The Leopard
With current global turbulence, it’s fitting to reflect on the strife that preceded the unification of Italy. That’s the background of Netflix’s “The Leopard,” a sumptuous, six-part period/political drama adapted from Giuseppe Tomasi di Lampedusa’s acclaimed 1958 novel.
For most of its history, Italy consisted of disparate nations – until General Giuseppi Garibaldi unified the country. Previously, Sicily was ruled by feudal aristocracy from the House of Bourbon, particularly suave, charismatic Don Fabrizio Corbera (Kim Rossi Stuart), Prince of Salina, known as The Leopard, and his presumptive heir/son Paolo (Alberto Rossi).
In 1860, as Garibaldi’s army advances from the North into Sicily, Don Fabrizio’s favorite nephew Tancredi Falconieri (Saul Nanni) joins the ‘Red-shirt’ rebels, known as nationalists who champion ‘Rigorgimento’ (‘resurgence’ in Italian), causing friction to erupt within the noble family.
“Sicily is no longer just an island,” Tancredi tells the Leopard’s shy, love-struck daughter Concetta (Benedetta Porcaroli), later breaking her heart by choosing to marry seductive Angelica (Deva Cassel), daughter of ambitious/corrupt village Mayor Don Calogero Sedara (Francesco Colella).
“We were the family of great leopards,” Don Fabrizio later laments. “Those who replace us are jackals, hyenas. Everything will be different – but worse.”
Scripted by Richard Warlow and directed by Tom Shankland, Giuseppe Capotondi & Laura Luchetti, the stunning, if slow-paced miniseries explores themes of power, romance, immorality, and societal change: “If we want everything to stay the same, everything needs to change.”
Authentically shot on-location in Sicily by Nicolai Bruel, it epitomizes extravagant filmmaking, involving 5,000 extras and 130 carriages, carts & boats, plus 100 animals (including a magnificent Great Dane) and 12 animal trainers.
FYI: It’s a remake of director Luchino Visconti’s classic “The Leopard” (1963) starring Burt Lancaster, Alain Derlon & Claudia Cardinale. And Deva Cassel, a brand ambassador for Cartier and Dior, is the real-life daughter of actors Monica Ballucci & Vincent Cassel.
In Italian with English dubbing & subtitles, on the Granger Gauge of 1 to 10, “The Leopard” is an exuberant, evocative, elegiac 8, streaming on Netflix.
Jurassic World: Rebirth
Why do people go to the movies? For entertainment. That’s why popular franchises flourish and “Jurassic: World Rebirth” is a box-office hit.
It’s been five years since “Jurassic: World Dominion,” so many of the once-extinct dinosaurs that were let loose around the world have died off, unable to survive in the hostile environment caused by climate change.
Yet when pharmaceutical executive Martin Krebs (Rupert Friend) contacts covert ops expert Zora Bennett (Scarlett Johansson) to lead an illegal expedition to an island near the equator where dinosaurs still roam, she’s reluctant – until she’s promised a $10 million payoff. After all, she’s a mercenary.
Krebs’ mission is to extract genetic samples from three of the largest dinosaur species – air, land and sea – so that ParkerGenix can develop a major cardiac medication. For support, he recruits paleontologist Dr. Henry Loomis (Jonathan Bailey) and Zora enlists her former partner, Duncan Kincaid (Mahershala Ali).
Sailing from the port of Suriname, they pick up a stranded family whose 45-foot sailboat was capsized by a Mososaurus. There’s Ruben Delgado (Manuel Garcia-Rulfo), his teenage daughter Teresa (Luna Blaise), her stoner boyfriend Xavier (David Iacono) and younger daughter Isabella (Audrina Miranda) who adopts a tiny Aquilops dino dubbed Dolores.
But that’s later – after they’ve landed on Isle Saint-Hubert, where the biotech company InGen banished its cloned, crossbred, genetic disasters – hideous mutant monsters – which is why tourism is strictly prohibited.
Crafted by the series’ original screenwriter David Koepp and directed by Gareth Edwards (“Godzilla”), this seventh installment revolves around the perilous quest to extract DNA testers from the aquatic Mosasaurus, herbivorous Titanosaurus, and flying Quetzalcoatus – while cinematographer John Mathieson duly chronicles the various participants’ adventures.
What has always distinguished “Jurassic” films is a sense of awe – as if those enormous, exotic creatures were real. And, unfortunately, what’s missing is that initial spectacular sense of euphoric wonder – except, perhaps, when a pair of long-tailed Titanosaurus lovingly entwine their necks while grazing in a verdant field.
FYI: A scene cut from Steven Spielberg’s “Jurassic Park” (1993) – showing a CGI Tyrannosaurus Rex swimming after people in an inflatable raft – was repurposed here.
On the Granger Gauge of 1 to 10, “Jurassic: World Rebirth” stomps in with an action-packed, suspenseful 7 – playing in theaters.
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