Also known as photography

Sergio leone, the director of this film, is Italian and deeply influenced by Hollywood. He thinks that Hollywood movies can arouse the audience's interest most, so most of his movies are related to the United States. Lionel is a serious director with artistic pursuits. He is famous for his Italian westerns (also known as "spaghetti westerns"). His representative works include A handful of gold, A little more dollars and Good, Bad and Ugly. All three works are starred by Esther Wood, a famous American actor, and have achieved worldwide success. His most proud works are "American Trilogy" based on the history of the United States for nearly a hundred years, namely "The Past of the West", "The Past of the Revolution" and "The Past of the United States". "The Past of the West" shows the life of immigrants in the United States at the end of 65438 and the beginning of 2009 and their story of developing the west. "Revolutionary Past" takes politics as the background and describes the role of politics in the United States and the relationship between the United States and its neighbors. Once upon a time in America is the epitome of life in American big cities in the 1920s and 1960s. "Once upon a time in America" has a unique perspective and is the American image in the eyes of Italians. It can be said that this film is a criticism of the American image created by Hollywood.

When Lionel saw this novel in the 1960s, he saw at a glance that the original was cinematic, and I looked like a voice-over in a Hollywood movie, so he decided to make it a gangster movie. It took 65,438+03 years from the preparation to the release of the script, during which five famous Italian writers were hired to adapt the script for him, including Leonardo Benvanuti, pierrot de Bernardi, Franco Ferrini, Enrico Metioli and Franco Acani. Finally Lionel's plays were adapted by some writers. "Once upon a time in America" embodies the director's "imagination" of America quite intensively. The original film is 4 hours and 25 minutes long, the version shown at Cannes Film Festival is 3 hours and 40 minutes long, and it is only 2 hours and 30 minutes in the United States. After the film was released, it was not only recognized by the American audience. Even the critical American critics think that this film about the underworld has a good style and is beautifully made. The film was rated as the best film in 1984 10 by Los Angeles Times, and the top ten films in the 1980s were rated by French film critics. Once upon a time in America is also on the list.

The film only selects a few characters and events in the original work and adopts a typical Hollywood narrative structure. The difference is that this film gradually unfolds the story through the memory of the protagonist Noodles, and the story always unfolds in a chaotic debt dispute between Noodles and Mequez.

Noodles is a Jewish immigrant, a poor child living in a slum in Mobile District of new york. He put the word "righteousness" first and went through fire and water for his friends. He is a romantic and imaginative person. He loves impulsiveness, which determines that he will avenge his brother and suffer from jail. His personality can't change the social status of his lower class, which determines his fate with guilt and regret all his life. His way out is to escape into a dream full of smoke. Escape from reality.

Mequez is a pragmatic and ambitious person. He is ruthless and good at hiding himself. He is cunning, indulgent, selfish and unscrupulous. It is no accident that the author put him on the political stage and finally let him hang in a garbage truck. Noodles and Mequez are a group of contradictions. When they first appeared in the side street, they were neck and neck. However, since they started to be partners, the film has shown their different personalities and behaviors, which shows that they are not in the same boat. The film successfully depicts these two imperfect or unlovable characters by using the causal relationship of melodrama. Obviously, the director doesn't want the audience to identify with these two roles.

The space-time structure of the film is quite distinctive. The main time of the story is the prohibition period, which caters to some ascetic tendencies of Christian Protestants and pays attention to American self-control, thrift, thrift and morality. The film starts from the hotel, and then leads to the smoke hall opened by Chinese in Chinatown, the shadow play theater opened by Indonesians, and the ancient Indian myth Ramayana, which symbolizes the backwardness of ancient oriental civilization, appears in the United States, which symbolizes western civilization. The author specially arranged this. The film uses the despicable streets where immigrants live, illegally operated hotels, underground brothels, illegal liquor sales and the wanton behavior of gangsters as narrative carriers, suggesting that the United States at that time was a Coney Island-style fairyland and the director's re-creation of lost American myths. The beginning and the end of the story are all held in the Great Smoke Pavilion. After the death of the two brothers, the noodles went to the Great Tobacco Hall, and the illusion created by opium instantly relieved their worries. That moment was perfect, happy and beyond time and space. At the end of the story, Noodles returned to Chinatown, watching the shadow puppeteers shaking and hiding in psychedelic opium. This time he smiled, most of his guilt and regret drifted away with the smoke, and time stayed at the moment when he fully enjoyed the joy. Noodles seem to understand that the past was just a dream of Conan.

There are many flashbacks and flashbacks in Once upon a Time in America, which are staggered in time and space. This structure plays a great role in expressing specific content and emotions in this film. At the beginning, the telephone ringing in the tobacco hall for tens of seconds made the story flash back to the events that troubled the protagonist, and the audience then entered 1933. After 35 years, Noodles returned to new york. Through a pair of eyes in a hole in the wall, the film flashes back to 192 1, tracing the life experience of noodles from childhood to youth. Noodles saw a news on TV, and his memory triggered a flashback. With the memory of noodles, the audience learned about the relationship between Mequez and O 'Donnell. Noodles are not as impulsive when they face the senator as when they avenge their little brother. The film reproduces the beautiful moments in The Memory of Noodles in flashback, making it clear to the audience that the noodles that have been wandering for half a life are not roots, but memories of the "good past". This narrative method not only didn't make the audience feel bored in three hours, but felt a kind of stimulation beyond time and space.

Music played an important role in this film. Audiences can always feel the power of music while enjoying movies. Chang Di blew out a slow, sad, slightly nostalgic mood. Whether it is the scene of Debra dancing, the scene of poor children playing pranks, or the scene of noodles violently attacking Carol when robbing a jewelry store, it is accompanied by beautiful melody. The function of music is to explain the theme and tell an unforgettable past with notes. Songs and soundtracks such as God Bless America, Summer Time, Yesterday, Day and Night all reproduce the narrative age and increase the realism of the film.

The photography of the film is very particular, and the shading of the picture is very suitable. Memories are mostly taken in black-and-white photography. Some scenes, such as wine smuggling boats sailing on the river, noodles, Mequez and his brothers playing in the water, reveal a hazy beauty and are very infectious. Another example is noodles inviting Debra to dinner. The picture is bright and the scene is unexpectedly luxurious. The hotel's brilliant lights are reflected on Chun Qing's rippling noodles on the beach. Moderate light and shade, full of artistic conception, let the audience feel the same.

"Once upon a time in America" is a film with rigorous creation and strong appreciation, and its artistic achievement exceeds its companion piece. Some people once regarded Italian directors as Americans, and Lionel was quite proud of it.