Bertolucci on ONCE UPON A TIME IN THE WEST

Bernardo Bertolucci: My contribution to ONCE UPON A TIME IN THE WEST consisted of proposing some moments from the history of the Western, which were the ones, I liked the best - in short, and a tissue of film quotes, even if Leone didn't always recognize that they were citations. And then, there are some scenes that were filmed exactly as I wrote them, for example Cardinale's arrival. Leone is a very intelligent director, to be sure, and I believe his films are a little like those of Visconti, much influenced by Visconti, and with that same mixture of genius/ingenuity, and, shall we say, a certain cultural roughness/crudity/lack of panache. I enjoyed working with Leone, and also watching him work: it was like playing Cowboys as children.