Nino Baragli (1 October 1925 – 29 May 2013) was an Italian film editor with more than 200 film credits. Among his films in English, ''

The Good, the Bad and the Ugly ''The Good, the Bad and the Ugly'' ( it, Il buono, il brutto, il cattivo, literally "The good, the ugly, the bad") is a 1966 Italian epic spaghetti Western film directed by Sergio Leone and starring Clint Eastwood as "the Good", Lee Van Clee ...

'' (1966) and ''

Once Upon a Time in the West ''Once Upon a Time in the West'' ( , "Once upon a time (there was) the West") is a 1968 epic Spaghetti Western film directed by Sergio Leone, who co-wrote it with Sergio Donati based on a story by Dario Argento, Bernardo Bertolucci, and Leone ...

'' (1968), both directed by

Sergio Leone Sergio Leone (; 3 January 1929 – 30 April 1989) was an Italian film director, producer and screenwriter credited as the pioneer of the Spaghetti Western genre and widely regarded as one of the most influential directors in the history of cin ...

, are perhaps the best known. Born in Rome as Giovanni Baragli, he was introduced in the film industry by his uncle, the renowned editor

Eraldo Da Roma Eraldo Da Roma (born Eraldo Judiconi, 1 March 1900 – 27 May 1981) was an Italian film editor best known for his work with Roberto Rossellini, Vittorio De Sica, and Michelangelo Antonioni. Life and career Da Roma was born on 1 March 1900 in Rom ...

. He started his career in 1944 as film operator and assistant editor for ''Marinai senza stelle'' by Francesco De Robertis. An interview with Baragli was published in this book; it was translated in During his career he worked as editor in more than 200 productions between 1944 and 1996, including works by

Federico Fellini Federico Fellini (; 20 January 1920 – 31 October 1993) was an Italian film director and screenwriter known for his distinctive style, which blends fantasy and baroque images with earthiness. He is recognized as one of the greatest and most i ...

Pier Paolo Pasolini Pier Paolo Pasolini (; 5 March 1922 – 2 November 1975) was an Italian poet, filmmaker, writer and intellectual who also distinguished himself as a journalist, novelist, translator, playwright, visual artist and actor. He is considered one of ...

Damiano Damiani Damiano Damiani (23 July 1922 – 7 March 2013) was an Italian screenwriter, film director, actor and writer. Poet and director Pier Paolo Pasolini referred to him as "a bitter moralist hungry for old purity", while film critic Paolo Mere ...

Luigi Zampa Luigi Zampa (2 January 1905 – 16 August 1991) was an Italian film director. Biography Son of a worker, Zampa studied filmmaking from 1932 to 1937 at the Italian film school Centro sperimentale di cinematografia in Rome. He directed several ...

Giuliano Montaldo Giuliano Montaldo (born 22 February 1930) is an Italian film director. Biography While he was still a young student, Montaldo was recruited by the director Carlo Lizzani for the role of leading actor in the film ''Achtung! Banditi!'' (1951). ...

Sergio Corbucci Sergio Corbucci (; 6 December 1926 – 1 December 1990) was an Italian film director, screenwriter and producer. He directed both very violent Spaghetti Westerns and bloodless Bud Spencer and Terence Hill action comedies. He is the older bro ...

Mauro Bolognini Mauro Bolognini (28 June 1922 – 14 May 2001) was an Italian film and stage director of literate sensibility, known for his masterly handling of period subject matter. Early years Bolognini was born in Pistoia, in the Tuscany region of Italy. ...

Luigi Comencini Luigi Comencini (; 8 June 1916 – 6 April 2007)
''The Guardian'' was an Italian

Cristina Comencini Cristina Comencini (; born 8 May 1956) is an Italian film director, screenwriter and novelist. Biography She is one of four daughters of Italian film director Luigi Comencini. She attended with her sisters the Lycée français Chateaubriand (Rome) ...

Florestano Vancini Florestano Vancini (24 August 1926 – 18 September 2008) was an Italian film director and screenwriter. He directed over 20 films since 1960. His 1966 film '' Le stagioni del nostro amore'', starring Enrico Maria Salerno, was entered into ...

Gabriele Salvatores Gabriele Salvatores (born 30 July 1950) is an Italian Academy Award-winning film director and screenwriter. Biography Born in Naples, Salvatores debuted as a theatre director in 1972, founding in Milan the Teatro dell'Elfo, for which he directe ...

Alberto Lattuada Alberto Lattuada (; 13 November 1914 – 3 July 2005) was an Italian film director. Career Lattuada was born in Vaprio d'Adda, the son of composer Felice Lattuada. He was initially interested in literature, becoming, while still a student, a mem ...

Tinto Brass Giovanni "Tinto" Brass (born 26 March 1933) is an Italian film director and screenwriter. In the 1960s and 1970s, he directed many critically acclaimed avant-garde films of various genres. Today, he is mainly known for his later work in the er ...

Margarethe von Trotta Margarethe von Trotta (; born 21 February 1942) is a German film director, screenwriter, and actress. She has been referred to as a "leading force" of the New German Cinema movement.

Pál Sándor Pál Sándor (born 19 October 1939) is a Hungarian film director, producer, and screenwriter. He has directed 28 films since 1964. His 1976 film '' A Strange Role'' was entered into the 27th Berlin International Film Festival, where it won ...

Bernardo Bertolucci Bernardo Bertolucci (; 16 March 1941 – 26 November 2018) was an Italian film director and screenwriter with a career that spanned 50 years. Considered one of the greatest directors in Italian cinema, Bertolucci's work achieved international ...

Roberto Benigni Roberto Remigio Benigni (; born 27 October 1952) is an Italian actor, comedian, screenwriter and director. He gained international recognition for writing, directing and starring in the Holocaust comedy-drama film ''Life Is Beautiful'' (1997), f ...

Massimo Troisi Massimo Troisi (; 19 February 1953 – 4 June 1994) was an Italian actor, cabaret performer, screenwriter, and film director. He is best known for his works in the films '' I'm Starting from Three'' (1981) and '' Il Postino: The Postman'' (1994) ...

Collaboration with Pier Paolo Pasolini

The single largest impact of Baragli's editing is likely on the films of

. Gino Moliterno as described Pasolini as follows: Stefano Musi has called Baragli's contributions to Pasolini's films "enormous"; Baragli edited every one of Pasolini's feature films from his first, ''

Accattone ''Accattone'' is a 1961 Italian drama film written and directed by Pier Paolo Pasolini. Despite an original screenplay, the film is often perceived as a cinematic rendition of Pasolini's earlier novels, particularly '' Ragazzi di vita'' (''The R ...

'' (1961), to his final film ''

Salò, or the 120 Days of Sodom ''Salò, or the 120 Days of Sodom'' ( it, Salò o le 120 giornate di Sodoma, billed on-screen ''Pasolini's 120 Days of Sodom'' on English-language prints and commonly referred to as simply ''Salò'' []) is a 1975 horror film, horror art film dir ...

'' (1975), which was released shortly after his murder. Geoffrey Nowell-Smith has written of the editing innovations in their early films, "When ''Accatone'' and ''Mamma Roma'' came out, Pasolini and his editor Nino Baragli were widely condemned as amateurish and incompetent, which is rather like saying that Cezanne's brushstrokes showed that he couldn't paint." Perhaps the best-known of Pasolini's films to English-speaking audiences is ''

The Gospel According to Saint Matthew ''The Gospel According to St. Matthew'' ( it, Il vangelo secondo Matteo, "The Gospel According to Matthew"; "St. Matthew" would be "San Matteo") is a 1964 Italian biblical drama film in the neorealist style, written and directed by Pier Paolo ...

'' (1964), now considered a masterpiece by many critics. Nowell-Smith writes of the editing that "large sections of the film do not even bother to respect continuity, let alone to pay obeisance to it. ... Each shot simply presents itself as reality in its own right but there is no attempt to maintain the realistic illusion that had been the foundation of cinema since the early 1920s if not before."

Collaboration with Sergio Leone

Sergio Leone, an Italian director, is best known for five western films from the 1960s and early 1970s that enjoyed international success and established the acting career of

Clint Eastwood Clinton Eastwood Jr. (born May 31, 1930) is an American actor and film director. After achieving success in the Western TV series '' Rawhide'', he rose to international fame with his role as the "Man with No Name" in Sergio Leone's "''Doll ...

. Dan Edwards summarized Leone's legacy, writing "Although he remains a controversial figure in critical circles, his stylistic influence is everywhere in ’90s American cinema, from ''Back to the Future Part III'' (

Robert Zemeckis Robert Lee Zemeckis (born May 14, 1952) is an American filmmaker. He first came to public attention as the director of the action-adventure romantic comedy ''Romancing the Stone'' (1984), the science-fiction comedy ''Back to the Future'' film tr ...

, 1990) to the work of

Quentin Tarantino Quentin Jerome Tarantino (; born March 27, 1963) is an American film director, writer, producer, and actor. His films are characterized by stylized violence, extended dialogue, profanity, Black comedy, dark humor, Nonlinear narrative, non-lin ...

and his associate

Robert Rodriguez Robert Anthony Rodriguez (; born June 20, 1968) is an American filmmaker, composer, and visual effects supervisor. He shoots, edits, produces, and scores many of his films in Mexico and in his home state of Texas. Rodriguez directed the 1992 ac ...

." Leone's third western was ''The Good, the Bad and the Ugly'' (1966), which was co-edited by Baragli and

Eugenio Alabiso Eugenio Alabiso (born 30 July 1937) is an Italian film editor. He edited ''The Good, the Bad and the Ugly'' (1966) He edited ''The Case of the Scorpion's Tail'' (1971), '' Silent Action'' (1975), and '' The Scorpion with Two Tails'' (1982), dir ...

. Leone had several editors for his films prior to ''The Good, the Bad and the Ugly''; Baragli edited all of Leone's subsequent films. Calling Baragli "Leone's best film editor", Robert Cumbow writes of the 1966 film that "the compelling pace of the film, and the fact that it works so remarkably well, ... is due to Baragli's genius." Leone's last film, released in 1984, was not a western; Cumbow writes of the film that "the time-hopping ''

Once Upon a Time in America ''Once Upon a Time in America'' ( it, C'era una volta in America) is a 1984 epic crime film co-written and directed by Italian filmmaker Sergio Leone and starring Robert De Niro and James Woods. The film is an Italian–American venture produce ...

'' is a masterwork of editing."

Kenneth Turan Kenneth Turan (; born October 27, 1946) is an American retired film critic, author, and lecturer in the Master of Professional Writing Program at the University of Southern California. He was a film critic for the ''Los Angeles Times'' from 1991 ...

concurs, writing "The film slips easily back and forth in time, dancing between the decades, often making the connection from one era to another solely by means of brilliant cuts that work like magic." Stephen Prince wrote "Nino Baragli surpassed even his customary billiance with his editing of Sergio Leone's ''Once Upon a Time in America'', creating a kaleidoscopic narrative that juggled multiple time frames with astonishingly fluid transitions." The film won Leone a nomination for the

BAFTA Award for Best Direction The BAFTA Award for Best Direction, formerly known as David Lean Award for Achievement in Direction, is a British Academy Film Award presented annually by the British Academy of Film and Television Arts (BAFTA) to a film director for a specifi ...

Final cuts

Baragli won the

ciak d'oro ''Ciak'' is a popular Italian film magazine published in Milan, Italy. It is the most popular film magazine in Italy. The title is the Italian word (also spelled ''ciac'', for a film clapperboard. History and profile ''Ciak'' was established in 1 ...

for '' Ginger e Fred'' (1986) alongside Ugo de Rossi and

Ruggero Mastroianni Ruggero Mastroianni (7 November 1929 – 9 September 1996) was an Italian film editor. In his obituary of Mastroianni, critic Tony Sloman described him as "arguably, the finest Italian film editor of his generation." Born in Turin, he was the b ...

. He also won two

David di Donatello for Best Editing The David di Donatello for Best Editing ( it, David di Donatello per il miglior montatore) is a film award presented annually by the Accademia del Cinema Italiano (ACI, ''Academy of Italian Cinema'') to recognize outstanding efforts on the part of ...

for '' La voce della luna'' (the last film directed by Federico Fellini-1990), '' Jona che visse nella balena'' (1993) and for ''

Mediterraneo ''Mediterraneo'' is a 1991 Italian war comedy-drama film directed by Gabriele Salvatores and written by Enzo Monteleone. The film is set during World War II and concerns a group of Italian soldiers who become stranded on a Greek island in the Aeg ...

'' (directed by Gabriele Salvatores-1991). In 1998 he was awarded with the '' Nastro d'argento speciale'' (lit:Special Silver Ribbon) for his "extraordinary career in film editing". Baragli retired from editing in 1996. One of his last projects to be released in the United States was '' The Monster'' (1994), which was directed by

. Baragli had been editing Benigni's films for the previous decade. In addition to his career as an editor, Baragli was active with the Italian Association of Film Editors (''Associazione Montaggio Cinematografico e Televisivo (A.M.C.)'') and served as its president for a time in the 1980s. In 2012 he received the Lifetime Achievement Award from the organization.

References

Bibliography

* Fawell's book discusses the editing of ''Once Upon a Time in the West'' in some detail, with numerous quotes from Baragli. * * Documentary about Leone that includes interview footage with Baragli.

External links