Giuseppe Tomasi di Lampedusa wrote only one novel – The Leopard – made famous by Luchino Visconti’s film
See Pierre Clementi behind Burt Lancaster.
Pierre was hitch-hiking and Alain Delon, on his way to “The Leopard” have him a ride. Visconti took one look at Pierre and cast him on the spot.-
David Ehrenstein
Visconti’s The Leopard won the best films at Cannes. Burt Lancaster played the Sicilian Patriarch.
Olivier Assayas’ top ten list.
One of the greatest films ever made by a director who, almost forty years after his death, is still an intimidating and disturbing figure in the history of cinema. Visconti’s films stand outside the borders of the medium, by their ambition, by their scope, uniting past and present, individuals and history, both deeply human and transcendent. The Leopard, his most translucent, towering achievement, embodies everything the best filmmaking can be, grand, profound, entertaining, physical and metaphysical, sharp as a blade and melodramatic. It stays with you, forever.
Criterion
Dec 23 birthday Giuseppe Tomasi di Lampedusa
The saddest thing about the whole rather sad story of Giuseppe Tomasi di Lampedusa is the publication of his one, world-famous novel, The Leopard, because it could be said that it was the only extraordinary thing to have happened in his life, although it happened, in fact, in death, sixteen months after he had departed this world. This is why he is one of the few writers who never felt he was a writer or lived as if he were one, even less so than others who also failed to publish anything during their lifetime, for the simple reason that he did not even attempt to do so until almost the end of his days. Not only did he make no attempt to get published, he did not even attempt to write anything.
He was more of a reader, insatiable and obsessive. The few people who knew him well were astonished at his encyclopaedic knowledge of literature and history, on both of which subjects he possessed a vast library.(read more here)
Birthday of Edgar Varese Dec 22. innovative composer
Married Blues (cool video, Kenneth loved Jazz)
Kenneth Rexroth born on Dec 22 (youtube)