The Leopard (1963)

This short analysis of The Leopard, particularly focusing on its grand ball sequence, was written after watching the film during the summer between my junior and senior years of college. My overall rating for the film was 4 stars out of a possible 4. It was the 241st feature-length film to receive my highest rating distinction.

The Leopard may tail off a bit towards the end with the grand ball of the final hour-plus of the film. This sequence feels more like a spectacle than anything else, a way of showing the continuation of the aristocratic lifestyle of Sicily even as the aristocracy itself is dying. But what this scene - if it is fair to label it as such - brings to the story is an hour-long finale to the life, as the film sees it, of the Prince of Salina (Burt Lancaster, who gives an amazing performance as the titular character).

The ball is a symbol for the aristocracy, something that cannot be achieved in the same light by the developing working class of Sicily. Over the course of the night, the Prince experiences both rejuvenation of his youth and his ever-growing acceptance with the death of his time. He accepts the change of the world and welcomes it, even going so far as to spend much of the post-revolution storyline endorsing the changes that he feels are for the good of Sicily. As the ball continues, there is a growing sense that the Prince will die that night. He grows more fatigued and disappears for long stretches, during which any filmgoer could surmise that he will die at the ball but away from the great hall and ballroom. And he does die, just not in body.

The ball is the death of the Prince’s world, and the Prince along with it. He sees how he is still regarded as an important figure, albeit removed from the new society. Gone are the days where he commands everyone’s attention and receives endless requests to grace others with his presence. He is a leopard. There may be more frightening and vicious creatures in the world, but he still exists. He may have been the once all-powerful creature, but he no longer is and has accepted this fact. He will continue to be recognized and appreciated in the community. He will not continue to be the top of the food chain. That distinction has long since passed. But he will live on, as will Sicily, forever advancing with the rest of Italy while happily remaining connected with its past.