La saga

Il était une fois en Amérique (envisagé au départ sous le titre d'Il était une fois l'Amérique) n'est autre que le troisième volet de la grande saga portant sur plusieurs périodes clés de l'histoire américaine.Le premier opus, Il était une fois dans l'Ouest, se situant à l'époque de la conquête de l'Ouest. Le second, Il était une fois la Révolution, se déroulait en pleine révolution mexicaine, et enfin Il était une fois en Amérique, revenant sur la période de la Prohibition et l'avènement du gangstérisme.Il s'agit de l'« œuvre testamentaire » du grand Sergio Leone qui mourut 5 ans après la sortie douloureuse de ce film. L'année de sa mort, il s'était consacré à un projet portant sur le siège de Leningrad.

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Roger Ebert (2)

No, in the sense that the movie is compulsively and continuously watchable and that the audience did not stir or grow restless as the epic unfolded."The movie tells the story of five decades in the lives of four gangsters from New York City -- childhood friends who are merciless criminals almost from the first, but who have a special bond of loyalty to each other. When one of them breaks that bond, or thinks he does, he is haunted by guilt until late in his life, when he discovers that he was not the betrayer but the betrayed. Leone's original version tells this story in a complex series of flashbacks, memories, and dreams.

The film opens with two scenes of terrifying violence, moves to an opium den where the Robert De Niro character is seeking to escape the consequences of his action, and then establishes its tone with a scene of great power: A ceaselessly ringing telephone, ringing forever in the conscience of a man who called the cops and betrayed his friends.

La genèse

Avant de s'attaquer définitivement à Il était une fois en Amérique, il lui fut proposé de porter à l'écran la non moins célèbre saga Le Parrain, dont Mario Puzo était l'auteur, mais il refusa pour se consacrer entièrement à son propre projet, lui-même tiré d'un roman intitulé À main armée, de Harry Grey, basé sur une histoire vraie.La rédaction du scénario de Il était une fois en Amérique allait lui demander près de douze ans de sa vie, aidé par de nombreux scénaristes.Le scénario achevé, c'est un producteur qu'il lui fallait trouver, et ce ne fut pas une tâche des plus aisées à nouveau pour Leone. Mais heureusement, Arnon Milchan, un tout jeune producteur, se présenta à lui pour concrétiser son œuvre sur la pellicule.
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Roger Ebert (3)

The film moves back and forth in a tapestry of episodes, which all fit together into an emotional whole. There are times when we don't understand exactly what is happening, but never a time when we don't feel confidence in the film's narrative.That version was not seen in American theaters, although it is now available on cassette [and DVD]. Instead, the whole structure of flashbacks was junked. The telephone rings once.

The poetic transitions are gone. The movie has been wrenched into apparent chronological order, scenes have been thrown out by the handful, relationships are now inexplicable, and the audience is likely to spend much of its time in complete bewilderment. It is a great irony that this botched editing job was intended to "clarify" the film.Here are some of the specific problems with the shortened version.

La musique

Ennio Morricone, compositeur attitré de Sergio Leone, composa même la partition du film plus de dix ans avant le tournage. Mais ceci était une habitude des deux compagnons.Sergio Leone pouvait alors diffuser la musique sur haut parleur durant le tournage pour que l'équipe du film et les comédiens s'emparent de l'ambiance particulière de ses productions.Cela l'aidait aussi personnellement dans son propre travail, afin d'adapter le rythme de mise en scène, le découpage déjà présent dans sa tête, etc.

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Roger Ebert (fin)

A speakeasy scene comes before a newspaper headline announces that Prohibition has been ratified. Prohibition is then repealed, on what feels like the next day but must be six years later. Two gangsters talk about robbing a bank in front of a woman who has never been seen before in the film; they've removed the scene explaining who she is. A labor leader turns up, unexplained, and involves the gangsters in an inexplicable situation. He later sells out, but to whom? Men come to kill De Niro's girlfriend, a character we've hardly met, and we don't know if they come from the mob or the police. And here's a real howler: At the end of the shortened version, De Niro leaves a room he has never seen before by walking through a secret panel in the wall.

How did he know it was there? In the long version, he was told it was there. In the short version, his startling exit shows simple contempt for the audience.Many of the film's most beautiful shots are missing from the short version, among them a bravura moment when a flash-forward is signaled by the unexpected appearance of a Frisbee, and another where the past becomes the present as The Beatles' "Yesterday" sneaks into the sound track. Relationships are truncated, scenes are squeezed of life, and I defy anyone to understand the plot of the short version. The original "Once Upon a Time in America" gets a four-star rating. The shorter version is a travesty.

 Réalisation du film/ Tournage
 

Pour se préparer au rôle de Noodles, Robert De Niro demanda à s'entretenir avec Meyer Lansky, un gangster dont s'inspire très fortement son personnage. Mais sa requête ne put aboutir.Cette démarche est très représentative du comédien issu de l'Actor's Studio,une école où on ne vous apprend pas à jouer la comédie mais à incarner des personnages.Ainsi, De Niro est entre autres connu pour avoir pris près de trente kilos pour jouer le célèbre boxeur Jake LaMotta dans Raging Bull.Le film demanda au final un investissement de plus de 30 millions de dollars (budget dépassé par le réalisateur).

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A masterpiece and an atrocity!

Author: oldguybc from somewhere in CA
11 January 2005

This movie was a masterpiece. It ranks as one of the very best in film history, if not the best. At Cannes people yelled and screamed, couldn't believe just how good it was. The profound atrocity was a combination of two completely brainless acts, the first being Zack Stienberg's hatchet job for US release,supposedly requested by either Warner Bros or The Ladd Company (one blames the other now) and the second was the lack of anyone (and everyone) to post anything in this great film for Academy Award consideration, of which probably as many as 14 nominations and 4 sure- fire Oscars went down the toilet.

These atrocities were perpretrated, I believe, with two reasons in mind, the first to preserve the dim hope of "The Killing Fields" (Daly & Semel's baby) of garnering any awards... and second, to try to boost up the non- foreign chances. Warner Bros knew just how good it was, that goes without saying. The problem was... they already had their share of cash cows and they wanted a real star- studded showpiece to point at. The small minds already had their showpiece but, alas, it was an "eye- tallyan" flick with a producer/director who didn't communicate well. The hatchet job was carefully planned, I believe... the so- called "sneak preview" was done in Canada and not well received, probably due to the fact that the sound system was over- amped and the film 'broke' 3 or 4 times during the showing, what a farce!

The awards snub started with the GGs and carried right thru. What a myriad of stupid and utterly pointless decisions! Must have literally tore Leone's heart out when he learned what they had done. Morricone's score was a sure- thing Oscar, no question about it. DeNiro and maybe even Woods would have fought it out for best actor, Tuesday Weld as supporting actress, any one of 4 or 5 other supporting actors & actresses, most notably William Forsythe, cinematography, film editing, the list goes on & on... (best picture...Amadeus???? give me a break!!) Just what in the hell were they thinking? Saw it in a theater 20 years ago and then again on TV about 1998 and finally in its correct format(on DVD) about two years ago and again last week at a friend's house. Stirred up all those angry thoughts all over again... sorry about that, getting' old & crotchety.