Sergio Leone - L'italiano che inventò l'America

Nice documentary about the great master from Italy, which doesn't offer much new content! Some great directors like TARANTINO; SCORSESE; SPIELBERG, but also Hark TSUI and Dario ARGENTO, asked how Sergio LEONE's films influenced their work.

But the best thing for me was the memory of the very young Jennifer CONNELLY making a wonderful appearance in LEONE's favorite work, ONCE UPON A TIME IN AMERICA. The memory of the later ACADEMY AWARD winner Jennifer CONNELLY of this groundbreaking time for her is very touching and is worth watching this enlightening documentary alone, which can be viewed as SKY ORIGINAL on the European streaming service WOW.

A worldwide homage by various artists to the legendary italian director Sergio Leone, paying tribute to this great figure of the world cinema. Being especially known as a pioneer in the western genre and famous for the creation of the subgenre "spaghetti western". One of the most influential directors in the history of cinema especially due to him being known as the innovator of the Spaghetti Western. Several living directors give their pleasant opinion of Leone, and the profound influence that his films instilled in their careers, among whom are: Dario Argento, Darren Aronofsky, Jacques Audiard, Martin Scorsese, Steven Spielberg, Giuseppe Tornatore, Hark Tsui, Damien Chazelle and of course his main fan: Quentin Tarantino. As well as actors: Jennifer Connelly, Robert De Niro, Carlo Verdone, Claudia Cardinale and mention special for producer Arnold Milchan who being a young newcomer in the production financed him ¨Once upon a time in America¨ .

There is a continuous remembrance of his joint work with the master. Although they did not work together until 1964, as children Leone and composer Ennio Morricone were classmates. Composer Ennio Morricone has said that Leone asked him to compose a film's music before the start of principal photography - contrary to normal practice. He would then play the music to the actors during takes to enhance their performance.

His favorite actor from childhood was Henry Fonda, who was offered a role in every one of Leone's early Westerns. After Fonda finally worked with him on Hasta que llegó su hora (1968), he returned the compliment, later citing that film as his favorite role. On Henry Fonda, Leone told¨ I have never known an actor with such craft, with such professional seriousness; such a pleasant man, full of humor, so reserved and so keenly quick-witted¨. There is a detailed study of all the films directed by Leone, with exhibitions of some images of them. Starting with the epic Peplum ¨The colossus of Rhodes¨. And following his first successful Spaghetti western ¨A fistful of dollars¨ which together with ¨A fistful of dollars more´and ¨The Good, the Bad and the Ugly¨ forms the 'trilogy of the dollars'. And then he directed ¨Duck You Sucker¨ which is considered to be the missing link between the dollar trilogy and the epically masterful ¨Once upon a time in the west¨. When he made this film (1968), his stylistic influence switched from the more frenetic pace of Hollywood westerns (which he put on hyper-drive for the "Dollars" trilogy with Clint Eastwood) to the slower, tenser style of Japanese samurai films, mainly those of Akira Kurosawa. Was very insecure about the films he made and every film he made was almost his last. Between Duck you sucker ! (1971) and One upon a time in America (1984) he produced several films and directed several commercials. He also did some uncredited directing work on some of the films he produced

And a special memory of his final masterpiece: ¨Once upon a time in America¨, which due to its long duration was heavily cut by the American production company, which caused Leone's deep anger and was divided into two parts for exhibition. Fortunately, with a subsequent recent editing, this cinematic gem has been recovered more or less as the great director desired. After this one, Leone was impressed with Harrison Salisbury's non-fiction book The 900 Days: The Siege of Leningrad, and he planned on adapting the book as a war epic .And while preparing this great film about the Russian front during WWII, he was even able to get $100 million in financing without even having written a script and he planned to cast Robert De Niro, but then Leone died early at the age of 60.

Documentary looking at the film career of one of the greatest directors that ever lived and how he was influenced by American cinema and particularly westerns and how he in turn changed American cinema and how his style influenced modern film makers.

This is particular interesting for film fans as those talking about him are a powerful mixture of current film luminaries eg Spielberg, Tarantino, Scorsese etc, his children, those who helped create his films eg Morricone, Argento etc, experts like Christopher Frayling, his biographer and then those who acted in his films. This last group provides some particularly interesting and sometimes funny, even sweet anecdotes and comes from the likes of Clint Eastwood, Robert De Niro, Eli Wallach and most touchingly Jennifer Connelly. What takes this further than the usual adoration is that these guys clearly think he's the greatest and it really shows, particularly Tarantino - it's all rather nice, but factual and fascinating to listen to.

PS - I'm not sure Scorsese's verbage wasn't a little inward looking and self indulgent.

I didn't know much about Sergio Leone before watching this. Sure, I'd seen many of his movies several times, and enjoyed them immensely, but i didn't know why he made movies the way he made movies.

This documentary give a great insight into his methodology and the influences that shaped his movies. The most interesting parts of this production are those where we hear Leone in his own words and those of his key collaborators, such as Ennio Morricone.

The use of sound and music, certain props, techniques, all are included. And Leone's background, growing up in an Italy led my Mussolini and Nazi Germany, and the horrors they inflicted on the Italian people.

Well worth watching to see what made Sergio Leone tick!

I had fun watching the new documentary on David Chase and The Sopranos yesterday, so kept that going with a documentary today about Sergio Leone and his filmography.

It makes for a nice companion piece to Ennio, the 2021 documentary about Ennio Morricone. The two even merged in my mind while watching this, given what an essential pairing they were. There was an interview with one of Leone's children at one point during this, and my brain thought, "I wonder if they'll do an interview with his kid who helped compose parts of the score for Cinema Paradiso," and then felt very silly when I realized. I was right about the co-composer part for that film, though.

I'm not sure if Sergio Leone: The Italian Who Invented America argues the bold statement in the title perfectly, but it takes a pretty good stab at it, and some parts are persuasive. The level of care shown in his Westerns does now mean those films feel like the best Westerns can possibly be, and then he did something similarly strong with the gangster genre for his last film.

It's always sad to think about the fact that there are only seven Sergio Leone movies (and his first one, made before the Man With No Name movies, isn't great), but what a filmography. And this documentary is a pretty good look at the filmography in question. It doesn't dive completely into Leone to the degree that you fully understand what made him tick, but he'll likely always remain something of an enigma. At least the greatness found in just about all his movies remains plain to see.