As Garibaldi’s troops begin the unification of Italy in the 1860s, an aging Sicilian prince watches the aristocratic world he has known fade into history. Don Fabrizio, Prince of Salina, navigates the upheaval with weary dignity, arranging his nephew’s marriage to the beautiful daughter of a wealthy merchant — a strategic alliance between dying nobility and rising bourgeoisie. Visconti’s sumptuous Palme d’Or-winning masterpiece, starring Burt Lancaster, Claudia Cardinale, and Alain Delon, culminates in one of cinema’s greatest set pieces: a 40-minute ball sequence of breathtaking beauty and melancholy.
