Sergio Leone: biography, personal life, films, photos

2024 Author: Leah Sherlock | [email protected]. Last modified: 2023-12-17 05:25

Sergio Leone is an Italian director, producer, screenwriter and actor. One of the most influential filmmakers of the 20th century, he is considered the creator of the Spaghetti Western genre. During his career as a director, he created only eight films. He is best known for the Dollar Trilogy films and the crime drama Once Upon a Time in America.

Childhood and youth

Sergio Leone was born on January 3, 1929 in the capital of Italy, Rome. Father - Vincenzo Leone, director who worked under the pseudonym Roberto Roberti, one of the founders of Italian cinema. Mother is the famous silent film actress Bice Valerian.

While studying at school, he met the famous future composer Ennio Morricone, who was Leone's classmate. From childhood, the future director was on the set of his father's films, and then his interest in cinematography was born. At the age of eighteen, Sergio Leone left his studies at the university, where he was supposed to receive a law degree, and decided to start a career as a director.

Beginning of professional activity

One ofSergio's first work was the classic Italian film "Bicycle Thieves", where the young cinematographer acted as a second director. It was also around this time that Leone began writing scripts.

In the 1950s, Leone began working as an assistant director on Italian films and American films filmed in Italy. In those days, historical epics about Ancient Rome were extremely popular.

In 1954, Sergio Leone worked as the second director on the comedy film "They Stole a Tram". When the director of the film fell ill and then quarreled with the main star of the film, Leone, together with another director, completed the comedy.

Historical paintings

The second film directed by Sergio Leone was the 1959 historical epic The Last Days of Pompeii. The director of the film, Mario Bonnard, became seriously ill during the first days of filming, and the project was completed by Leone along with the film's screenwriters.

However, in the credits of these two films, Sergio was not listed as a director. His official directorial debut was The Colossus of Rhodes. The film was made by an Italian film crew, but the investors insisted that the actors in the film speak French. Leona had to communicate with them through an interpreter. Later, the director mentioned in an interview that he made the film solely for the fee that he spent on his honeymoon.

Cowboy period

Sergio Leone was a big fan of westerns, but he thought that inAt the end of the fifties, the genre was completely outdated and ceased to amaze the viewer. That's why he decided to shoot his next project in this genre to try and revive it.

A Fistful of Dollars was released in 1964. The main role was played by a relatively unknown American actor Clint Eastwood. The film crew was Italian and filming took place in Spain. The low-budget picture did well in the Italian box office, but was able to find a distributor in the United States only three years later. Critics initially received the film coolly, but later the western gained cult status.

Famous Japanese director Akira Kurosawa filed a lawsuit against the filmmakers, because, in his opinion, the picture not only repeats the plot of his film "The Bodyguard", but was shot frame by frame at times. The producers paid Kurosawa several tens of thousands of dollars and gave him fifteen percent of the profits from the box office.

The second film of the so-called "dollar trilogy" was released in 1965 and was called "A Few Dollars More". Clint Eastwood again played the main role in the film, the second central role was given to another American, Lee Van Cleef. The Western performed even better than the first part of the trilogy at the European box office.

The next year saw the release of the most famous film of the trilogy, The Good, the Bad and the Ugly. The main characters in the western were again played by Eastwood and Van Cleef, the third central role went to Eli Wallach. All three films in the trilogy were released in the United States within one year and received negative reviews.reviews from critics. Within a few years, however, a new generation of viewers were able to fully appreciate Leone's work, and today The Good, the Bad and the Ugly is featured on many lists of the best films of all time.

In 1968 Sergio Leone's new western "Once Upon a Time in the Wild West" was released. The role of the main villain was played by Sergio's favorite actor - Henry Fonda. The famous American actor Charles Bronson also appeared in the film. Like the director's previous projects, this film gained cult status a few years after its release.

The last western in the director's career was A Fistful of Dynamite. He was forced to direct the film after Peter Bogdanovich and Sam Peckinpah left the director's post. This picture performed worse at the box office than Leone's previous works and is considered the most underrated western in his career.

Once Upon a Time in America

For many years, Once Upon a Time in America was the director's dream project. Sergio Leone was inspired by the idea of creating a picture back in the sixties, he was looking for funding for a long time, changed the cast of the film several times and even refused to stage the Godfather project for the sake of Once Upon a Time in America.

The film starring Robert De Niro and James Woods was released in 1984. Leone several times had to cut the timing of the picture. As a result, a three-hour and forty-minute version was released in Europe, while in the USA the studio released a tape, not edited by Leone, which was a littleover two hours. Initially, the film was a box office and creative failure. However, over the years, it was the longer, director's cut that became widespread, and the picture entered the list of the best in history.

In 1989, Sergio Leone died of a heart attack at the age of sixty. His main unfinished project was the film "900 days", which tells about the siege of Leningrad. The director was able to get a budget of one hundred million from the studio even without a finished script.

Also in development were the western The Place Only Mary Knows, the mini-series The Colt and an adaptation of the classic novel Don Quixote.

Directorial style and film influence

Sergio Leone's westerns marked the beginning of a new direction in European cinema called "spaghetti western". Leone's distinctive visual style - with close-ups, quirky cuts, and intense violence - has influenced directors such as Quentin Tarantino, Martin Scorsese and John Woo.

Ordinary viewers also began to discover the work of the Italian over the years. Today, one can find Sergio Leone's films in the lists not only of the best westerns, but also of the best films in the history of cinema. His paintings have become real classics not only for hardened cinephiles, but also for the average viewer. Almost anyone, even if they're not a fan of westerns, knows the name of Sergio Leone's movie - at least one.

Private life

The director has been married to a choreographer named Carla since 1960years before his death. The couple have three children.

Before the filming of Once Upon a Time in America, Sergio did not speak English, communicating with the actors through an interpreter. Many of them later noted the unusual character and numerous antics of Leone.