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Once Upon a Time in America

Once Upon a Time in America
Location
Main screening room
Date
March 1st, 2025
Duration
227 min
Cycle
By popular demand

The By popular demand screenings allow us to respond to special requests from you, our audience! Whether it's a film from a retrospective you want to see again, or a work you want to draw our attention to, we are open to all suggestions. The programming team collects suggestions from the public and responds to them whenever possible.

Winner of the BAFTA Award for Best Original Music for Ennio Morricone in 1985
Please note that there is a 10-minute intermission 2/3 of the way through the film.

Once Upon a Time in America
Directed by
Sergio Leone
Language
English with French subtitles
Actors
Robert De Niro, James Woods, Elizabeth McGovern
Origins
USA, Italy
Year
1984
Duration
227 min
Genre
Crime, drama
Format
35 mm
Synopsis

The tumultuous friendship between New York mobsters “Noodles” and Max, from the early 20th century through Prohibition to the 1960s.

Once Upon a Time in America
Awards

Sergio Leone

Born in Rome in 1929, Sergio Leone was the son actress Bice Waleran and filmmaker Roberto Roberti, whose career was cut short by his opposition to fascism. Sergio attended the same school as Ennio Morricone, who was to compose the music for his future films. After the Second World War, he began his career as an assistant to Italian (Vittorio de Sica among others) and American filmmakers (Robert Wise, William Wyler...). Then Leone had the idea of turning to the Western, which he completely revisited, moving away from the American Western in decline at the time. In 1964, A Fistful of Dollars marked the beginning of a style and codes that would come to define the Italian Western, a genre that enjoyed immense success in the decade that followed, with Leone as its figurehead. In 1984, he signed his last masterpiece, Once Upon a Time in America, this time exploring the world of American gangsterism.

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Scenes shot in Montreal

Several scenes from the film were shot in Montreal, some of them very close to the Cinémathèque québécoise, at 1430, rue Saint-Denis.

En 1982, Sergio Leone est à Montréal pour tourner des scènes de «Il était une fois en Amérique»
Cast
About Sergio Leone
Filmography
Open