| Director: | Luchino Visconti | |||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
| Writer: | Giuseppe Tomasi Di Lampedusa, Suso Cecchi d'Amico | |||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
| Starring: | Burt Lancaster, Alain Delon, Claudia Cardinale | |||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
| Released: | 1963 | |||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
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| Runtime: | 181 minutes | |||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
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| Story: |
Family prayers in the household of the Prince of Salina are disturbed by news
that a dead soldier has been found in the garden: Garibaldi has invaded Sicily.
The Prince's favourite nephew, Tancredi, determines to join Garibaldi, and
leaves with the blessing of his uncle who recognises, while regretting the past,
that things must change.
When order is re-established, Tancredi returns, now a regular soldier in Victor Emmanuel's army, and joins the Prince, his wife Maria Stella, his three daughters (Concetta, Carolina and Caterina), his son Francesco Paolo, and the family priest Father Pirrone, in their annual visit to the family's country home at Donnafugata. There the family is officially welcomed by the Mayor, Don Calogero, a rich merchant: recognising that the bourgeois are now a powerful influence, the Prince invites him to dinner. At the dinner, Tancredi is obviously attracted to Don Calogero's pretty daughter, Angelica. The Prince is pleased: although his daughter, Concetta is in love with Tancredi, the family fortunes are now at a low ebb, and Tancredi will need money. A marriage is therefore arranged between Tancredi and Angelica, who will command a handsome dowry. Meanwhile an emissary from Victor Emmanuel, Chevally, arrives to offer the Prince a seat in the newly formed senate: but although he has compromised by accepting certain aspects of the new order, he refuses to have anything to do with ruling it. Angelica makes her successful debut in society at a great aristocratic ball. The Prince, growing old and wearied by the changing world round him, leaves the ballroom: Angelica finds him alone, brooding over thoughts of death evoked by a painting on the wall, and coaxes him into dancing with her. For a moment he relives with Angelica the glory of his youth, but is still oppressed by thoughts of death and by gossip he has heard which suggests that Garibaldi is making a renewed attempt to push the revolution even further: four deserters from Victor Emmanuel's army are likely to be shot. After the ball, the Prince refuses his carriage and walks home alone at dawn, in a meditative silence which is broken by four shots. | |||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
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