I have realized that the people in the ballroom sequence, specially the women, are really ugly. The only exception is, of course, Cardinale. The whole sequence is astounding to look at, but you never get the feeling of "I would like to be there". At one point Lancaster says: "look at those women, they look like monkeys...". Is it me or maybe Visconti is trying to show another face of decay?
shareI didn't think they were particularly ugly. Obviously Cardinale is supposed to stand out as being the most beautitful young woman during the ball sequence. And there is a scene in which the Prince makes a comment about cousins marrying each other and their daughters not being pretty.
share> And there is a scene in which the Prince makes a comment about cousins marrying each other and their daughters not being pretty.
...and that's part of the point that the OP is pointing at--they are ugly as they are of a decaying class doomed with their own snobishness, while Cardinale is astoundingly beautiful and she is from a class that is taking over these aristocrats; the bourgeoisie.
Therefore...
> Is it me or maybe Visconti is trying to show another face of decay?
Definitely Luchino making his point very very clear, not to forget that he himself was from that class, and the last of a family which was once among the most powerful in Italy. The Leopard, the most expensive and the most grandiose film of his, which now considered to be the cinematic national treasure of Italy, is also the most personal film of his in many ways.
The interesting thing is that many extras in the ball sequence were indeed, the real descents of Sicilian aristocracy, including a relative (I think it was his cousin) of Di Lampedusa, the author of the book, who is addressed by her own name, the princess di Lampedusa at the beginning of the sequence.
The spectacular pan from a long shot of Palermo to the peasants working on the fields was one of the crucial additions Luchino made to his film. And it means so much--the people, neither the bourgeoisie nor the aristocracy, but the working class common people who remained kept outside of that revolution which was corrupted from the beginning...
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In answer to your statement:
"The interesting thing is that many extras in the ball sequence were indeed, the real descents of Sicilian aristocracy".
Like all the aristocracy they were probably interbred, hence the ugliness. Have you ever taken a look at the British aristocracy nowadays? They all look weird, or downright ugly to say the least.
I think they're just people, aren't they? such as you might see in the street, on the bus, anywhere. It's only in Hollywood that everyone on the screen is a pretty starlet or handsome hunk - would-be actors working as extras. Elsewhere, you just have ordinary-looking people.
In any case, the producers had to cast people who knew how to dance the mazurka, the Viennese waltz, the galop and whatever that set dance is, the Italian equivalent of the Lancers. They probably are locals.
Obviously the inbred aristocrats don't look like Hollywood starlets. That is the point.
Cardinale, not bred at all, looks beautiful but cheap. That was the point also.
If the Kingdom of Heaven is like a grain of mustard, It can also be like a chicken-pox mark.
You are exactly right in that it is showing the decay of the aristocrats and how their time is about to be over.
shareIt's a stifling world, that much seems plain. Most of the characters know nothing better, and think they're in heaven. The Prince, however, takes the long view. He's out of place, having already left this world in his imagination and written people like himself out of history.
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Visconti had a particular affinity for showing the inherent ugliness of anything "grotesque" (via the physical appearance). The musicians in "Death in Venice" are a particularly striking (and effective) example.
So, yes: I think you are right about that.
Sicily has had a rough 2500 years. First the Greeks, then the Carthaginians, Romans, Byzantines, Vandals, Moors, Normans, Angevins, Aragonese, Hapsburgs, Spanish Bourbons, the French, then the Bourbons again, then Garibaldi . . .
A history like that would give anybody complexes. It's got to take its toll physically as well as emotionally.
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I admire the Prince Salina character very much, but I found his comments about inbred cousins looking ugly to be hypocritical. After all, his daughter Concetta would probably have been engaged to her cousin Tancredi if Angelica didn't show up. As a Prince of old lineage, he would probably been a descendant or practitioner of some kind of inbreeding.
I wasn't struck by anyone being ugly in particular. Their behavior in the "monkey" scene wasn't pretty, but I would actually describe many of the women in the ball to be attractive.
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...he needs more plain, average women to contrast the beauty of Cardinale as much as possible.
Yeah, and that fixation on Delon becomes at some point annoying, but as Visconti was gay I guess it is no surprise. Indeed quite a lot of the guys in the movie look way better then the women (except Cardinale ofcourse).
shareAnd yet, many of the young men are stunning! It's no surprise all those good-looking men couldn't keep their eyes off Cardinale, as she had no competition at all in the room. I wondered who the handsome young men other than Tancredi would ultimately have to settle for.
sharePerhaps each other.
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