MovieChat Forums > Il mio nome è Nessuno (1974) Discussion > Is NOBODY a Sergio Leone film?

Is NOBODY a Sergio Leone film?

posted 9 years ago by captainapache
3 replies | jump to latest

From a GREAT review by Scherpschutter, with references cited:

Leone thought about the project as ‘a Sergio Leone movie, directed by someone else’ . He wanted Tonino Valerii, one of his most loyal students, to direct the movie, and Valerii is indeed credited as the movie’s sole director. In later interviews Leone claimed he had directed the opening scene, the graveyard scene, Fonda facing the Bunch, and the false duel in New Orleans. He also might have done the mirror and the urinal scene and (part of) the shooting of the beer glasses (2). I don’t think he did any of the slapstick scenes – he explicitly told Hill, who was very keen on being directed by Leone, that he was not going to direct “Trinity” – but he might have had a hand in some of the more light-hearted things in the movie. The mirror scene is usually interpreted as a reference to Orson Welles' The Lady from Shanghai, but is more likely referring to a similar scene in Chaplin’s The Circus. Chaplin was one of Leone’s favorite directors, and some of the comedy in My Name is Nobody feels Chaplinesque (3). The scenes directed by Leone belong to the best remembered of the entire movie, and I don’t think it’s wrong to call My Name is Nobody an essential addenda to the quartet of westerns he made in the sixties. It’s probably more essentially his than the fifth western that officially bears his name: Duck you Sucker!. Stephen Spielberg once called My Name is Nobody his favorite Sergio Leone western.

Much, much more here:

http://www.spaghetti-western.net/index.php/My_Name_is_Nobody_Review

[–] captainapache 9 years ago

In this 2002 interview, Terence Hill himself speaks in-depth on the 'Sergio aspect' of NOBODY:

"I should first answer the question concerning "Nobody". My Name is Nobody came after the two Trinity films and was conceived of and created by Sergio Leone because when the second Trinity came out, he admired this film very much but he did not expect it to have much box office success. He was surprised however, when the film came out at the same time as A Fistful of Dynamite / Duck, You Sucker with Charles Bronson(?!) and James Coburn and we did better than they did.

At that point in time, Leone had decided to stop making westerns, but he was still in love with the genre, so he conceived of a film that was like his own story and how he wanted the western to end. I came to understand this during many visits with him, and that he identified with the Henry Fonda character, who was confronted with a new character who was portrayed by me. The character was a bit like the hippy of that era, don't you think? He slept, lazed around, reacted only when provoked, had no worries and lived day to day with great joy.

So Leone wanted to make one last western and it was a very premeditated western, done with great care and professionalism. Three scripts were written but Sergio liked none of them, the last one having been inspired by Homer's The Odyssey, but even that one did not work. But Sergio wanted to keep the name Nobody which is why it was called My Name is Nobody. Everyone asks me if the film is by Sergio or by Tonino. I don't want to answer this question out of tactfulness, however I can say that it was Sergio Leone's baby because he had wanted it so badly.

I didn't know him at the time but he came to me and said: "I want to make a film with you, on a large set, with more financial backing, more serious, with more meaning, epochal". He really liked epics. Tonino Valerii was his assistant director so there was, you could say, a lot control coming from him. Sergio Leone, whom we all love, saw his moment in that film, and said he wanted to leave the western but wanted to leave a story like Nobody to remain in film history, "Jack Beauregard" pitted against the Wild Bunch."

More on the subject and other topics at link:

http://www.terencehill.it/news_intervistaperugia_en.html

[–] captainapache 9 years ago

Great on set pics of Leone 'directing' specific scenes(Beauregard vs Wild Bunch scene, final showdown scene, and end shaving scene):

http://monnomestpersonne1973.blogspot.com/2010/04/deux-maitres-pour-arlequin-sergio-leone.html

[–] captainapache 9 years ago

Translated from Italian author Roberto Curti's book on the film:

"According to Rick Battaglia, an old time Leone friend, Tonino Valerii asked for a clause in his contract stating that Leone should not be present while he was directing. He would have been embarrassed by his presence. But once (Leone) saw what had been shot so far, and he saw it quite soon, he said "This guy shoots like he thinks I would shoot the movie, but in fact this is not how I would shoot it." So he (Leone) took over the movie. He was very alarmed. He may have left a few more sequences for Valerii to shoot, but then he said enough"

From the Sir Christopher Frayling Leone book 'Something To Do With Death':

"The most likely scenario is that Leone helped out on the duel, then took charge on second-unit work on 'the battle' (in Almeria), as well as directing the opening scene and the carnival section of the film."