The princely Turin in the tv series 'The Leopard'
ART AND LOCATIONS: CINEMA IN DETAIL
In Ep. 5 of The Leopard, the story shifts to Turin, now established as the capital of the Kingdom of Italy, home to Angelica and Tancredi and setting for their unbridled social climbing.
The train puffs north, symbolizing a now unified country, and the camerawork evokes the dome of San Giuseppe dei Teatini in Palermo seen Episode 1, rising behind Filippo Juvarra's Basilica of Superga (1717-1731), overlooking the valley and the city marked by the River Po, then descending onto Piazza Carignano with the Monument to Vincenzo Gioberti by Giovanni Abertoni (1859) and Palazzo Carignano (1679-1685). This building, constructed for Emanuele Filiberto of Savoy-Carignano, is one of the Baroque masterpieces by the Theatine priest Guarino Guarini who, around the same time, also designed the Chapel of the Holy Shroud (1680) and its famous dome, which is featured later in the episode.
The monument to Carlo Alberto of Savoy in the square named for him - © FCTP
The building, with its distinctive terracotta exterior, has a façade with wings of concave-convex lines that are fully Baroque, recalling both Bernini's designs for the Louvre and the Château de Vaux-le-Vicomte, and, even more, Borromini's designs for the Oratory of the Filippini in Rome, which also features exposed brickwork.
The series also features the Deputies' Chamber, nowin the Museum of the Italian Risorgimento, in the palace that served as the first seat for the new Kingdom's Parliament when Don Fabrizio is invited to become a member of the Senate (at the time the upper house of Parliament was appointed by the king). Piazza Carlo Alberto, behind Palazzo Carignano, is also seen, with the equestrian monument to Carlo Alberto, King of Sardinia from 1831 to 1847, a work by Carlo Marrocchetti (1856-1860).
Juvarra's works recur in other scenes set in Turin: one of his first projects in the city wasin Via Carlo Alberto: the Palazzo Birago di Borgaro (1716) - built for Count Augusto Renato Birago, general of the Kingdom of Sardinia - which serves as the residence of Tancredi and Angelica. Don Fabrizio and his daughter, Concetta, arrive by carriage which draws into the building’s main courtyard, passing beneath the Venetian window supported by pillars and graced by two oculi with large marble vases.
In the 16th century, the Birago familyhad owned the Castello del Valentino - named for the area name Vallantinum - which was purchased in 1564 by Emanuele Filiberto of Savoy and entrusted in 1600 to architects Carlo and Amedeo di Castellamonte, who made the great homage to French Baroque in Turin. The Castle appears beside the Po River, the clearly French influence seen in the exposed red brick structure and slate dormer windows, when Don Fabrizio and Tancredi take a long stroll.
There is a somewhat different “appearance” for the Teatro Regio where Tancredi and Angelica take Fabrizio and Concetta to see Nabucco. The camera moves from the exterior of the dome of the Chapel of the Shroud, inside the Theatre to explore the space and interior decoration. Inside the focus is on neither on Juvarra's chapel nor the Teatro Regio, but on a painting of a chariot race watched by ancients by Annibale Brugnoli (1879-1880) of Perugia which is actually in the Teatro dell'Opera in Rome (Teatro Costanzi until 1926), where the scene was shot.
It's worth mentioning at least one other building in Turin used in the series: Palazzo di Città. Outside the building Fabrizio stops Angelica, who had been talking to the French ambassador, while inside he delivers the famous speech in which he refuses to become a senator, embracing his Sicilian roots and his ambivalence towards the advancing changes. The complex, which replaced the medieval Palazzo Civico, was designed by Francesco Lanfranchi (1659-1663), and was renovated in the two centuriesthat followed: the statues of Ferdinand and Eugene of Savoy,at the entrance where Fabrizio and Angelica meet, date to the mid-19th century, and were made by Giuseppe Dini and Silvestro Simonetta, respectively. Don Fabrizio (Kim Rossi Stuart) delivers his speechin the Entrance Hall, or Marble Hall, modified in the 19th century by Lorenzo Lombardi and Ferdinando Bonsignore, and dominated by the large equestrian relief of Vittorio Emanuele I by Giacomo Spalla (1823) which features prominently in the sequence.
In Episode 6, the final episode, the action returns to Sicily and the locations previously listed in the first two parts of this in-depth analysis: