Sir Christopher Frayling has written about Italian director Sergio Leone before, most notably via his 2000 biography Something to Do with Death. Frayling continues his examination of Leone’s life in his latest book, Sergio Leone by Himself. The new volume includes many of Leone’s interviews and essays.
Frayling tells The Treatment about Leone’s capacity for drawing influence from the classic American films he watched while growing up in Italy in the 1930s. He also reveals that Leone considered his films to be silent, but that the musical scores provided by his frequent collaborator Ennio Morricone served as their own form of dialogue.