SERGIO LEONE: L’ITALIANO CHE INVENTO L’AMERICA/ THE MAN WHO INVENTED AMERICA
Italy, 2022, 107 minutes, Colour.
Interviews: Dario Argento, Darren Aronofvsky, Jacques Audiard, Damien Chazelle, Jennifer Connolly, Robert De Niro, Clint Eastwood, Christopher Frayling, Arnon Milchan, Frank Miller, Giuliano Montldo, Ennio Morricone, Martin Scorsese, Steven Spielberg, Quentin Tarantino, Giuseppe Tornatore, Carlo Verdone, Tsui Hark, Eli Wallach.
Directed by Francesco Zippel.
This is a cinema portrait of celebrated Italian director, Sergio Leone. It was produced by his children who appear in interviews, their reminiscences about their father, their presence on film sets and their experiences. Included in the interviewees is Sir Christopher Frayling, Leone’s biographer.
A sufficient review would simply be to point out the interviewees and their reputations and state that expectations are fulfilled, from interesting and entertaining anecdotes to professional comments on filmmaking and performance and directing.
Leone’s father was a film director and actor, out-of-favour in the Fascist era, but imbuing his son with a love of cinema, growing up with cinema, feeling that he should continue his father’s legacy. There is a lot of footage of Italy during that period and some home films of the family and excerpts from the older Leone’s films..
Leone worked as an assistant director during the 1950s, a great deal of practical experience, making his first feature film, The Colossus of Rhodes in 1960 (Leone explaining the ironies in the storytelling rather than straightforward mythmaking).
There are a great number of clips from each of Leone’s films, giving the audience the opportunity to remember, to appreciate his directing style, the photography, the landscapes, and insights given from the range of those commenting. There are many directors, some actors, but also extensive interviews with his work with composer, Ennio Morricone (and one can recommend the feature documentary made about him, Ennio).. There is also extensive interview material with his producer, Arnon Milchan, who brought Once Upon a Time in America to the screen.
Quentin Tarantino is his ebullient self, insightful comments from Scorsese and Spielberg, from a number of Italian directors, from Sin City cartoonist, Frank Miller, and, of course, from Clint Eastwood.
With the running time, the audience has a substantial amount of opportunity to spend with Leone himself, quite a number of interviews inserted throughout the film, appreciating his re-creating the myths of the American West, moving on from Ford and Hawks, but also his long quest to make his American saga.
By the end of the film admiration for Leone is renewed – or discovered and appreciated for the first time.
