​A smile, 16 years later

by Paolo Valassi

​One of the most famous scenes in Once Upon a Time in the West (1968) is the one in which Claudia Cardinale, who plays the protagonist Jill, searches for a supposed treasure in the house she has just inherited from her murdered husband. After having searched in vain in every corner of the house, she lies down on the bed. 
The camera, from her figure, rises, climbs over the canopy until it frames, through a semi-transparent embroidered cloth, her face, her fixed gaze, projected beyond the camera, outside the film. 
All she lacks is a smile…

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​The smile comes 16 years later and it is Noodles-DeNiro's in Once Upon a Time in America (1984). 
Noodles is in an opium den. Same camera movement and framing through a semi-transparent sheet to immortalize the most beautiful smile in the history of cinema.