Il Gattopardo / The Leopard

The Leopard is a 1963 epic historical drama film, an adaptation of Giuseppe Tomasi di Lampedusa's 1958 novel of the same title. Directed by Luchino Visconti, who also co-wrote the screenplay, the Italian-French co-production stars an international cast including the American Burt Lancaster, the Frenchman Alain Delon, and the Italian Claudia Cardinale. As Garibaldi's troops begin the unification of Italy in the 1860s, an aristocratic Sicilian family grudgingly adapts to the sweeping social changes undermining their way of life. Proud but pragmatic Prince Don Fabrizio Salina (Burt Lancaster) allows his war hero nephew, Tancredi (Alain Delon), to marry Angelica (Claudia Cardinale), the beautiful daughter of gauche, bourgeois Don Calogero, in order to maintain the family's accustomed level of comfort and political clout.