Remembering Enzo Barboni

Enzo Barboni was born in Rome, Italy on July 10, 1922. He was definitely one of the most innovative directors of Italian cinema, instigator, pioneer and inventor of western-comedy and other genres that have gone crazy in theaters around the world since the early 1970s until the late 1980s and was later copied by such great satirists as Mel Brooks and many others. Enzo Barboni before becoming a film director and screenwriter began as a war correspondent for the Institute of Light (in 1942) and was then an assistant to his brother Leonidas, a very active camera operator in the fifties. He worked for many years as a camera operator for the great Hungarian photographer, an naturalized Italian, Vaclav Vich, and worked closely with many directors, mainly Sergio Corbucci. Enzo was involved in 17 Euro-westerns as cinematographer, director or screenwriter, from “Massacre at Grand Canyon” (1964) until “The Sons of Trinity” (1995). He’s probably best remembered for his Trinity films which began in 1970 and greatly influenced the change in the genre from drama to comedy and satire which eventually led to its downfall. Enzo died on March 23, 2002 in Rome. Today we remember Enzo Barboni on what would have been his 90^th birthday.