#risorgimento

Lampedusa had portrayed Angelica in his novel as the beautiful daughter of the ambitious mayor of mayor of Donnafugata and a newly rich landowner, Don Calogero Sedara. She and her father became acquainted of Fabrizio Corbèra, Prince of Salina; his family and the Prince's equally ambitious nephew, Prince Tancredi Falconeri. Some time following the landing of revolutionary Giuseppe Garibaldi and his troops on Sicily, Prince Salina and his family traveled to his summer estate in Donnafugata. There, they discovered Don Sedara had become wealthy through dodgy business transactions and political influence. At a luncheon hosted by Prince Salina, Don Sedara introduced his daughter Angelica to the aristocratic family. Tancredi became smitten with her, to the dismay of the Prince's daughter Concetta, who loves her cousin. Although aware of his daughter's feelings, the Prince accepted the inevitable and helped arrange Tancredi's betrothal to Angelica. In a twist different from the novel and the 1963 movie adaptation, Tancredi and Angelica were married in Episode Four.

Not long after the young couple's marriage, they move to Turin, the capital of the newly unified Italy. Sometime after the death of his oldest son, Paolo, the Prince received an offer to become a senator in Episode Five. He and Concetta stayed at Tancredi and Angelica's new home. During this visit, both father and daughter discovered the couple's new marriage had transformed into a loveless one, when they realized the one thing they truly shared was ambition. The Prince had also Angelica having a sexual tryst with some French ambassador. After the Prince confronted Tancredi about this, the latter admitted he knew about his wife's "transgressions" and accepted them, because her trysts helped advance his political ambitions. The Prince eventually learned from Angelica that Tancredi had began cheating on her not long after the honeymoon. The miniseries' last episode featured a brief scene of Angelica engaged in a sexual tryst with another politician.

All I can say is . . . WHAT THE HELL? Why on earth did the screenwriters for "THE LEOPARD", Richard Warlow and Benji Walters, decide to transform Angelica into some kind of political whore for her husband? What was the point of this change in Angelica's character? Granted, she had one affair during her marriage to Tancredi in the novel. But it happened years later and only once . . . with an old friend of Tancredi's. The latter had been sexually unfaithful to her for years. But the literary Angelica had never continuously cheated on Tancredi out of some kind of revenge or inadvertently prostitute herself to other men, on behalf of her husband's ambitions.

So, why did Warlow and Walters make this toxic change to Angelica's character? To enhance Concetta's standing in the saga? To make Lampedusa's saga more salacious? Or did they make this change to convey some message that ambitious women are naturally promiscuous? Who knows? It might be latter. I had once come across an online comment that Angelica's willingness to have sex with other men on behalf of Tancredi's career seemed like a clear indication of how far women are willing to go in regard to their ambitions. I nearly threw up after reading that particular passage. Then again, this change in Angelica's characterization may have originated from a combination of all three - to enhance Concetta's character, make the story more . . . "sexy" and convey some toxic opinion on ambitious women.

As I had earlier stated, no such scenario regarding Angelica Sedara aka Princess Falconeri prostituting herself on behalf of her husband's political ambitions existed in Giuseppe Tomasi di Lampedusa's novel. Nor did it exist in Luchino Visconti's 1963 film. Not only did I find the screenwriters' decision to transform Angelica into some kind of whore very disturbing, but also misogynist. But what I found even more disturbing were the reactions to this particular change. Or better yet . . . the lack of reactions to this change. Especially from the more progressive articles and blogs, which I believe should have complained about how Warlow and Walters had spoon fed this ridiculous Madonna/Whore nonsense to television viewers.