There is everything in this film - an endless melancholy of unfathomable measures, hilarious comedy almost jumping out of the film, adorable music all the way through by Nicola Piovani, unforgettable characters personified by some of the foremost actors of the day, the overwhelming beauty of Ornella Muti and the equally overwhelming sincerity of Giancarlo Giannini, with any number of supporting actors, particularly the 'gobbi', the team of jugglers and clowns of the commedia dell'arte making the film burst with good humour, and the sinister drama of the traumatic transformation of Italy including the painful deposition of the king of Naples ('the two Sicilies') with his queen for a settlement in Rome in permanent pathetic exile, growing the more pathetic for her efforts to regain the throne and for his resignation to what he feels as a failure of a life. This is a tragicomedy where both the tragic and the comedy elements are pushed to their extremes with impacts of contrasts, the ideal world of preserved appearance of royalty poised against brutal political reality with all the worst atrocities of civil war. This is a film worth revisiting and watching again, reminding you of the best moments of Visconti ('The Leopard') and Fellini, and joining the highest ranks of Italian cinema.
