I can’t let go of The Leopard. Encouraged by favourable reports from friends I am now a Netflix subscriber and have watched the first two episodes back-to-back.
It’s shot in Sicily and some other locations in Italy, the cast and crew are Italian but the creative team are British. They step away from Visconti’s film by bringing out different aspects of Lampedusa’s novel and create a different mise-en-scène. I love this word and will doubtless overuse it until I throw it over like an old glove. With the weather here as it is, it would be foolish to discard even the oldest glove.
Visconti’s interpretation is slow moving, languorous and sumptuous. This treatment will not work on television where languor is the cue to empty the bins. Tom Shankland has twice as long (six hours versus three hours or so) to tell the story but is not self-indulgent. He is an old hand at keeping a story moving. The mise-en-scène he creates is macaroni Western and why not? Principally it is the camera work that sets the mood. But there is the sheriff (mayor of Donnafugatta), the landowner, the bandits led by Garibaldi and a love triangle in which the mayor’s daughter wins the hand of Garibaldi’s man, Tancredi. I wonder if Clint Eastwood was considered to play the Prince? Obviously not as he would be stepping into Burt Lancaster’s shoes.
The mistake I made was watching in English. The accents grate. I didn’t know I could watch in Italian with English subtitles and will do so for the next four episodes. An outstanding problem is what else to watch on Netflix? I had hoped for The Day of the Jackal but that’s on Sky.
A century ago Ireland sought independence while nearly two centuries ago Italy sought unification. Nevertheless there are parallels to be drawn, not least in my own family which adapted to a new order so things could remain the same.
You must repair immediately to a cafe in Barons Court (sitting outside to be authentic) to write the Irish Leopard based on clan Bellew and Barmeath. Your dilemma will be whether to follow the genre of the original or to do a delicious send up. Both would work well.
Netflix has the new Knives Out film “Wake Up Dead Man” which is of course tosh, but highly entertaining with a good cast.