Dance me through the panic till I’m gathered safely in.
The mise en scene is mesmerising. The setting majestic. The film is so profoundly Sicilian; the tone, the tempo, Burt Lancester’s brooding, sophisticated air. Garibaldi at the gate and the end of an era, being at the precipice of change, the coming of age of a nation that is about to meet its years of lead. Neorealism in decline, going back to the classics but recognising the cyclical nature of history.
