'The Leopard' & 'The Leopard'

I read this book and I kept wondering, "How the hell are they going to make this into a semi-interesting film?

Turns out, they didn't. The film is only mildly more interesting than the book, which is an absolute snoozefest. In fact, it's a borderline mystery why you'd even make the film.

The book is semi-autobiographical, published posthumously in 19058 after Giuseppe Tomasi di Lampedusa died of lung cancer. Lampedusa was himself a prince although he was not alive for the unification of Italy in the 1860s.

Italy's an odd country. It's the nation of the Roman empire, the epicenter of the Renaissance and home to some of the most notable and beautiful sites in the world.

However, since the fall of the Roman empire, Italy was in shit shape. A bunch of different republics ruling independently as the Pope in the Vatican just sat there surrounding by an awkward hodgepodge of countries.

They unified in the late 1800s and then fell back as Mussolini got into power and the fascists had their way for two decades or so.

No greater country with as much history, lore, art and science has had its collective wheels shot off as much as Italy.

The only redeeming quality of this film and book is the casting of the drop-dead gorgeous Claudia Cardinale.