A FISTFUL OF LEONE TRIP
A FISTFUL OF LEONE TRIP
The main purpose of this article is to guide those who want to have a trip dedicated to Sergio Leone theme. A journey which includes locations one way or the other relevant with the western films of Sergio Leone. Being one of the long time Leone advocates, I had been looking for an opportunity of this kind for many years, and finally this year I managed to create one.
Maybe one can ask “why should I spend such money and go through all this for Leone?” Well, the answer is mainly related with your hobbies and subjects you find close interest to. To me, Sergio Leone is one of the world’s most creative and talented film director I have ever known. He was not just a western and gangster film director. Although the films that he worked on were the known types, he redescribed all the values and aspects of these film types and created a “new genre” all over again. And he started doing all these in mid sixties, when he had a very limited budget, and merely a low degree of support. The films he creates in 1964 and 1965 with the technical capabilities of the time, still being imitated by many contemporary directors. He did not have the giant Hollywood crew and monetary funding behind him. That is why, in my humble opinion, he was more than just a film director. He can easily be categorized within the boundaries of a real art-man. He was more then just a fistful of films. Sergio Leone has brought his own philosophy and values. To me, Leone is among the most underrated directors. That is partly due to his sudden death before he was about to come out with his more contemporary masterpieces. Only those who somehow got stuck with the Leone world by one way or the other, after spending years of watching and reading, can appreciate his qualities truly. And these type of people, like myself, will probably find this article very informative and useful.
The trip can be divided into two main categories: First is information intensive and second is more visual sight-seeing intensive.
Before you plan such a Leone theme trip, I strongly suggest everyone to make a bit of homework by reading two major books written on Leone. First one is called as “The Spaghetti Westerns - Cowboys and Europeans - from Karl May to Sergio Leone” by Prof. Christopher Frayling. Prof. Frayling has written a very detailed book on all the aspects of Spaghetti Westerns.
One can learn many details about Leone’s stylish western world, like how he decided to work on the genre, what his motivations were and so on.
The book goes beyond just providing an insight about various details, and guides the reader about the roots of the values of Leone’s west from academic standpoint. Marvelous book, and, highly recommended as the “first book to read” to indulge into the world of Leone and spaghetti westerns. I have acquired the book back in 1986, and still am reading. Every time I read it, I feel like I am learning new points.
The second book is called “Once Upon a Time - The Films of Sergio Leone” by Robert C. Cumbow. A heavy book on Leone’s philosophy as interpreted by Cumbow. Unlike the first one, Cumbow does not go into details like how Leone discovered Eastwood, or any backstage related details. When I spoke with Mr.Cumbow over the phone, he told me that the book is purely based on how he felt about Leone’s films. He used quite literary language by describing his opinions. I found his interpretation quite similar to mine in many ways. Cumbow’s book is focused just on Leone and can be considered as another very good source for learning more on Leone’s world. Another good part of this book is that it also includes Cumbow’s views on Master’s last film “Once Upon a Time in America”, which is not included in Prof.Frayling’s book. Robert Cumbow has recently informed me that his book is having a new release. For those who didn’t read it yet, look for it at the bookstores soon.
First: Information intensive trip - LONDON
BFI (British Film Institute)
I strongly suggest that a part of the trip should be dedicated to London. London is truly a Mecca of such cultural interests. I had the chance of attending a business course in London and I extended the trip for this purpose. Upon Prof. Frayling’s advise, I paid a visit to The British Film Institute (BFI). BFI is a very good source on collecting the copies of the old articles, finding out the books ever written on any matter in the cinema world. In order to get to BFI, you get the metro to Tottenham Court Road station. The BFI is at the Stephen Street, off the Tottenham Court Road.
Good part to begin in BFI is its library. You can find the articles that were written about Leone in late 60s, 70s up to today appeared in many cinema related magazines. I preferred to find the ones that appeared in the select bibliography listing of Prof.Frayling’s book.
I found all of them that are in English. The photocopy facility right inside the library is very convenient for making copies of those articles from the original sources. You simply pay some fee at the self-service kiosk and get a card, which operates the copy machines. I found more than I was searching. When going through some of these film related magazines, I came across to articles of Prof. Frayling that extend his opinions on Leone’s western films. I strongly recommend that you make a reservation beforehand. Otherwise, it is quite likely that you may not be allowed to get in if the seats were taken by early comers on the day you visit. Normally, BFI doesn’t hold a reservation for the library, but they have an exception for those coming from at least 500 miles distance. A kind attitude to travelers like me coming all the way from Istanbul. Just make sure you call them a day or so earlier. The library has certain hours for public entrance. If you are not a regular member of BFI, you get yourself enrolled for a single-day membership for 5 Pounds.
Then, after you get through with the library, go up to the third floor of the same building, dedicated to the Stills and Slides. Again, make sure to make a reservation at least a week earlier. This is the department of BFI dedicated to collecting various stills, slides and film posters. They currently have a huge collection of about 5 million black and white images and 500,000 colour transparencies from about more than 60,000 films. Once you step in, you write the names of the films that you want collect the stills. Few minutes later the servicing person comes back with boxes of pictures, each dedicated to one particular movie. You must select the ones that you want to acquire. The list is made per your request. Each 8 x 10 still costs you about 6 Pounds, and BFI later sends you via mail. I chose about 35 of them, and it took about 6 weeks to get them in Istanbul. They also have the capability to re-print the original movie posters (even coloured ones possible) from slides. A very good source to collect visual parts.
CINEMA BOOKSHOP
A good coincidence is the ability to hop into a very profound Cinema Bookshop right across the street. After you get out from BFI, the street across, called as Great Russel Street, you can find the Cinema Bookshop. The owner, named Fred, is a very knowledgeable person and in a flash of moment he can come back to you with books, pictures and posters dedicated to Leone. For example, he has the original Spanish version film poster of The Good The Bad and The Ugly, which he is selling for a high amount of money. Last time I visited him was back in 1989, and he had the same poster too. It looks like not very many people show a great interest to the Spanish version of Leone’s film posters.
VIDEO TAPES OF SPAGHETTI WESTERNS
If one wants to buy the English language video-tapes of the Leone films and the other spaghetti westerns, London is probably the best source in the whole Europe. But, I suggest you don’t grow big hopes for the aim of collecting all you want. Although London is the best source, the collections were scattered around the retail stores, and there is no organized single source that has “all of them”. When I opened the cover of some of these tapes, I saw a circle shape sticker saying “Spaghetti Western Collection” and thought that I can call the company up to get the whole list of their inventory, and buy the ones I want. That just doesn’t happen. I couldn’t find any of those companies listed in the phone directory. You have to visit the video sections of the mega music stores like HMV, Tower Records, and Virgin. All of them have sections around the Oxford Street and Piccadilly. After many years of search, I finally have found the famous Django (the very first one of Corbucci released in 1966) and some others, but never been able to find “Duck You Sucker” or “Once Upon A Time in America”. But, Leone’s other westerns are quite easy to buy. Try to buy the wide-screen versions to enjoy with the full cinematography values of Leone. Among all, HMV seemed to me the best of all in terms of the size of western collections. But, on the other hand, as each day passes these old spaghetti westerns are getting more and more difficult to find along with the western section of the stores getting smaller and smaller. So, the final suggestion of mine for the film collectors, grab whatever you see on the shelves today because soon you may not find any of them at all.
SOUNDTRACKS
A part of Leone culture can be devoted to the soundtracks of the movies. Then we get into the Ennio Morricone boundary. These two men (Leone and Morricone) are highly interrelated with each other. You may make cross-cultural jumps from one another. One who likes Leone must listen to the tunes of Morricone, and, once you listen Morricone and get addicted to his typical western tunes, you realize that he also has many more tunes composed for non-Leone pictures as well. I haven’t seen many Leone advocates who is not interested in Morricone. Although Morricone has gained his typical spaghetti western style of composition with the great helps of Leone, he just didn’t stop where Leone did for the world of spaghettis. There are numerous spaghettis where Morricone’s name alone is enough to watch them. Like Leone, Morricone had followers and imitators as well. He helped the musical aspect of the spaghettis flourish to its climax. He is also the main contributor for us meet with relatively new composers like Luis Bacalov (the composer of the major films like Django, A Bullet for the General a.k.a. Quien Sabe, Sugar Colt and many others). So, a part of your London visit can be dedicated to collect various Morricone CDs or tapes. There are probably several dozens of Morricone pieces out. Some for specific films, most are collections. I personally choose to buy those dedicated to a particular movie in order to listen all the tunes done for a film. Because, sometimes you bump into a specific tune, just play 30 seconds of a movie and therefore can not be seen in any of the collection CDs. A good example is like the Fur Elise based tune of Morricone done for the final duel scene of “The Big Gundown”, where Beethoven’s famous piano concerto is extended with Spanish guitar and castanets for a gun down scene. You can only listen this 1 minute long tune in one particular CD where all of the tunes of that film is gathered. Speaking of Spaghettis, those specific film dedicated CDs are getting difficult to get. You may check the same music stores I mentioned above.
But, if you have time to make small train trip the outside of London, then you will surely find a superb resource. This is the home office of Lionel G. Woodman, whose company is called as “Soundtrack Deletions”. I met Lionel just by a sheer luck when I was looking for a soundtrack, and the owner of the Ennio Morricone Web Site recommended him. Lionel Woodman lives at a small town called Kent, just about an hour from the London downtown via train. When I went to see him he picked me up from the station. He lives in a historical house which has been visited several times by a famous author Charles Dickens, who also lived few hundred yards away during 1860s. Lionel Woodman’s specialty is the soundtrack albums, particularly the ones deleted from the music stores’ lists long time ago. He probably has the largest collection of Ennio Morricone soundtracks. Not only Morricone but also almost all spaghetti western composers’ scores can be found at Soundtrack Deletions. Before I met Lionel, I was searching for some very specific Morricone tunes from various non-Leone movies, and I found them all at Soundtrack Deletions. Actually, Soundtrack Deletions is more or less like a one man company, run by Lionel at their house at Kent. Lionel separated one room of his house as his inventory of CDs, LPs and singles. At another room, which he uses as an office, he keeps records of his customers and makes regular distribution of his inventory. His customers, naturally, are people of special interests who like to collect rarely found old soundtracks of any kind. If you want to get into his distribution list, write to him or call him up from the number I mention at the end of this article. Lionel is more than just the supplier of the soundtracks. He has some production efforts as well. If you recall the famous Morricone tunes from the Leone’s “Dollars” films, you may clearly distinguish the inevitable whistle that goes into every of the three films’ main theme. Well, the man who whistled in those soundtracks was Allessandro Allesandroni, who is a very good friend of Lionel. Together they just came up with a new CD, called as EL PURO. The CD is a collection of music from the spaghetti westerns. Alessandroni plays his version of “A Fistful of Dollars twice in the CD, one recorded live in one of his stage performances. Also featuring in the CD is one of Allessandroni’s never before disclosed tune, called El Puro and a minute long of his voice talking about a brief story of himself and his dedication to spaghetti westerns. I personally have the number 447 of this limited quantity CD. According to Lionel, Morricone had intelligently capitalized many of Allessandroni’s ideas during the days of composing the main theme of “A Fistful of Dollars” before they came up with the final version. It sounds like Alessandroni has been underrated just being a mere whistler. When listening Prof. Frayling, it looks like there is another side of the story related to Morricone, but before I write anything on the matter I prefer to watch the Prof. Frayling’s documentary on Morricone, put out by BBC. Actually I am probably a bit luckier than anybody for the reason that Lionel is married with a Turkish lady and he comes to Turkey every summer for his vacations, which gives me chance to see him at least once in every year. So, I recommend to those who are found of the musical part of Leone culture to get in touch with Lionel to enhance the inventory of CDs.
A VERY SPECIAL VISIT !!
The last part of my London trip was separated for a very special visit. The visit to Professor Christopher Frayling, who wrote the famous book on spaghetti westerns and Leone. Prof. Frayling is currently the Rector and Provost of Royal College of Art at London, the department of Cultural History. I was lucky enough to get an appointment from him while I was in London. He separated about 45 minutes of his precious time, in which I had the chance of learning many details about my upcoming trip to Spain. When you read his book you realize that he tries to keep somewhat of an impartial view on Leone’s works from an academic point of view. But actually, when I talked with him personally I realized that he also has a lot of enjoyment from Leone’s films. He had various interviews with Leone at his house in Rome and had the chance of listening The Master’s upcoming projects, which he couldn’t due to his very untimely demise.
Listening to the Professor, I realize that he has the huge mountain of information about the Leone world, which is impossible to explain in a 45 minutes interview. I wish that I had hours of time to sit together with him to share his knowledge. Apart from his profound academic analysis of Leone world, one thing that I personally am fond of hearing is the behind the scene type details of how Leone company works, like he came up with various ideas, how Leone discovered various stars and things of this nature. One good example I can convey here is how Leone found out Lee Van Cleef for the role of The Colonel in the “For A few Dollars More”.