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Biography
of Sergio Leone
He
was born in Rome on 3 January 1929. His father Vincenzo Leone,
was a silent movie director who worked under the name of
Roberto Roberti and his mother, Bice Valerian, was a talented
actress of the same period. He began working in the cinema as
a voluntary assistant and as an extra, also appearing in
"The Bicycle Thieves (Ladri di Biciclette)" (1948)
by De Sica. Later, for many years, he was assistant director
to Mario Bonnard: in ‘59, as Bonnard was ill, he substituted
him on the set of "The Last Days of Pompei (Gli Ultimi
Giorni di Pompei)" to complete the filming.
After a stint as assistant director in William Wyler's
"Ben Hur" (1959) and directing the second unit in
"Sodom and Gomorra (Sodoma e Gomorra)" (1961) by
Robert Aldrich, he finally graduated to the level of director
with the mythological "The Colossus of Rhodes (Il Colosso
di Rodi)" (1961) his first full-length feature film.
However, the film that brought him notoriety was made in 1964:
"A Fistful of Dollars (Per un Pugno di Dollari)",
under the pseudonym of Bob Robertson in homage to his father,
indicates a convincing road to the autarchic western along the
paths of a boosted Baroque narration, reverberating and
hyperviolent (although based on a non original idea; a clear
mutation of "Seven Samurai (La Sfida del Samurai)"
by Akira Kurosawa).
His next films "For a Few Dollars More (Per Qualche
Dollaro in Più)" (1965) and "The Good, the Bad and
the Ugly (Il Buono, il Brutto, il Cattivo)" (1966)
complete what was to be defined as the "The Dollars
Trilogy", huge box office hits reproposing a winning
formula: an aggressive and engaging soundtrack by Ennio
Morricone, sly and gritty acting from Clint Eastwood (but also
from the excellent Gian Maria Volonté and Lee Van Cleef), to
which is added - at a stylistic level - a exaggerated slowing
down of the narrative rhythm which, at times, mutates into a
paradoxical solemnity of the actors' gestures.
"Once Upon a Time in the West (C’era una Volta il
West)" (1968) confirms but at the same time breaks with
the previous patterns, portraying the end of the West and the
Frontier myth: for the occasion the icon Henry Fonda takes on
the guise of a cruel, unrelenting murderer, clashing with the
harsh profile of Charles Bronson in a sinister story of
vendetta and death, skillfully directed by an artist who by
that time had reached full maturity.
If his next film, "Duck You Sucker (Giù la Testa)"
(1971), a colourful and action-packed pot pourri on the
revolution set in the Mexico of Villa and Zapata, is a little
stuck between mannerism and rituality, it is with "Once
Upon a Time in America (C’era una Volta in America)"
(1984) that the filmmaker from Rome realised his undisputed
masterpiece.
The fruit of an extended preparation, the film is a story
about gangsters and friendship set in the roaring years of the
Prohibition that unwinds through four hours of Damon Runyon
style blood and bullets and moving Fitzgeraldian parentheses
of anguish, all marked by an acute knowledge of the memory
reminiscent of Proust: with the help of admirable acting (De
Niro is mentioned most, but James Woods is an equal match to
him) and Ennio Morricone's unforgettable soundtrack which
gives meaning to the picture, which to say the least, is
spellbinding. Leone's rise as an artist concludes here: he was
struck down by a heart attack in his home in Rome on 30 April
1989, while working on the arduous project for a film focusing
on the German siege of Leningrad.
F.
T.
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