Casting

Au départ, Leone pensait confier le rôle de Noodles à Steve McQueen, mais l'écriture du scénario prit beaucoup plus de temps que prévu et Steve McQueen décéda en 1980. C'est alors qu'il pensa à une autre star montante du cinéma en la personne de Robert De Niro.Le rôle de Max fut un temps envisagé par plusieurs comédiens dont Gérard Depardieu (Aaaarrrgh!!!!)et Klaus Kinski qui avait déjà joué sous la direction de Sergio Leone dans Et pour quelques dollars de plus.

C'est finalement James Woods qui hérita du rôle. Joe Pesci, partenaire de Robert De Niro dans nombre de leurs films réalise sa deuxième collaboration avec celui-ci, leur première rencontre ayant opéré dans Raging Bull.Claudia Cardinale, déjà présente au générique d'Il était une fois dans l'Ouest, se présenta à nouveau à Sergio Leone pour interpréter le rôle de Carol, mais le réalisateur préféra l'attribuer à Tuesday Weld. Jennifer Connelly fait ici ses débuts à l'écran dans le rôle de Deborah (jeune).

A sprawling, deliberately paced, and generally a superbly crafted piece of work

Author: MisterWhiplash from United States
19 October 2003

It's a story of life-long friends, in the tradition of the Godfather movies with obvious differences, and the story cuts back and forth to Noodles (De Niro) in his old age returning from exile, looking back on his childhood in Brooklyn, his rise to power with his partners, and the twists come quite unexpectedly. The pace is slow, but not detrimental, and it gives the viewer time to let the emotions sink in. The story is also non-linear, and yet doesn't give away facts to the viewer- this is something that more than likely influenced Tarantino (and many others) in style.

By the end, every detail that has mounted up makes the whole experience rather fulfilling, if not perfect. Finally, I'd like to point out the exceptional musical score. Ennio Morricone, as it says on this site, has scored over four hundred films in forty years, including Leone's movies. This would have to be, arguably, one of his ten best works- his score is equally lively, saddened, intense, and perhaps majestic for a gangster epic. Overall, it's filled with the same spirit Leone had in directing the picture, and it corresponds beautifully- there are some scenes in this film that would simply not work without the strings. Grade: A

Le réalisateur Sergio Léone

*

*

Leone's ultimate film

Author: James Cheney from United States
16 May 1999

Sergio Leone's films are all love letters to America, the American dreams of an Italian who grew up at the movies, who apprenticed with Wyler, and Aldrich, signed himself Bob Robertson, and gave us Clint Eastwood, Lee Van Cleef, Charles Bronson as we know them. Sadly, America didn't always repay the compliment. Leone's were "spaghetti westerns", money makers to be sure, but deemed disrespectful of the great tradition of Ford, Walsh and Hathaway. Many critics and Holllywood insiders called his earlier Eastwood films cynical and violent bottom-line commercial exploitation.

By the time that they caught on to Leone's genuine popular appeal, the director had already moved on. And, his Once Upon a Time in the West was damned as pretentious, bloated, self-indulgent: an art film disguised as a Western, the Heaven's Gate of its day. That film's canny blend of pop appeal and pure cinematic genius gradually dawned on the powers that be (or were), and helped give rise to the renaissance of American filmmaking in the early seventies. It is worth noting that The Godfather could have been made by Leone, had he chosen. Leone had been pitching a gangster film that would encompass generations, for a generation or two, himself.

Rather than o the Puzo version finally thrown back at him, he waited an eternity, and finally realized this, his last finished project. That ellipse of a decade or so between conception and completed movie is paralleled in the film, itself, by Robert De Niro's ("Noodles'") opium dream of the American twentieth century, its promises, and betrayals. Naturally, Leone was betrayed, once again, himself, by America, and this truly amazing film, with its densely multi-layered, overlapping flashback structure was butchered upon its release, becoming a linear-plotted sub-Godfather knockoff in the process.

Luckily, the critics had grown up enough in the meantime to finally get a glimmering of what Leone was up to, and demand restitution. Very few saw it properly in theaters, but the video version respects the director's intentions, more or less. Ironically, Leone had foreseen television screen aspect ratios as determining home viewing of the future, and abbreviated his usual wide screen format for this movie, so this most troubled last project was the first released on video to most properly resemble the true cinematic experience. For Die hard fans of the Eastwood westerns impatient with this at first,

Résumé 1
Il y a près de quarante ans, une jeune fille de 14 ans tombe enceinte et décide de faire adopter son bébé. Aujourd'hui, Karen est une assistante médicale aigrie et froide. Elle n'a jamais oublié sa fille, et son amertume la pousse à rejeter violemment tout ceux qui l'entourent, notamment son collègue de bureau Paco.

Elizabeth est une avocate brillante et carriériste, qui n'hésite pas à jouer de ses charmes pour grimper les échelons, qu'ils soient professionnels ou sociaux. Enfin, Lucy est une afro-américaine que les problèmes de stérilité conduisent vers l'adoption.C'est donc le destin croisé de trois femmes que tout oppose, et pourtant liées sans le savoir par cette thématique de l'adoption.