Thursday, December 19, 2019

The “There was once Sergio Leone” exhibit at Rome’s Ara Pacis Museum, December 16th, 2019.


(This blog posting is in honor of my dear friend Ted)


Rome’s Ara Pacis museum is currently hosting until May 3rd, 2020 the magnificent “C’era una volta Sergio Leone” (There was once Sergio Leone) exhibit.   The exhibit, which was presented by Raffaella Leone, Sergio’s daughter and the managing director of the Leone Group, comes about on the 90th anniversary of Leone’s birth and the 30th anniversary of his death.   The setting and city are both appropriate as Leone was born in the Trastevere neighborhood of the Eternal City. 



Raffaella (center) and sister Francesca Leone.











On hand at the press conference were also Raffaela’s sister Francesca and their brother Andrea.  The exhibit is full of photos and videos that trace the history of Sergio Leone’s amazing movie career, albeit a short one with only six movies, but nevertheless movies that left a strong legacy and which influenced young movie directors such as Steven Spielberg, Martin Scorsese, a die-hard Leone admirer (Quentin Tarantino, Very fitting indeed that it was thanks Tarantino’s movie, “The Hateful Eight”, that Morricone won the Oscar for best soundtrack) and which also helped the fledgling career of American actor, Clint Eastwood, who went on to international fame thanks to Leone’s famous “Spaghetti Western” movies, such as Leone’s most famous film,  “The Good, the Bad and the Ugly” (Eastwood's previous experience had been with the "Rawhide" series).   














The kit that Leone's "noise" team would use for the different sounds in his movies, such as horses and their hooves.











Together with the many artifacts on Leone’s life and career are also photos of a man who helped make Leone’s films even more popular, a fellow Roman and one who also went to school with Leone, Ennio Morricone (now 91), and his extraordinary and touching soundtracks.  And hats off to the Maestro as ten years ago he would get up at 4.30 am, do one hour of exercise and then go to work on his soundtracks (at last count about 500).