021 22:06 (two years ago) link
That's intimate inasmuch as it's about the observations of one character, not a social panoply like The Leopard or The Damned.
― Halfway there but for you, Tuesday, 20 April 2021 00:20 (two years ago) link
The Damned was Fassbinder's favorite film, I'll have to find his quote on it, basically "everything true and evil and wrong and beautiful and filthy, can be found in The Damned." I agree with you Alfred, I found it too campy and, if only because it isn't in widescreen, its form is at odds with its content. A world away from the sublime aesthetics of his next film, Death in Venice, even down to the title cards!
― flappy bird, Tuesday, 20 April 2021 01:45 (two years ago) link
That's what I mean: Fassbinder did this soak-in-it decadence better, whereas Visconti's let's say doctrinal purity didn't produce sufficiently fraught results.
― So who you gonna call? The martini police (Alfred, Lord Sotosyn), Tuesday, 20 April 2021 01:48 (two years ago) link
I like The Dammed precisely because it's campy, it's not something you think Visconti had it in him. It's a more worthwhile watch than Death in Venice.
― xyzzzz__, Tuesday, 20 April 2021 11:03 (two years ago) link
RIP Austrian bisexual actor Helmut Berger who has died at 78. Visconti was his longtime partner while he had an affair w/ Marisa Berenson and later w/ Nureyev, Britt Ekland, Ursula Andress, Tab Hunter, Linda Blair, Marisa Mell, Anita Pallenberg, Jerry Hall & Bianca & Mick Jagger pic.twitter.com/BUi2k4NE6Q— Bruce LaBruce (@BruceLaBruce) May 19, 2023
― xyzzzz__, Friday, 19 May 2023 19:29 (ten months ago) link