‘C’era una volta Sergio Leone’ and its stunning poster!

Rome recently paid tribute to the celebrated Italian film director, producer and screenwriter Sergio Leone (1929-1989) with an exhibition at the Ara Pacis museum. ‘C’era una volta Sergio Leone‘ (Once upon a time Sergio Leone) was organised by Cineteca di Bologna and curated by its director, Gianluca Farinelli.

What made his features so remarkable was his ability to combine art, cinema, and culture reinventing a popular genre like the western. “Today’s cinema owes him”, says Farinelli. According to him, most contemporary filmmakers cross their path with Leone’s genius to learn from it – Coppola, Scorsese, Ang Lee, John Woo, Eastwood, and Audiard. Even Tarantino, who, when he wants that specific close-up, tells his cameraman: “Give me a Sergio Leone.” The Italian director was a filmmaker of enormous complexity. His cinema allows many different aspects to coexist on the screen. An example of this is the oxymoronic suspension of time, in which music is the only one to speak. In the Ara Pacis exhibition, open until May 3rd, there is the music of Ennio Morricone. But there is also the silent cinema. The one of Charlie Chaplin, as well as the one of Roberto Roberti, Leone’s father, and his mother, actress Bice Waleran. In ‘Ladri di Biciclette’ he plays a small part, a seminarian with glasses, in the rain. The sequence runs on a screen in the first of the five sections of the exhibition: ‘Citizen of the cinema‘.

A beautiful poster was created for the exhibition, using the original Italian artwork for A Fistful of Dollars. Which reminds me - I must congratulate our admin member Davy Triumph who this week won this rare 60” x 40” version. It’s a real beauty.