WEBVTT 00:00:05.120 --> 00:00:07.760 The Leopard 00:00:07.760 --> 00:00:12.031 Chapter 1 The prince and the changing Sicily. 00:00:12.031 --> 00:00:15.480 Every morning begins the same way: 00:00:15.480 --> 00:00:21.400 the sound of prayers, the smell of wax and flowers in the home chapel. My sisters 00:00:21.400 --> 00:00:27.160 recite the rosary with devotion, while I, sitting in my seat, think of something else. 00:00:27.160 --> 00:00:34.280 Outside the Sicilian sun burns the earth as always, but something is different in the air. My 00:00:34.280 --> 00:00:41.200 land, so slow to change, now seems to be rushing towards something I don't know. 00:00:41.200 --> 00:00:48.200 The news comes from Palermo, from Naples, from overseas. Garibaldi landed in Sicily. The 00:00:48.200 --> 00:00:55.680 monarchy is faltering, and with it our lives. The servants whisper, the nobles pretend to 00:00:55.680 --> 00:01:01.240 be calm and in control of the situation, even if they are clearly worried. 00:01:01.240 --> 00:01:06.200 But I feel it: the world as we know it is ending. 00:01:06.200 --> 00:01:11.720 Tancredi, my nephew, looks at me with eyes full of fire. He wants to leave and join those 00:01:11.720 --> 00:01:19.800 liberators. He says it's right, that it's the future. I smile, but inside I feel a cold bite. 00:01:19.800 --> 00:01:26.000 He's young, yes, but not stupid. He understood before me that power is shifting. 00:01:26.000 --> 00:01:34.520 And I, Prince Fabrizio of Salina, man of stars and silences, remain still while everything changes. 00:01:34.520 --> 00:01:41.120 That night, looking at the sky, I saw a star fall. An omen, perhaps. 00:01:41.120 --> 00:01:48.320 Or maybe just the beginning of the end. But I didn't know it yet. Not entirely. 00:01:48.320 --> 00:01:53.160 Chapter 2 Don Fabrizio and the passing of time. 00:01:53.160 --> 00:01:57.840 Sometimes I wake up in the middle of the night without knowing why. I walk slowly through 00:01:57.840 --> 00:02:03.760 the dark corridors of the villa, I listen to my footsteps on the marble and I think about time. 00:02:03.760 --> 00:02:10.480 Time is a silent animal: it walks alongside you and then, without warning, passes you. 00:02:10.480 --> 00:02:14.480 I see my youth as if in a foggy mirror: 00:02:14.480 --> 00:02:20.320 the hunts with friends, the travels, the studies. Everything seems so far away. 00:02:20.320 --> 00:02:27.480 Now every gesture is slow, every thought heavy. My family still looks at me with respect, 00:02:27.480 --> 00:02:33.120 but I feel like they no longer understand who I am. Maybe I don't know either. 00:02:33.120 --> 00:02:38.680 I live among rituals and habits that never change: lunch at 2:00, 00:02:38.680 --> 00:02:45.360 the walk in the garden, the evenings in the living room while my wife embroiders in silence. 00:02:45.360 --> 00:02:52.560 But outside the world is racing. Cities explode. People want to vote, scream, fight. 00:02:52.560 --> 00:02:58.920 And we, the nobles, remain closed in our palaces counting the shadows. 00:02:58.920 --> 00:03:03.840 Sometimes I wonder if all this order serves any purpose, if it isn't 00:03:03.840 --> 00:03:10.400 just an elegant way to hide fear. And while the island awakens, I continue to 00:03:10.400 --> 00:03:18.520 observe like a tired lion who smells, in the dust, the scent of the approaching enemy. 00:03:18.520 --> 00:03:23.440 Chapter 3 Tancredi is the new generation. 00:03:23.440 --> 00:03:29.560 Tancredi is like the wind: you don't stop him, you don't follow him. You watch him go by and hope he comes back. 00:03:29.560 --> 00:03:32.720 When he told me he wanted to join Garibaldi, 00:03:32.720 --> 00:03:39.480 I smiled. Not out of joy, but out of respect. He knows where the world is going. I, on the other hand, 00:03:39.480 --> 00:03:43.320 am letting it go. “Uncle, if we don't change, 00:03:43.320 --> 00:03:48.720 they'll erase us,” he told me, with those bright eyes and that confident voice. 00:03:48.720 --> 00:03:55.000 He spoke of homeland, freedom, future. I only saw dust and disorder. 00:03:55.000 --> 00:04:01.880 But I remained silent, because ultimately he is right: everything must change to remain as it is. 00:04:01.880 --> 00:04:06.280 It's our only hope. Tancredi brings with him something 00:04:06.280 --> 00:04:12.960 that I have lost: the will to live. He laughs, jokes, falls in love easily. 00:04:12.960 --> 00:04:18.520 Women love it, men follow it. He is the son of a new world, 00:04:18.520 --> 00:04:22.600 born on the ruins of ours. When he left with the 00:04:22.600 --> 00:04:30.400 crooked uniform and the stage sword, I hugged him. I smelled tobacco and youth. 00:04:30.400 --> 00:04:37.160 And I was scared. Not for him. For me. For what it represents. 00:04:37.160 --> 00:04:40.680 Now I sit in my study, looking at his portrait. 00:04:40.680 --> 00:04:49.200 The silence is profound, and the future - his future - gallops away from me, without turning. 00:04:49.920 --> 00:04:54.200 Chapter 4 The meeting with Angelica. 00:04:54.200 --> 00:04:58.480 When Angelica entered the room, time stopped. 00:04:58.480 --> 00:05:03.640 Her beauty wasn't just in her features: it was in her gestures, in her confident gaze, 00:05:03.640 --> 00:05:09.040 in the silence she carried with her. Even I, a tired old prince, 00:05:09.040 --> 00:05:15.160 felt a shiver, as if something powerful had entered our lives. 00:05:15.160 --> 00:05:19.080 Tancredi saw it and forgot everything: wars, 00:05:19.080 --> 00:05:27.080 ideals, future. She was there, in front of him, and one look was enough to know that she would be his. 00:05:27.080 --> 00:05:33.920 I didn't tell him, but I knew right away. And even though she is the daughter of Don Calogero Sedara, 00:05:33.920 --> 00:05:40.760 a crude and rich man, I remained silent. Because Angelica is not like him. 00:05:40.760 --> 00:05:47.000 It's fire under the ice. The nobility huddled in their worn silks 00:05:47.000 --> 00:05:53.280 trying to ignore her, but she shone too brightly. It represented what is coming: 00:05:53.280 --> 00:05:58.440 an elegant, hungry bourgeoisie, ready to conquer everything. 00:05:58.440 --> 00:06:04.960 I watched them talk, laugh, barely touch each other. And I felt a pang inside. 00:06:04.960 --> 00:06:08.360 Not of jealousy. Of nostalgia. 00:06:08.360 --> 00:06:14.160 Angelica is the future disguised as a dream. And I, who know dreams and their traps, 00:06:14.160 --> 00:06:21.040 immediately understood that nothing will ever be the same again. That evening I raised my glass and toasted, 00:06:21.040 --> 00:06:25.840 without telling anyone that our world was dying. 00:06:25.840 --> 00:06:31.600 Chapter 5 The ball and the decline of the aristocracy. 00:06:31.600 --> 00:06:38.720 The hall was full of lights, laughter and perfumes. The fans moved like butterfly wings. 00:06:38.720 --> 00:06:44.080 The violins played endless waltzes. Palermo wanted to forget the war, 00:06:44.080 --> 00:06:48.480 the tensions, the confusing news arriving from the continent. 00:06:48.480 --> 00:06:52.120 But I don't forget. I observe. 00:06:52.120 --> 00:06:59.560 Everyone was there: nobles dressed in gold, bourgeois in search of glory, officers in shiny uniforms. 00:06:59.560 --> 00:07:05.200 Angelica dominated the room. In his every step there was grace and achievement. 00:07:05.200 --> 00:07:10.920 Tancredi smiled at her, proud. It was his night, their victory. 00:07:10.920 --> 00:07:16.560 I sat on the sidelines, like an exiled king. The ladies greeted me, the young men 00:07:16.560 --> 00:07:21.760 came to kiss my hand. But it was courtesy, not respect. 00:07:21.760 --> 00:07:28.640 I could hear it in the voices, in the too quick gestures, in the glances that passed by. 00:07:28.640 --> 00:07:35.360 Walking among the mirrors and chandeliers, I saw again everything we have been — and everything 00:07:35.360 --> 00:07:39.440 we will no longer be. The walls laughed at us, 00:07:39.440 --> 00:07:45.520 at our titles, at our medals. At one point I asked for a glass 00:07:45.520 --> 00:07:51.880 of water. Only water, because the wine that evening would have burned too much. 00:07:51.880 --> 00:07:58.200 Then I saw it: my reflection. Tired, grey, out of time. 00:07:58.200 --> 00:08:04.840 And I realized that I was no longer a prince. And maybe I never really was. 00:08:04.840 --> 00:08:09.160 Chapter 6 Marriage and the new reality. 00:08:09.880 --> 00:08:15.720 Tancredi and Angelica's wedding day was splendid. Yet bitter. 00:08:15.720 --> 00:08:19.680 The sky was clear, the flowers were fresh, the clothes were bright. 00:08:19.680 --> 00:08:25.800 People applauded, bells rang. Everything was as it should be. 00:08:25.800 --> 00:08:29.760 Yet, inside me, something was breaking. 00:08:29.760 --> 00:08:36.240 Tancredi was radiant, Angelica, in an ivory dress, looked like a queen. 00:08:36.240 --> 00:08:42.000 But I knew that it wasn't just a union of love: it was an alliance between the 00:08:42.000 --> 00:08:49.440 old blood of the Salinas and the new money of the Sedaras. A necessary compromise. An elegant rendering. 00:08:49.440 --> 00:08:54.240 Don Calogero, the bride's father, smiled too much. 00:08:54.240 --> 00:08:58.120 He looked at each guest as if he were counting coins. 00:08:58.120 --> 00:09:03.160 Every word he said was out of place, but no one dared to correct him. 00:09:03.160 --> 00:09:08.920 Now he too was part of our world. Or at least that's what he thought. 00:09:08.920 --> 00:09:14.240 During the ceremony, I watched Tancredi's hands shake Angelica's. 00:09:14.240 --> 00:09:17.400 Young, safe. Mine, hidden 00:09:17.400 --> 00:09:22.480 behind my back, trembled slightly. Because what I saw was the future. 00:09:22.480 --> 00:09:27.680 And I didn't belong there. At the table, between toasts and laughter, 00:09:27.680 --> 00:09:33.760 I raised my glass to the new times, I said. Everyone applauded. 00:09:33.760 --> 00:09:38.920 But I only thought of one thing: we had opened the door to change, 00:09:38.920 --> 00:09:43.800 and change never asks permission to enter. 00:09:43.800 --> 00:09:48.560 Chapter 7 Loneliness and the end of the prince. 00:09:48.560 --> 00:09:52.720 The house is quieter now. The children are far away. 00:09:52.720 --> 00:09:58.400 Tancredi lives in Palermo, Angelica organizes receptions and participates in salons. 00:09:58.400 --> 00:10:02.440 I stay here, in the Donnafugata villa, among antique furniture 00:10:02.440 --> 00:10:08.440 and habits that no longer serve any purpose. Every morning I walk slowly through the garden. 00:10:08.440 --> 00:10:14.000 The trees are the same, but I'm not. The body bends, the mind wanders. 00:10:14.000 --> 00:10:19.880 I no longer have desires, only memories. And every now and then a fixed thought: 00:10:19.880 --> 00:10:24.680 when will the time come? Politics no longer interests me. 00:10:24.680 --> 00:10:30.080 The new rulers talk a lot, they promise everything. But I don't believe it. 00:10:30.080 --> 00:10:34.920 Nothing has really changed. Just the faces. The people remain poor. 00:10:34.920 --> 00:10:41.560 Sicily remains motionless under the sun. The truth is simple: here everything changes 00:10:41.560 --> 00:10:46.400 to never really change. I spend the afternoons watching the 00:10:46.400 --> 00:10:53.560 sky turn red like a slow flame. I feel death near, but not with fear. 00:10:53.560 --> 00:10:57.600 I look at her as one would look at an old friend arriving. 00:10:57.600 --> 00:11:04.000 One evening, as the sun sank behind the hills, I felt a profound relief. 00:11:04.000 --> 00:11:09.920 As if everything finally made sense. And for the first time I understood that 00:11:09.920 --> 00:11:16.800 we are not masters of our end. But we can at least choose silence. 00:11:16.800 --> 00:11:20.920 Chapter 8 Everything must change to stay as it is. 00:11:21.560 --> 00:11:26.480 Now that I'm no longer here, maybe someone will still talk about me. 00:11:26.480 --> 00:11:31.320 They will say I was an honorable man, a cultured prince, a tired dreamer. 00:11:31.320 --> 00:11:37.240 But the truth is another: I just watched time slip through my fingers, 00:11:37.240 --> 00:11:41.240 like hot sand in a hand that no longer holds. 00:11:41.240 --> 00:11:47.720 After I died, life went on. Tancredi became a deputy, then a senator. 00:11:47.720 --> 00:11:53.040 Angelica became a shining figure of the new Sicilian society. 00:11:53.040 --> 00:11:59.560 They have children, parties, photographs. They talk about progress, about modernity. 00:11:59.560 --> 00:12:03.320 Yet, if you look carefully, everything has remained as it was. 00:12:03.320 --> 00:12:08.040 The farmers are still poor. Ancient buildings are falling apart. 00:12:08.040 --> 00:12:14.760 The powerful change their names, but not their habits. Sicily allows itself to change on the surface, but 00:12:14.760 --> 00:12:23.680 inside it remains the same: proud, wounded, immobile. One day, many years later, one of my daughters 00:12:23.680 --> 00:12:28.440 found my old dog, dead, forgotten in a closed room. 00:12:28.440 --> 00:12:33.360 No one had looked for him anymore. They buried him in silence, 00:12:33.360 --> 00:12:37.640 like a relic of the past. Maybe that really was 00:12:37.640 --> 00:12:43.640 the funeral of my world. Now my name is engraved on a cold tombstone. 00:12:43.640 --> 00:12:48.200 But if someone asked me what I learned, I would only answer this: 00:12:48.200 --> 00:12:51.480 for things to remain as they were, everything must change.