FILM SCREENINGS

Once Upon a Time in America

1984. USA/Italy. Directed by Sergio Leone. With Robert De Niro, James Woods, Jennifer Connelly, Elizabeth McGovern, William Forsythe. Inspired by Harry Grey’s autobiographical novel The Hoods—written pseudonymously while he was serving time in Sing-Sing—Leone and an army of writers (which at various points included such luminaries as Norman Mailer, Kim Arcalli, Enrico Medioli, Franco Ferrini, and Stuart Kaminsky) fashioned an epic story centering on a Jewish clan of childhood friends, led by “Noodles” (De Niro) and “Max” (Woods), who over the span of four decades become notorious New York City criminals. “Leone is the singer of this anthem to the cinema. However, if he hadn’t had some of the greatest artists from the golden age of Italian cinema by his side, he would never have been able to create a gem so richly faceted, so luminous….Thriller, melodrama, citations from gangster cinema classics, as well as the cinema of Chaplin, Welles and Neo-realism all come together in a voyage towards oblivion and death, in which we slowly discover, within this unreal cinematographic grandeur, Noodles’ desperation and anguish” (Gian Luca Farinelli, Il Cinema Ritrovato festival catalogue, 2012). Restored through funding by Gucci and The Film Foundation, and in partnership with Cineteca di Bologna at L’Immagine Ritrovata Laboratory, Andrea Leone Films, The Film Foundation, and Regency Enterprises. 229 min.