Once Upon a Time in America - Sergio Leone, 1984
This is exactly the area I was brought up in and, it's not such a perfect retelling, but that's the story of the Jewish mafia. There’s a book that came out about 15 years ago, called the Kosher Nostra and it's the same story that Sergio Leone did, basically about the Jewish mafia of Brooklyn. It's filmed a lot in the area that I eventually lived it for almost 30 years called Dumbo, which is down under Manhattan Bridge overpass.

how do you feel about the Morricone score?

Well, I always loved Morricone. I mean, Morricone’s scores were always amazing because he was also a member of this very avant-garde music ensemble that made very "beep beep bip boop" music, which I find incomprehensible to listen to sometimes, I mean like Milton Babbitt. He made all these great things with humming and singing and it was fabulous and sensual and stuff. So I mean, I love lots of his scores, and this is not necessarily my favourite, but the film is long, as you say.