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.
