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Sergio Leone

Sergio Leone
Birth 3 January 1929
Rome , Lazio
Italy
Nationality Flag: Italy Italian
Deaths 30 April 1989 (60 years)
Rome , Lazio
Italy
Occupation (s) Director
Notable Films For a few dollars
Honors View Awards

Sergio Leone was born on 3 January 1929 in Rome ( Italy ), where he died on 30 April 1989 , is a filmmaker Italian. He is the father of the spaghetti western Biography

The beginnings

He is the son of Vincenzo Leone said Roberto Roberti , a pioneer of Italian cinema reduces unemployment by his opposition to fascism

. He studied at the Brethren Saint-Jean-Baptiste-de-La-Salle , there was an average student . Child, he experienced the Second World War by reading the many fumetti , comics Italian. He finished his studies at 18 and began his film career as an assistant for Carmine Gallone in adapting operas (which abhors Leone! ): Rigoletto , La forza del destino and La leggenda di Faust. In 1948 , he played the role of a set and assists the director Vittorio De Sica in The Bicycle Thief. Subsequently he attended the Italian directors like Mario Bonnard , Mario Camerini or Americans - despite his poor English - Robert Wise , Fred Zinnemann and even William Wyler for Ben-Hur. In 1960 he married Carla, a ballerina with whom he has three children: Raffaella, Francesca and Andrea . It really began his career in film in 1959 by staging the peplum The Last Days of Pompeii , replacing Mario Bonnard fell ill .

The 1960s

Decor westerns has turned Almeria

In 1961 , he made another peplum, The Colossus of Rhodes , with Rory Calhoun and Lea Massari. In 1962 he was director of second team on Sodom and Gomorrah by Robert Aldrich , the filming is going very badly and left the shooting Leone . While the western U.S. is in decline, it is participating in the spaghetti western (or western Italian, he declared, however: The word spaghetti-western, is one of the cons I've ever heard in my life ). Well over 400 spaghetti westerns were filmed between 1964 and 1973 . About the Western Mediterranean reclaiming the American myth, Leone said: Agamemnon , Ajax , Hector , are the archetypes of cowboys yesterday: egocentric, independent, heroic, villains, and everything in general, to mythical proportions .

In 1964 , Leone realizes For a few dollars , a remake of a Japanese film of Akira Kurosawa , The Bodyguard (Yojimbo). The story, almost point by point, is transposed from feudal Japan in a Western world. According to Leone, "the situation that I thought especially for this movie is known is that of a foot of Goldoni , Arlecchino Servant of Two Masters. With Western, you can treat all subjects already encountered in classical theater and literature of all countries " . For this film, he uses the pseudonym Bob Robertson (the Americanization of the name is common at the time for filmmakers wanting to break United States of America). The shooting took place in Spain and studio Cinecitt for the interiors, with a budget of 120 million lire distributed to third by Italy, Spain's third and one-third of Germany west. Leone wanted Henry Fonda but his agent did not make him read the script, the producers offered Richard Harrison , but Leone refused, James Coburn agreed, but his stamp ( 25,000) was considered too expensive . Finally it's Clint Eastwood , American actor of the series Rawhide , which agrees for a fee of 15,000. Volont Gian Maria (whose American name in the credits is John Wells) is hired to 2,000,000 lire. The success is immense and discover, in addition to the actors, the costume designer Carlo Simi , and especially the composer Ennio Morricone , a former classmate of Leone, whose name will remain attached to the director and tell him that Leone, it is not my musician, he is my writer .

In 1965 , following the sign Leone And for a few dollars more , always with Clint Eastwood and Gian Maria Volont which are added Lee Van Cleef (originally it was to be Lee Marvin , but he withdrew three days before Turning to play Cat Ballou ) and Klaus Kinski. Leone for the film documents a lot by reading books about the West and the Civil War borrowed from the Library of Congress in Washington . The budget is 350 million lire . 1966 marks the final installment of the trilogy of the dollar with The Good, the Bad and the Ugly , Clint Eastwood is always present (in the role of the good), he shares this time the poster with Lee Van Cleef (the Bad) and Eli Wallach (The Ugly). The budget is 1,000,000. It is from this film that Clint Eastwood became a star in the U.S. . This is the first of a fruitful collaboration with the cinematographer Tonino Delli Colli with Sergio Leone.

Clint Eastwood offered him to stage Hang them high and short in 1968 , Leone and it finally refuses Ted Post who will do , the same will happen in 1970 with the film Sierra torrid finally put directed by Don Siegel .

After this trilogy, Leone wants to adapt The Hoods of Harry Grey (later upon a Time in America ), but producers all want to do a western Leone . In 1968 , he made Once Upon a Time in the West , the end of a great era of the Wild West , the train reaches the end of Western civilization and brings with him and puts modernism end conquest. The film announces, as in Peckinpah as the West is dead. The film was shot in 14 weeks Italy, Spain and the United States, to Monument Valley . The film should be related to the previous trilogy with the first scene of Once Upon a Time in the West. Indeed, the three characters who welcome Charles Bronson to its landing gear had to be played by Clint Eastwood , Lee Van Cleef and Eli Wallach , interpreters of the heroes of the film The Good, the Bad and the Ugly. Eastwood, however, for the sake of career, did not want to die in the first scene of the film, Sergio Leone could not pursue this idea despite the agreement of the other two actors. The film begins a new trilogy that of Once Upon a Time .... Leone for the film boasts an impressive cast: Claudia Cardinale , Charles Bronson , Henry Fonda , Jason Robards and Gabriele Ferzetti. The script is signed by Leone, Sergio Donati and two future great directors Dario Argento and Bernardo Bertolucci. The shooting will be marked by the death of actor Al Mulock who defenestrated during filming .

The 1970s

He participates as a member of the jury at the Cannes Film Festival 1971 under the chairmanship of Michele Morgan.

In 1971 , the second part of the second trilogy, Once upon a time the revolution , with Rod Steiger and James Coburn (Leone wanted Jason Robards and Malcolm McDowell initially ). In this film, the protagonists find themselves in the middle of the Mexican Revolution ( 1913 ) in a picaresque fable. The film should not be done by Leone, but only produced by him, Peter Bogdanovich (who came to realize Target ) was contacted but contact with Leone went wrong, Sam Peckinpah agreed to shoot the film but the actors and the United Artists require Leone to make the film a week before shooting begins . The scenario is then rewritten in a hurry to stick to the world of film. Relationships with Rod Steiger are going very badly at the start of shooting.

In 1973 , he produced (and running some scenes) My name is Person of Tonino Valerii , his former assistant, with Henry Fonda and Terence Hill.

In 1975 , Leone product A genius, two partners, a bell , a western from Damiano Damiani always with Terence Hill, accompanied by Miou-Miou and Robert Charlebois (initially engage Leone thought the trio of Going Places : Depardieu , Dewaere and Miou-Miou ). The film was so disappointed that he decided Leone no longer to produce a western .

It produces Who killed the cat? of Luigi Comencini in 1977 with Ugo Tognazzi and Mariangela Melato and a dangerous toy for Giuliano Montaldo with Nino Manfredi and Marlene Jobert in 1979.

In 1978 , he participated in jury Berlinale 1978 under the chairmanship of Patricia Highsmith.

The 1980s

On the advice of his friend Frederic Rossif , Leone runs a few commercials for ice Gervais , Renault 18 , Europ Assistance or Palmolive .

In 1984 , Leone runs Once Upon a Time in America , whose film work started from 1972 with originally planned Steve McQueen , Paul Newman and James Cagney and eventually played by Robert De Niro , James Woods and Treat Williams. This time Leone registry changes, in fact this film is not a Western but a gangster film and this is the only American film shot by the director. Leone, whose films are always long, carries a record here (staff) with a duration of 220 minutes! The shooting happened in New York , Montreal , Paris , Venice , Como and studios of Cinecitt for 30 weeks . For trade union reasons, Leone became an American team (which appears in the credits of the film) and has not been used, she stayed home and was paid . The film depicts American time of prohibition and the rise of gangsterism. Again, this is also the end of an era, most of the film consists of flashbacks. The two main protagonists maintain the "flame", the codes that were in force in their youth.

Leone died on 30 April 1989 at the age of 60.

Projects aborted and rejected

Among the filmmakers that produce nearly Leone include Theo Angelopoulos , Alejandro Jodorowsky or Marco Vicario .

Two projects, which had been proposed for television were not made: Marco Polo and Garibaldi .

Sergio Leone refused to shoot the first film of the Godfather finally directed by Francis Ford Coppola in 1972 . He also refused to make Corto Maltese by Hugo Pratt and Flash Gordon by Alex Raymond Gillespie . He said no to producer Daniel Toscan du Plantier to perform Carmen finally directed by Francesco Rosi.

Leone has always toyed with the vague desire to adapt two monuments of literature: Journey to the End of the Night of Louis-Ferdinand Celine and One Hundred Years of Solitude by Gabriel Garca Mrquez (he would have adapted into 10 episodes for television) .

Leone, shortly before his death, had the idea to shoot a film about the siege of Leningrad in Russia after the book's 900 days of Leningrad Harrison Salisbury.

In 2004 the Italian cinema magazine Ciak has released its latest project, a solo posto che Conosci Mary (or English A Place Only Mary Knows), written with Luca and Fabio Morselli Toncelli a story on the American Civil War.

Style Leone

  • The format of film ( Techniscope )
  • The great depth of field (using short focal)
  • The close-ups extreme (scenes of dueling), often only on the eye of a character, alternating with large overviews. The resulting contrast is one of those responsible for printing scale resulting from the staging of Leone.
  • Tracking shots back (a detail plan)
  • Stretched time: many scenes of observation long, tense and without dialogue between duelists
  • A very active music (composed by Ennio Morricone ), often indispensable as in the scenes of observation cited above, music that alternates with moments of silence where sound effects are exacerbated.
  • Violence hyperbolic dramatic effects, amplification of realistic detail and scarce elements of space and individuals around the central character .
  • The limited attention given to women.

Criticism

The critics were often murdered:

The Good, the Bad and the Ugly and Once Upon a Time in the West were still defended by Cahiers du Cinema and Positif.

  • For Robert Chazal , about Once Upon a Time in the West : "... the abundance of goods is associated with a large ambition. Leone has not crossed the Atlantic to copy the greats of American western. He wanted to impose his personal style. Abandoning the systematic violence that had been so successful in his early films, he has this time chosen the slow, almost slow motion ... Sergio Leone but can be proud of him. He showed he knows the American West as well as they " .

Teachers and Students

Among the influences that are given to Leone, Ford is the evidence of the western genre in which they were masters. Leone said, however, Ford was an optimist, I am a pessimist. Ford's characters, when they open a window, always scan at the end of this horizon full of hope, mine on the contrary, when they open the window, always afraid of getting a bullet between the eyes .

Quentin Tarantino quotes readily Sergio Leone as his favorite filmmaker . Kill Bill Volume 2 is also dedicated to Sergio Leone, among others .

Leone is widely considered the father of the spaghetti western, it had great son: Duccio Tessari ( A Pistol for Ringo , 1965) Sergio Corbucci ( Django , 1966) Sergio Sollima ( Colorado , 1966), Giuseppe Colizzi ( The Hill Boots , 1969) ...

Leone: I still think that without my films Kubrick would not have made A Clockwork Orange and Peckinpah The Wild Bunch

The Western A rope, a Colt ... of Robert Hossein , released in 1969 is dedicated to the director .

The western Unforgiven in Clint Eastwood is dedicated to Sergio (Leone) and Don.


Kim Jee-woon pays tribute to Sergio Leone The Good, the Bad and the Weird.

Box Office

France :

Filmography

Assistant Director

Director

Writer

Producer

Honors

Nominations

Awards

See also

Bibliography in French

External Links

References

Notes
  1. As it had done before him John Sturges in 1960 with the western The Magnificent Seven , a remake of Seven Samurai Kurosawa of the same.
  2. This nickname is not free because it means Bob's son Robert in reference to his father, director Roberto Roberti.
  3. France is the only country to have chosen the title wanted by Leone, the film in Italy is called the testa Gi not to be confused with Prima della Rivoluzione English and the title is Duck, You Sucker.
References
  1. a and b Tulard Jean , Dictionary of Film. Volume I: The Directors, Robert Laffont , coll. "Mouthpieces, 1982
  2. a , b , c , d , e , f , g , h , i , j , k , l , m , n , o , p , q , r , s , t , u , v and w Simsolo Christmas , Conversation with Sergio Leone, Editions Stock , 1987 (reprints: Ramsay pocket cinema , 1991, and Cahiers du cinema , 1999 ( ISBN 978-2866422097 ))
  3. Jean-Loup Passek (ed.), Dictionary of Cinema, Cambridge , 19 October 2001 , 865 p. ( ISBN 2035050316 )
  4. Brazil , Goffette Christophe (ed.), No. 17, May 2004
  5. a , b , c , d and e Laurence Schifano, The Italian Cinema: From 1945 to the present crisis, and creation, Nathan Universit , 2006 , 128 p. ( ISBN 2091907405 )
  6. Cinema 69, Maintenance Guy Braucourt, 1972
  7. a , b and c Positive , Michel Ciment (ed.), Les Nouvelles Editions Opta , No. 280, June 1984
  8. Bernard Rapp and Jean-Claude Lamy (eds.), World Dictionary of Film, Cambridge, 1985
  9. AL MULOCK: Knuckles on the blog wild-wild-western, accessed December 29, 2010
  10. Roger Boussinot , Film Encyclopedia, Bordas
  11. page dedicated to Sergio Leone on Screenrush Accessed December 30, 2010
  12. a and b Tulard John , The Handbook of movies, Robert Laffont , 1991
  13. Robert Chazal , Paris-Presse , 31 August 1969
  14. screens on the site of Liberation, accessed December 23, 2010
  15. http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0378194/fullcredits # cast in subsection Thanks IMDB, accessed 15/01/2011
  16. interview in La Revue du Cinema No. 395 by Chantal Bchade and Jacques Zimmer
  17. http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0063740/fullcredits # cast the IMDB site, accessed 15/01/2011
  18. site boxofficestars
Sergio Leone Filmography
Director The Last Days of Pompeii (1959) (1960) (1961) (1964) (1965) (1966) (1968) (1971) (1973) (1984)
Producer My name is one of Sergio Leone and Tonino Valerii (1973) from Damiano Damiani , Sergio Leone (1975) of Luigi Comencini (1977) from Giuliano Montaldo (1979) of Carlo Verdone (1980)

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