The newly restored version of director Luchino Visconti’s "Il Gattopardo" debuted @ the 63rd annual Cannes Film Festival, thanks to support from Gucci.
Gucci Creative Director Frida Giannini was joined on the red carpet by the film’s original cast members Alain Delon ('Tancredi Falconeri') and Claudia Cardinale ('Angelica Sedara'), with producer/director Martin Scorsese, Founder and Chair of The Film Foundation, introducing the film.
"Il Gattopardo" first screened @ Cannes in 1963, winning the festival's top award, the 'Palme d'Or'.
With Gucci's support, the film has undergone an extensive 4K digital restoration at Sony’s Colorworks Digital Facility through a partnership of Cineteca di Bologna, L'Immagine Ritrovata, The Film Foundation, Pathé, Fondation Jérôme Seydoux-Pathé, Twentieth Century Fox, and Centro Sperimentale di Cinematografia-Cineteca Nazionale.
"Il Gattopardo" (The Leopard), based on the novel by author Giuseppe Tomasi di Lampedusa, was first released March 1963, directed by Visconti, produced by Goffredo Lombardo/Pietro Notarianni and written by Pasquale Festa Campanile, Enrico Medioli, Massimo Franciosa, Visconti and Suso Cecchi d'Amico. The film starred Burt Lancaster, Delon, Cardinale, Serge Reggiani , Mario Girotti and Pierre Clementi , with music by Nino Rota and cinematography by Giuseppe Rotunno.
Most of the novel is set during the time of the 'Risorgimento', specifically during the period when 'Giuseppe Garibaldi', the hero of Italian unification, swept through Sicily with his forces, known as 'The Thousand'.
The plot follows the aristocratic 'Salina' family, headed by stoic 'Prince Fabrizio', a consummate womanizer who rules his family with an iron fist.
As the novel opens in May of 1860, Garibaldi's 'Redshirts' have landed on the Sicilian coast and are pressing inland to overthrow the 'Kingdom of the Two Sicilies'.
Click the images to enlarge and Sneak Peek "Il Gattopardo"...