The Leopard

Set in 1860s Sicily, it portrays the decline of an aristocratic family under the crushing weight of political change. The film traces the waning of the noble home of Fabrizio Corbero, Prince of Salina (the Leopard) and the corresponding rise to eminence of the enormously wealthy ex-peasant Don Calogero Sedara. The prince himself refuses to take active steps to halt the decline of his personal fortunes or to help build a new Sicily but his nephew Tancredi, Prince of Falconeri, swims with the tide and assures his own position by marrying Don Calogero's beautiful daughter Angelica.