Slideshow
ONCE UPON A TIME IN AMERICA
Italy/U.S., 1984
Directed by Sergio Leone
Starring Robert De Niro, James Woods, Elizabeth McGovern, Joe Pesci
Approx. 229 min. DCP.
Jewish gangsters Robert De Niro and James Woods — growing up in the 20s, bootlegging in the 30s, with only De Niro returning, decades later, heavy with regret, all intercut via flashbacks and flash-forwards — or is it all just De Niro’s 1933 opium dream? The director’s dream for over a decade — shot in incredible locations from Brooklyn (Dumbo) to Quebec to Venice. We are showing the fully-restored, Leone-sanctioned version.
Restored by Cineteca di Bologna at L’Immagine Ritrovata Laboratory in association with Andrea Leone Films, The Film Foundation, and Regency Enterprises. Restoration funding provided by Gucci and The Film Foundation.
Reviews
“Like ONCE UPON A TIME IN THE WEST, Sergio Leone’s gangster epic 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… Leone accomplishes all of this within the framework of a superb popular entertainment: it's a funny, rousing, brilliant piece of work.”
– Dave Kehr
“This epic is a compendium of kitsch, but it’s kitsch aestheticized by someone who loves it and sees it as the poetry of the masses. It isn’t just the echoing moments that keep you absorbed—it’s the reverberant dreamland settings and Leone’s majestic, billowing sense of film movement.”
– Pauline Kael