Thirty years after
the death of the director of the dollar trilogy and 'Once Upon a Time in
America', his projects find new ways
By Arianna Finos
April 29, 2019
Sergio Leone passed away the 30th of April 30
years ago, but his cinema still lives and has plans for the future. Not only
‘Colt’, the anthology western that has a pistol at its center will be announced
in Cannes and the production will come next fall, but also a peplum, a colossal
left in the drawer, “The Eagles of Rome”. Behind the many moments of memory of
his extraordinary films - the beautiful Exhibition, curated by Gian Luca
Farinelli and the Cineteca di Bologna and organized by Equa, which will open in
Rome at the Ara Pacis on the 12th of December - there is a revival,
curated by his children Raffaella and Andrea Leone, leading international
producers and distributors.
Raffaella, your
father died at 60, still full of projects.
"Dad left two days before closing the complicated
coproduction agreement between the American production companies and the
Russian government. A demanding project he was certainly satisfied with: the
story of the days of the siege of Leningrad, a tragic moment of the Second
World War told through a love story: an ambitious project, at a time when, even
though we were no longer in the Cold War, Russia was not that of today, and had
managed to set up the vehicle on the basis of the story, with nothing written,
of the beginning of the film he had in mind. Certainly a demonstration of
appreciation, trust, esteem on the part of those who engaged in a very
expensive film, challenging at the budget level ".
After the economic
and rights problems he had with the first film, he decided to produce himself.
And he was very good at this job too.
"Yes. I always say that he was a dreamer on one
side, a businessman on the other. Things that generally don't fit together, but
he did them both well. A pragmatic business sense and a creative soul. From the
second film he started to be a co-producer He had opened a production company
for his films, which came in handy when he stopped for ten years before “Once
Upon a Time in America”, at which point he was more active as a producer. He
produced for Verdone and Montaldo, a series of beautiful films that served to
deceive the wait ".
At that time he
said no to 'The Godfather'.
"Yes, because he wanted to make “Once Upon a Time in
America”, he had this book Armed Man,
which was not fantastic but which inspired him. The godfather would have been
an overlap between two gangster films, even if different, one on the Italian
mafia, the other on the Jewish underworld. He said "I already have a
project that deals with topics from that historical period. I want to tell my
story ". “Once Upon a Time in America” it is one of those that every time
you catch it on television you stop to watch, thinking about how much it tells
about us.
In an interview
your father said: 'My cinema is linked to myth, to ghosts that belong to us'.
"That film, which is my favorite, so hard, was
written in a long moment of life, with all the time to see it and see it again,
it is a painful project that represents it so much. It tells of itself, of its
way of looking at life with a certain cynicism, the disenchantment that comes
at a certain age and the need that instead remains intact of certain desires
and hopes that instead do not die. Many have called it his search for lost
time. In “Once Upon a Time in America”, so many recognize each other ".
What were your
father's small daily ghosts?
"He was an only child, his father died young, his
mother was ill for many years. He had a strong relationship with the loneliness
that comes out of his films, the characters that are islands. This was one of
the ghosts that exorcised with a great "A sense of family, of total
sharing. He had the pleasure of the family clan, of the people he loved to
share life with. He was a great entertainer, he loved to tell, to read, he was
very cultured. Friendship is a theme that often returns myth. Even though in
reality he knew that friendship is very difficult, and you are lucky even if
you have a number of friends that you can count on the fingers of one hand.
Yes, one of the little ghosts was this. "
Who was your
father's great friend?
"My mother. Basically I would say her. In the sense
that she shared a lot with her, even though like all the couples there was
discussion, frictions, quarrels. But basically they were a united couple who
shared the same passions. My mother was an artistic point of reference, she
read everything that passed through the house. She acted as a filter,
participated actively, albeit behind the scenes and in a discreet way, almost
like a whisper, but she was a person whom Dad highly esteemed, the most
important link. The other friends? I think of Ennio Morricone, Carlo Simi
".
Was he betrayed by
a friend?
"Yes. In fact, this always comes back. I know for
sure and for that reason it was disenchanted. But it happens to all: who has
not been betrayed?"
Did he forgive or
remember?
"I would say he remembered, but he was not a man who
bore resentment. He went on."
He called himself
the son of Neorealism, he loved to quote Vittorio De Sica among the directors
he had joined, who had him act as a priest in a scene of 'Bicycle Thieves'.
"It is true. He had been a young assistant director
and spoke of De Sica who, beyond his talents and ability as a director, was an
extraordinary man. He was fascinated by it. He had a tender memory of that
period, he was proud in a funny way of this participation as an actor. He made
us see himself often, for him it meant so much, for us it was fun, because we
saw him differently from how we knew him. It was a small thing, but for him it
represented something strong, in his relationship with De Sica. On the set, on
a rainy day, there was the invention of this picture, an intelligent and
functional idea that had struck him ".
To an interviewer
who calls him a father of the western, he replies 'I don't like being
considered a father even by my children, who call me Sergio'.
"This thing is not so true. I used to call him dad.
But it is true in a metaphorical sense. He was not a classic father, he treated
us like we were adults forever, I felt like a child and happy, but I was
treated as a person, with an identity, respected and considered. Our opinions,
the way of feeling were received by the adults of the house. We shared
everything, there were no lunches or dinners to which we could not participate.
Ours was also a friendship. "
Girlhood memories?
Which actor affected you?
"Many flashes, we dressed up on the set of “Once
Upon a Time in the West”. I remember the troupes more than the actors. Surely I
was hit by De Niro in “Once Upon a Time in America”, also because I was older,
the first film in which I worked with my father. I was twenty and I was aware.
Robert was a complex man, but very fascinating.
Your father took
the work ethic and intuition for stories. Any other little things you inherited
from him?
"I don't know. My brother Andrea comes to mind, the
one who grows up and the more he resembles father. In times of reaction to
things, movements, gestures. After all, he looks a lot like him, he has a lot
of daddy both in his approach to work than in reports ".
The saddest memory
and the happiest one with your father?
"The saddest is the day of death. To call it sad is
a euphemism. After thirty years there is still anger, disbelief. I still can't
think about it serenely. It was a black hole. The happiest thing? I have many.
The first I remember is the struggles on Sunday morning on the bed, I was 5, 6
years old and there was a habit on the weekend, with my sister we woke up and
went to the bedroom with him and we began to struggle on the bed, moments of
absolute lightness ".
Of the great
international success too - from Tarantino to Green book - that today you have
as a producer your father would tell you: "I'm proud", "I
expected it" or "I didn't expect it" ...
"A success that I share in everything with my
brother Andrea. Dad would be proud of it and I like to think that he expected
it in some way. Part of people's success, if they have this luck, comes from
the family and cultural baggage they carry with them. Surely I have always felt
sure of what I was doing that came from their approval. From the fact that my
mother and my father respected me and considered me in what I did and said. The
road opens up, you buy a little courage which is what it sometimes takes to
take some roads more than others ".
Does it strike you
that Sergio Leone's cinema is still so well known and loved in the world?
"It makes me happy. Any child hopes that what their
father and mother have done remains, is a way of not letting them go away at
all. This continuous recognition of what they have done together, this presence
of his work and what it was is a wonderful feeling, the perception that so much
of him is still here ".
Who is his heir to
the world?
"Every director has personal characteristics; it is
difficult to find an heir. But for his diversity, for what he has done, I would
say Quentin Tarantino. Even if he is not an heir, but he has taken an
inheritance and transformed it, as they do I would say that if I think about
what he did, about filmography, he belongs to a later generation than my
father, I think his films, his talent, his genius have the same strings as my
father's ".
Will you make more
films together after 'The Hateful Eight'?
"I hope so, it was an important collaboration. Now
this new movie “Once Upon a Time in Hollywood” was challenging, a major film,
and there was no possibility of access. But yes, I would love to work
again."
Finally the set of
'Colt' will start, the project of your father will be directed by Stefano
Sollima.
"Yes, Dad's idea was to tell the west through a gun,
the story of this gun that passed from hand to hand and doing so told stories
of so many lives, so many characters, so many realities. He told America, which
was his favorite subject. Years ago we tried to make a series but it was too
early to do it. This thing remained in the drawer like other things, which we
would like to gradually realize. Until we met Sollima and the work he had done.
He is the right person to tell this
thing, take this legacy and transform it. From there this collaboration was
born. We started working on a television series, a story that my father would
love very much, with ups and downs, because Stefano was engaged, he made “Soldato
in America” went more slowly than we had set for ourselves at the beginning,
and today he is taking a new path: we will make a film that will go into production
in the fall, because the original project was that of a long film, that was his
natural destiny ".
Is there another
project in your father's drawer that you would like to make come true?
"Yes, there is one of the first things he wrote, a
peplum, a film about ancient Rome. Made with his spirit, his way of seeing
things that is certainly also ironic, particular, with a different edge. It is
called “The Eagles of Rome”, one of the first scripts he wrote, a first draft,
there is work to be done, but it is a very intriguing story, another thing that
we will slowly develop: we need to identify the right director for a project of
that type, to understand then whether to make a series or a film of it. Now we
are devoting ourselves to ‘Colt’".
It's also the way
to do another piece of the road with his father ...
"Yes, the thing we set for ourselves with Andrea,
since we bought back all the rights to his films, to be able to reassemble “Once
Upon a Time in America” and present it again in its original version. These are
things that are good for you and that go beyond the "Commercial aspect of
our work, these are things you do because you think they are important and right.
And it's a way to thank him."
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