cinephilearchive: “ Here’s a great press book from the 1984 Sergio Leone epic crime drama film [pdf]. “Sergio Leone died far too early, in 1989 at the age of 60. However, the seven pictures he left behind have the breadth and scope of a vast body of...

cinephilearchive:

Here’s a great press book from the 1984 Sergio Leone epic crime drama film [pdf].

“Sergio Leone died far too early, in 1989 at the age of 60. However, the seven pictures he left behind have the breadth and scope of a vast body of work. Each one of his pictures contains multitudes. Leone was, of course, the man who reinvented the western, with the ‘Man with No Name’ trilogy, with ‘Once Upon a Time in the West,’ and with the still underrated ‘Duck, You Sucker.’ But then, in the 80s, he decided to go in another direction with an adaptation of Harry Grey’s 1952 book The Hoods, about Jewish gangsters during prohibition. It was a great event when Leone shot in New York (he also shot in Montreal and Venice), and he was making a genuine epic, an attempt to tell the story of 20th century America and the intertwined interests and development of organized crime, business and politics.”

“We all eagerly awaited this all-star picture, which we knew would be beautifully crafted and would look and feel like no other gangster picture before or since. Leone’s preferred cut was long, over four hours, and he made several painful cuts himself, bringing the picture down to three hours and forty-nine minutes. When ‘Once Upon a Time in America’ opened in the United States in the summer of 1984, it was in a version that Leone disowned — the film’s intricate structure, which shifted back and forth in time, was thrown out and a lot of the film’s poetic force was lost. Later that year, we were able to see the longer cut, but there were persistent rumors of missing scenes that, we all hoped, would one day be found and re-incorporated into the movie.”

“At long last, materials for some of these missing sections have been found and re-inserted into the picture under the supervision of Leone’s family and surviving collaborators. The work has been completed by the magnificent team at Cineteca di Bologna and L’Immagine Ritrovata, and it has been wonderful to witness this  enlargement of Leone’s vision, step by precious step.” —Martin Scorsese, Founder and Chair, The Film Foundation

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(Source: cinephiliabeyond)