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Christopher Frayling wrote a great hommage to the spagetti movies of Sergio Leone/Ennio Morricone (with an exhibit at the Autry National Center's Museum of the American West in LA).
"Once Upon a Time in Italy: The Westerns of Sergio Leone"
Book Description
In the mid-1960s an unknown Italian film director named Sergio Leone was given $200,000 and some leftover film stock, and he went to make a Western. With an American TV actor named Clint Eastwood and a script based on a samurai epic, Leone wound up creating A Fistful of Dollars, the first in a trilogy of films (with For a Few Dollars More and The Good, the Bad, and the Ugly) that was violent, cynical, and visually stunning. Along with his later masterpiece, Once Upon a Time in the West, these films came to define the "Spaghetti Western," a genre that has influenced such contemporary filmmakers as Martin Scorsese, John Woo, and Quentin Tarantino.
Written by the preeminent Leone scholar, this is the first illustrated book to focus on his Westerns, illuminating his visual style, offbeat sense of humor, and sophisticated, elliptical way of telling stories. Augmenting the text are a wealth of visual materials, as well as interviews with Leone, Eastwood, Eli Wallach, Lee Van Cleef, Bernardo Bertolucci, composer Ennio Morricone, designer Carlo Simi, and others. The book accompanies an exhibition with the same title opening in July 2005 at the Autry National Center's Museum of the American West in Los Angeles.
About the Author
Sir Christopher Frayling has been rector at London's Royal College of Art since 1996 and a professor of cultural history for more than 20 years. He is the author of more than a dozen books on arts and culture, including Spaghetti Westerns and Sergio Leone: Something to Do with Death. He is currently chairman of the Arts Council of England.
www.amazon.com/gp/product...167-3892132
Enjoy!
"Once Upon a Time in Italy: The Westerns of Sergio Leone"
Book Description
In the mid-1960s an unknown Italian film director named Sergio Leone was given $200,000 and some leftover film stock, and he went to make a Western. With an American TV actor named Clint Eastwood and a script based on a samurai epic, Leone wound up creating A Fistful of Dollars, the first in a trilogy of films (with For a Few Dollars More and The Good, the Bad, and the Ugly) that was violent, cynical, and visually stunning. Along with his later masterpiece, Once Upon a Time in the West, these films came to define the "Spaghetti Western," a genre that has influenced such contemporary filmmakers as Martin Scorsese, John Woo, and Quentin Tarantino.
Written by the preeminent Leone scholar, this is the first illustrated book to focus on his Westerns, illuminating his visual style, offbeat sense of humor, and sophisticated, elliptical way of telling stories. Augmenting the text are a wealth of visual materials, as well as interviews with Leone, Eastwood, Eli Wallach, Lee Van Cleef, Bernardo Bertolucci, composer Ennio Morricone, designer Carlo Simi, and others. The book accompanies an exhibition with the same title opening in July 2005 at the Autry National Center's Museum of the American West in Los Angeles.
About the Author
Sir Christopher Frayling has been rector at London's Royal College of Art since 1996 and a professor of cultural history for more than 20 years. He is the author of more than a dozen books on arts and culture, including Spaghetti Westerns and Sergio Leone: Something to Do with Death. He is currently chairman of the Arts Council of England.
www.amazon.com/gp/product...167-3892132
Enjoy!
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Re: Finally, Sergio Leone rightfully recognized
Sun, August 7, 2005 - 1:37 AMYes.. it's about time! It's interesting how he was able to capture both the "myth" and the hystorical reality of the west far better than American directors ... and with a sense of humor that people didn't seem to get at the time.
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Re: Finally, Sergio Leone rightfully recognized
Sun, August 7, 2005 - 1:27 PMHe has a great gift for creating thick atmosphere like the desert sun, the heat and tensions between characters with a few simple tricks: very close-up shot, slow tempo and his great music choice with Ennio Morricone.
The funny thing is that Leone could hardly speak English. He actually hardly spoke at all on the set, just like in his movies (from Eli Wallach recollection to us).
Leone was very modest and he could not believe that a British scholar could be interested in his work, and he was very grateful for it. -
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Re: Finally, Sergio Leone rightfully recognized
Sun, August 7, 2005 - 4:08 PM>heat and tensions between characters with a few simple tricks: very close-up >shot, slow tempo and his great music choice with Ennio Morricone.
and people were usually dirty, unshaven and with rotten teeth... as opposed to their typical hollywood counterparts... dah!
Have you always been a fan of Leone or did you just run across the book and the movies recently? I noticed that your are from Switzerland originally, so you probably already had a european outlook on hi art. -
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Re: Finally, Sergio Leone rightfully recognized
Sun, August 7, 2005 - 5:17 PMI saw many of his movies as a kid, with my dad (whose Italian and a huge fan). You are right about those teeth and rough details. It stuck to me when I was young and I used to be very scared by that.
More recently, I had the privilege to meet with Eli Wallach on several occasions, as my bf's father was his good friend and the official photographer on Leone's movies. I know some great inside stories and we are lucky to have a lot of pictures from that time.
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