95th anniversary of the founder of the "spaghetti western" genre

On January 3, 1929, in Rome, son Sergio was born to the family of filmmaker Roberto Roberti (real name Vincenzo Leone) and his wife Bice Valerian (real name Edwige Valcarenghi), a silent film actress.

After graduating from school at the age of 18, Sergio entered the law faculty of the university, but, without studying for even a year, he dropped out and went to work at a Cinecittà Studios, since film production was familiar to him literally from the cradle thanks to the profession of his parents. Sergio Leone's first professional experience was working as an assistant director for Vittorio De Sica on the set of the film "Bicycle Thieves". But Italian neorealism did not captivate Sergio. He preferred to participate in the creation of films of the "peplum" genre, which was sometimes called the "swords and sandals" genre. Sergio Leone himself subsequently explained his commitment to this genre: “Cinema must be spectacle, that's what the public wants. And for me the most beautiful spectacle is that of the myth.”

During the period from 1949 to 1959, Sergio Leone took part as an assistant director in the creation of 27 films, the most famous of which were Fred Zinnemann's "A Nun's Story" and William Wyler's "Ben-Hur". In 1959, during the filming of the film "The Last Days of Pompeii", the director, Mario Bonnar, fell ill and the film studio commissioned Sergio Leone to complete work on the film. The order was successfully completed, thanks to which Leone got the opportunity to independently film his first full-length feature picture, “The Colossus of Rhodes,” which was released in 1961. However, films of the "peplum" genre began to gradually lose their popularity by the mid-60s. But Japanese films about samurai began to gain popularity. Leone sensed this trend and decided to make a remake of one of the most famous “samurai” films of that time - Akira Kurosawa’s “Yojimbo (The Bodyguard)”. As a result, the film "Per un pugno di dollari (A Fistful of Dollars)" was made in 1964. For this picture, the “three sources” of which were the script of a “samurai” film, the western genre and the Italian director’s experience in creating “peplums”, film critics subsequently came up with a new genre - the “spaghetti western”. In addition to the fact that a new genre was born with the creation of this film, another future great director, Clint Eastwood, also gained world fame as an actor.

Over the years of his career as a film director, and he died of a sudden heart attack in 1989 at the age of 60, Sergio Leone directed only 7 films on his own. Five of them entered in the Golden Thousand, including "Once Upon a Time in America" (1983), "Il Buono, il brutto, il cattivo (The Good, the Bad and the Ugly)" (1966), "C'era una volta il West (Once Upon a Time in the West)" (1968), and "Per qualche dollaro in più (For a Few Dollars More)" ( 1965) and the already mentioned “A Fistful of Dollars.” Thanks to this indicator, Sergio Leone is included in the list of the 100 greatest directors of world cinema, compiled by FilmGourmand. Sergio Leone's work as a film director has been awarded 8 film awards, the most prestigious of which is the David di Donatello Award from the Italian Film Academy for the film "Giù la testa (Duck, You Sucker!)" (1971).

Leone's sudden death prevented the implementation of a number of projects conceived by the director. Among others, there was a film project, the script of which was inspired by the popular science book “900 Days: The Siege of Leningrad” by Harrison Salisbury. In the story, an American photographer, to be played by Robert De Niro, finds himself trapped in Leningrad when the German Luftwaffe begins bombing the city. The main character begins an affair with a Soviet woman, with whom they are trying to survive the long blockade and persecution by the NKVD, since relations with foreigners are prohibited. The music for the film was supposed to be written by Ennio Morricone (with whom, by the way, Sergio Leone studied in the same class). The film's budget was set at $100 million (equivalent to today's $255 million), of which, by agreement, the Soviet government was going to allocate $50 million. Filming was supposed to begin in 1990...

On the day that marks the 95th anniversary of the birth of the great director, I would like to remind fans of his work of footage from his best films included in the Golden Thousand.