Once upon a time in the west and Chimes

[MartynH]

I am a massive fan of Leone's film and there's an interesting bit of Wellesiana that is featured in the doc that comes with the film. Sir Christopher Frayling, who wrote a book on Leonne, claims that the ranch house (the station) used in Once Upon was made from the wood from the Boars Head in Chimes.

Also, at the very start of the film when the three 'dusters' are waiting for Charles Bronson to kill him, the wood that's makes up the platform and where they have their gun fight is also the same wood.

And you know what? The ranch house is still standing. Amazing!!!!!!!!!!

[Skylark]

That's a cool anecdote - Reading about the american backers re-cutting of 'Once upon a time in America' reminds of what happened to Arkadin - I think they Welles and Leone had certain things in common - Leone was very present in the editing - four months shooting meant six months of editing - use of post-synch sound dubbing (which give more freedom in shooting), importance of music, even thematically, the following gives some indications-

http://archive.sensesofcinema.com/conte ... leone.html

[Skylark]

Some more similarities -

Most directors leave everything to someone else, someone else, like costumes etc. Leone did everything. He got involved so much in all aspects of film making.

He was going to make it in the 1960s, and he talked a lot about it, also in the 70s. He came back to talking about it towards the end of his life. It's a great idea, wonderful idea. You can imagine Eli Wallach as Sancho Panza, Clint Eastwood as Don Quixote. That contrast. Loud, noisy, fat, eating, belching, swearing sort of man and the silent, tall knight.

Leone had an incredible eye. He (Leone) loved paintings. He was a collector of paintings. 'The Good, The Bad and The Ugly' is full of references to Italian paintings, just like in 'A Fistful of Dynamite' he made reference to Goya's 'Masssacre of December 3rd'. Leone showed Tonino Delli Colli the paintings and engravings of Rembrandt before shooting 'Once Upon A Time in The West'. The monocohrome darkness and portraits of faces. Not portraits of aristocrats but ordinary people like his (Rembrandt's) mother, his friends, someone he met in the street. Rembrandt invented the physiological portrait. In that film you can read the person's history on his face.

from
http://www.fistful-of-leone.com/classic ... /prof.html

[K Dobry]

And don't forget that Welles and Leone did in fact work together: Leone was an assitant director for the dock scene in Mr. Arkadin. I'm not sure if it's mentioned elsewhere, but according to the account in Orson Welles in Italia, Welles was able to shoot this part of the film while there was a short interruption on an Italian film he was acting in. In lieu of his salary for the handful of days missed, he made a deal with the producers to have the use of the crew to shoot material for his own film.

[The Night Man]

It's a great idea, wonderful idea. You can imagine Eli Wallach as Sancho Panza, Clint Eastwood as Don Quixote. That contrast. Loud, noisy, fat, eating, belching, swearing sort of man and the silent, tall knight.

Frankly, Clint Eastwood as Don Quixote sounds like a perfectly awful idea.

[Skylark]

KDobry wrote:

Leone was an assitant director for the dock scene in Mr. Arkadin.

Cool - that's interesting - I was wondering about that, considering that Welles was mainly in Italy at the same time that Leone came up - the dock scene is a nice scene...

[Skylark]

Nice article on Leone -

http://findarticles.com/p/articles/mi_h ... _n29395781