Too long for its length this is a somewhat sprawling epic with many highpoints. Not least of which is Burt Lancaster's towering performance as the family patriarch who knows he must change to meet the new political reality while still clinging fervently to the past. One only wishes he had been in every scene.
The images though beautiful tend toward tableau vivant and one cannot help feeling that a little judicious cutting here and there would have improved matters.
The plus side of this movie is the delicious visual analogies to the ideas conveyed. The crumbling villa that represents the ancien régime as the young populates it and makes it something modern. The poor dress sense of the parvenu and nouveau riche middle-class businessman, who is richer than the aristocracy, so is welcomed as a potential father-in-law to save what remains of the various family fortunes through marriage.
Copyright © 2009 Frank TALKER. Permission granted to reproduce and distribute it in any format; provided that mention of the author’s Weblog (http://franktalker5.blogspot.com/) is included: E-mail notification requested. All other rights reserved.
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