Starring Burt Lancaster, Alain Delon and Claudia Cardianle, this new 35mm restoration of the Visconti masterpiece The Leopard (1963), a highlight of this year’s Cannes Film Festival, will run at Film Forum through Thursday, Jan 13. It’s Sicily, 1860, and as a light breeze disturbs the curtains, an aristocrat leads his family in prayer in a stately palazzo — then a dead soldier is found in the garden. Garibaldi and the Risorgimento have come. In one of the screen’s greatest performances, Burt Lancaster as the Prince of Salina reluctantly sees his beloved nephew Alain Delon off to join the rebels at the Battle of Palermo, then makes his peace with the changing times, marrying Delon to daughter-of-the-people Claudia Cardinale.
The Museum of Modern Art presents The Contenders 2010 now through Jan 22, 2011. For this annual series, MoMA’s Department of Film combed through major studio releases and the top film festivals in the world, selecting influential, innovative films made in the last
12 months poised for historical significance.