Vancouver B.C. Canada Spaghetti Unchained Film Fest

Spaghetti Unchained! Sergio Leone, Sergio Corbucci, and the Splendours of the Spaghetti Western

MARCH 1-6, 12-14, 21-24
APRIL 4-8, 12, 14-15, 19

“The greatest genre ever.”
J. HOBERMAN, FILM COMMENT

Anchored by an exclusive run of the re-release of the Quentin Tarantino favourite Django, the reference point for Tarantino’s recent hit Django Unchained, The Cinematheque’s steaming-hot Spaghetti Western season features a Fistful of Leone, a Fistful of Corbucci, and a handful of other bad-ass Westerns all’italiana, including gems by Gianfranco Parolini, Giulio Petroni, and Carlo Lizzani. No less than eight of the ten films in our series were scored by Ennio Morricone, the composer whose music is virtually synonymous with the popular subgenre. Morricone and Leone rank amongst the great composer-director collaborations in cinema history, but the prolific Morricone (sometimes credited as Leo Nichols or Dan Savio) also worked extensively with Corbucci and other leading filmmakers of the Spaghetti Western. Get ready for some eye-popping, operatic, and absolutely amoral fun — and expect dazzling widescreen vistas; sweaty extreme close-ups; marvellous multilingual, multinational casts; and post-dubbed, post-synched sound — as Good, Bad, and Ugly Men with No Names — or with wacky Western handles such as Sabata, Django, and Navajo Joe — smoke cheroots, dodge sagebrush, and shoot folks, often in the back!

Films to be Shown:

A Fistful of Dollars

Sergio Leone’s first Spaghetti Western introduced his eccentric, highly influential style, and created Clint Eastwood's iconic, poncho-clad Man with No Name persona.

For a Few Dollars More

This stylish second film in Leone's "Man With No Name" trilogy sees Clint Eastwood join forces with Lee Van Cleef to capture a drug-addled pyscho-bandit, with violent and bloody results.

A Fistful of Dynamite (aka Duck, You Sucker!)

One of Leone’s most political films, this sprawling saga set against the Mexican Revolution features one of Ennio Morricone's most glorious and unforgettable scores.

The Hills Run Red

A deranged quest for revenge begins when an ex-Confederate soldier learns his partner in crime has killed his family and kept their stolen loot.

Django

Quentin Tarantino's recent Spaghetti-and-slavery blockbuster pays homage to Sergio Corbucci's 1966 twisted tale of a coffin-dragging drifter, DJANGO, now digitally remastered.

The Mercenary

Sergio Corbucci's 1968 Zapata Western features a suitably excessive Morricone score, stars Franco Nero, Tony Musante, and Jack Parlance, and is one of Tarantino's faves.

Death Rides a Horse

Director Giulio Petroni's 1967 one-of-a-kind blend of Western, horror, and film noir is one of the most hallucinatory and haunting of all the Spaghetti Westerns.

The Good, the Bad and the Ugly

No film is more synonymous with the Spaghetti Western than this one: Sergio Leone’s 1966 magnum opus, the third film in the informal “Man With No Name” trilogy.

Navajo Joe

Tarantino's favourite Spaghetti is Sergio Corbucci's super-bloody tale of revenge, starring Burt Reynolds as a Navajo on the warpath against the men who murdered his wife.

Sabata

Spaghetti Western mainstay Lee Van Cleef is a tight-lipped, glaring-eyed master gunman in Gianfranco Parolini’s entertaining, offbeat shoot-’em-up.