The American public is a very specialized public. The reason it is taken as a realistic film is because inside the fable, I've put that kind of reality in. And it could easily be called, instead of Once Upon a Time in America, Once Upon a Time There Was a Certain Kind of Cinema. Because it was also an homage to cinema.
Sergio LeoneThe function of the flashback is Freudian...You have to let them wander like the imagination or like a dream.
Sergio LeoneCinema through spectacle, through the entertainment of spectacle, tells the story of many actual problems in life. Because who ever doesn't want to read between the lines can just enjoy the entertainment and the show and can go home happy.
Sergio LeoneFrom Ennio [Morricone] I ask for themes that clothe my characters easily. He's never read a script of mine to compose the music, because many times he's composed the music before the script is ever written.
Sergio LeoneI've always had the sensation that people in America are always avant-garde. Very attentive to all the new innovations. But it's very specialized.
Sergio Leone