Once Upon a Time in America (?)
Figures
Locations
- The two rape scenes (Deborah in the car, Carol on the street).
Form & technique
- The film's non-linear narrative structure, framed by Noodles' opium haze.
- The final shot of Noodles in the opium den, smiling enigmatically at the camera. → The Time-Image
Tropes
- Noodles' return to New York in 1968 as an old, anonymous man.
- The use of "Deborah's Theme" and the pan flute "Cockeye's Song".
- Young Noodles spying on Deborah through the hole in the wall of the kosher restaurant. → The Primal Scene
- The film's title and its nostalgic depiction of the 1920s Lower East Side.
- The intense, lifelong relationship between Noodles and Max.
Films most connected to Once Upon a Time in America