Capital Celluloid 2015 - Day 144: Sun May 24

Once Upon a Time in America (Leone, 1984): Ritzy Cinema, Brixton, 11am


This is set to be one of the highlights of the repertory film year in London as the Badlands Collective present the UK premiere of the restored version of Sergio Leone's final movie. This release includes an added 20 minutes to versions of the film seen here previously. Elizabeth McGovern will be onstage for a Q&A after the film.

Chicago Reader review:
Like Once Upon a Time in the West, Sergio Leone's 3-hour-and-47-minute gangster epic (1984) is a foundation myth, though the quality of the myth is very different: the focus here is individual rather than collective, and the form is cyclical and subjective rather than linear and expansive. The relationship of Robert De Niro and James Woods—the brothers who betray—is an amalgam of Roman mythology, Christian parable, and Hollywood cliche; though the intricate flashback structure follows the memories of one man, the film also represents a kind of cultural recall—the fiction remembering itself. Every gesture is immediate, and every gesture seems eternal. Leone accomplishes all of this within the framework of a superb popular entertainment: it's a funny, rousing, brilliant piece of work. With Elizabeth McGovern, Joe Pesci, Burt Young, Tuesday Weld, and Treat Williams; the score, of course, is by Ennio Morricone.
Dave Kehr

Here (and above) is the trailer.

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