New movie podcast — Prof. Miles Smith IV of Hillsdale joins me to talk about Il Gattopardo, the 1963 Luchino Visconti movie starring Burt Lancaster, Alain Delon, & Claudia Cardinale (with a cameo by a then-young Terence Hill, a favorite of our own CJ Wolfe) adapted from the 1958 novel by Giuseppe Tomasi di Lampedusa. This novel was an incredible success in Italy & so was the movie, & in Europe, too, which may be a bit of a surprise, since the director is a descendent of aristocrats; the novelist was an aristocrat, last of his line. So this is where we begin our reflections: Gattopardo is a story about aristocracy turning into the bourgeoise, the arrival of the modern world, & hence about eternity. Set in Sicily, the action opens with the invasion of the red shirts, overthrowing the Bourbon monarchy & installing the rule of the Kingdom of Sardinia & Piedmont, North against South, the beginning of a new historic epoch — our protagonist, Don Fabrizio, Prince Salina, contemplates this change & adapts to it, accepting the end of his way of life. Miles compares the Italian Risorgimento, the nationalist movement for unification spearheaded by Garibaldi, to the American Civil War — & we have further provocations to offer by comparing the two major characters, the Prince & his nephew & heir. Links below to Apple Podcasts:
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