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Mar. 16th, 2025 06:07 pmNow that I live in a place with an incredible indie theater, I can go see classic movies whenever I want!
Today I went to see the 1963 epic Il Gattopardo, which I had wanted to see since I saw this gifset, and I am so glad I finally saw it.
But let me be clear: you should not watch this movie unless you're at a theater. You just shouldn't do it. It's better to not see it at all than it is to watch it on your laptop or even your home TV set. Because the only reason to see this movie is to see it.
Ostensibly, this is a family epic set in Sicily in 1860. It was panned by critics when it came out, and I 1000% understand why. Is this movie good? Eh, not really. Does Burt Lancaster's Italian accent make any sense? Probably not, though I don't know enough about Italian to be able to tell. Does anything actually happen? Absolutely not. Do any of the things it's presumably trying to say actually get communicated? Uh-uh. Can Claudia Cardinale act? Not in any way.
But does every single frame look like a painting that should be in a big heavy golden frame on a wall in the Summer Exhibition at the Royal Academy in 1861? YES! The fact that the movie doesn't have any plot or characters or even legible themes does not matter because it is so damn beautiful to look at. But there is no way in hell I would have finished it if I hadn't been watching it in the movie theater.
Y'all, it is 165 minutes long. (Or at least the cut I watched is. There are other cuts.) There's a long battle scene in the streets of Palermo that really does not advance the plot at all and contains none of the actual characters, but that is such a good battle scene--I believe that war is that loud and chaotic and nonsensical. The last 45 minutes take place at a ball in which we're just watching women in 1860 dresses dance and eat and flirt with men in fancy uniforms. If this "scene" was in a TV show today, it would have been cut down to ten minutes tops because there was maybe ten minutes worth of actual stuff happening. But I am so glad I got to see all 45 minutes because it's just such a feast for the eyes.
One of the things that frustrates me so much about contemporary big-budget films is how fake they look. Even when the CGI is good, it doesn't look real, doesn't look lived-in. I really actively hate it. Because to me one of the great joys of film is to visually go someplace I can't actually go in real life. Whether it's the fantasy world of The Fall or the garden from The Secret Garden or the Nostromo of Alien or Orchard House in Little Women--I like to visit a world. And I feel like I rarely get to do that these days with movies.
I would be able to forgive the embrace of CGI and the lack of practical effects and actual real-world production design if it made movie-making cheaper, but it doesn't. These movies today look like crap and they're still zillions of dollars to make. If you're going to spend zillions of dollars, I should feel like I am actually there.
I felt like I was actually there with this film! The textures! The colors! The lighting! The cheekbones! Production/costume/hair&makeup design HEAVEN! Glorious Technicolor, Breathtaking CinemaScope, and Stereophonic Sound!* I could have swooned! This is what movies should be!
I always think that I'm more of a TV person than a movie person, but then I go and see a classic film on the big screen, and I'm like, "Oh. I love The Movies actually!"
While I was watching, I was aware of how much time was passing, but I didn't care because I was so happy to be looking at this thing.
There are so many beautiful people in this film. Claudia Cardinale should be illegal. Alain Delon is so damn pretty. Burt Lancaster is Burt Lancaster. (Though my favorite performance was by regular-looking-guy Serge Reggiani as Ciccio, who imo stole the show.)
Also, there was a bonus just for me, which was that before the movie started, the titles on the screen said, "You are at the movies on May 20, 1963," and then it played a trailer that would have played before the film in 1963 and it was THE GREAT ESCAPE, aka one of my favorite films of all time. I recognized it from the very first frame and the first bar of Elmer Bernstein's iconic score. So that was extra delightful, just for me. One day I will see it in a real theater.
Anyway, if you are a person who needs things to happen in a movie or needs actual characters or needs coherent themes, do not ever see this movie. But if you are like me, a person who just likes to bask in a world, then if you ever get a chance to see it on the big screen, DO IT.
Okay, not really, but I kept thinking of this song while watching the movie.
Today I went to see the 1963 epic Il Gattopardo, which I had wanted to see since I saw this gifset, and I am so glad I finally saw it.
But let me be clear: you should not watch this movie unless you're at a theater. You just shouldn't do it. It's better to not see it at all than it is to watch it on your laptop or even your home TV set. Because the only reason to see this movie is to see it.
Ostensibly, this is a family epic set in Sicily in 1860. It was panned by critics when it came out, and I 1000% understand why. Is this movie good? Eh, not really. Does Burt Lancaster's Italian accent make any sense? Probably not, though I don't know enough about Italian to be able to tell. Does anything actually happen? Absolutely not. Do any of the things it's presumably trying to say actually get communicated? Uh-uh. Can Claudia Cardinale act? Not in any way.
But does every single frame look like a painting that should be in a big heavy golden frame on a wall in the Summer Exhibition at the Royal Academy in 1861? YES! The fact that the movie doesn't have any plot or characters or even legible themes does not matter because it is so damn beautiful to look at. But there is no way in hell I would have finished it if I hadn't been watching it in the movie theater.
Y'all, it is 165 minutes long. (Or at least the cut I watched is. There are other cuts.) There's a long battle scene in the streets of Palermo that really does not advance the plot at all and contains none of the actual characters, but that is such a good battle scene--I believe that war is that loud and chaotic and nonsensical. The last 45 minutes take place at a ball in which we're just watching women in 1860 dresses dance and eat and flirt with men in fancy uniforms. If this "scene" was in a TV show today, it would have been cut down to ten minutes tops because there was maybe ten minutes worth of actual stuff happening. But I am so glad I got to see all 45 minutes because it's just such a feast for the eyes.
One of the things that frustrates me so much about contemporary big-budget films is how fake they look. Even when the CGI is good, it doesn't look real, doesn't look lived-in. I really actively hate it. Because to me one of the great joys of film is to visually go someplace I can't actually go in real life. Whether it's the fantasy world of The Fall or the garden from The Secret Garden or the Nostromo of Alien or Orchard House in Little Women--I like to visit a world. And I feel like I rarely get to do that these days with movies.
I would be able to forgive the embrace of CGI and the lack of practical effects and actual real-world production design if it made movie-making cheaper, but it doesn't. These movies today look like crap and they're still zillions of dollars to make. If you're going to spend zillions of dollars, I should feel like I am actually there.
I felt like I was actually there with this film! The textures! The colors! The lighting! The cheekbones! Production/costume/hair&makeup design HEAVEN! Glorious Technicolor, Breathtaking CinemaScope, and Stereophonic Sound!* I could have swooned! This is what movies should be!
I always think that I'm more of a TV person than a movie person, but then I go and see a classic film on the big screen, and I'm like, "Oh. I love The Movies actually!"
While I was watching, I was aware of how much time was passing, but I didn't care because I was so happy to be looking at this thing.
There are so many beautiful people in this film. Claudia Cardinale should be illegal. Alain Delon is so damn pretty. Burt Lancaster is Burt Lancaster. (Though my favorite performance was by regular-looking-guy Serge Reggiani as Ciccio, who imo stole the show.)
Also, there was a bonus just for me, which was that before the movie started, the titles on the screen said, "You are at the movies on May 20, 1963," and then it played a trailer that would have played before the film in 1963 and it was THE GREAT ESCAPE, aka one of my favorite films of all time. I recognized it from the very first frame and the first bar of Elmer Bernstein's iconic score. So that was extra delightful, just for me. One day I will see it in a real theater.
Anyway, if you are a person who needs things to happen in a movie or needs actual characters or needs coherent themes, do not ever see this movie. But if you are like me, a person who just likes to bask in a world, then if you ever get a chance to see it on the big screen, DO IT.
Okay, not really, but I kept thinking of this song while watching the movie.
