Leone season will play alongside a complementary
season of modern Westerns, including special previews, Q&As and talks
PRESS RELEASE
Wednesday 14 March 2018,
London.
From Monday 2 April – Monday 30 April, BFI Southbank will celebrate one
of the undisputed masters of cinema, Sergio Leone, with screenings of all his films, as well as a complementary
season of contemporary westerns. The season coincides with the re-release of A Fistful of Dollars (Sergio Leone,
1964), which is back in selected
cinemas courtesy of Park
Circus on Friday 13
April, and plays
on extended run during the season. Also included in the season will
be the other two films in Leone’s Dollars Trilogy – For a Few Dollars More (1965) and The Good, the Bad
and the Ugly (1966) – as well as his virtuosic Once Upon a Time in the West (1968), and the American gangster epic Once Upon a Time in America (1984). There will also be a talk from Leone biographer Sir Christopher Frayling on Friday 6 April examining the distinctively
Italian character of Leone’s unique films and charting how they’ve been
interpreted and celebrated over the years. Leone continues
to influence filmmakers, from Edgar Wright (whose first film was a parody called A Fistful of Fingers) to Quentin
Tarantino, Robert Rodriguez and David Mackenzie, and to complement the season,
there will be screenings of modern takes on westerns, including feminist
interpretations and those which
explore the African diaspora's contribution to the genre; these will include My Pure Land (2017), followed by
a Q&A with director Sarmad
Masud,
Hell
or High Water (David Mackenzie, 2016) and a preview of Chloé
Zhao's The Rider (2017).
Sergio
Leone came
from a filmmaking family, cutting his teeth working on dozens of features including Ben
Hur, and directed his first
film, The
Colossus of Rhodes (1961), a traditional
Italian ‘swords and sandals’ film, before moving
on to the genre that would define his career. A Fistful of
Dollars (1964) was the film that put Leone on the map, a
testosterone-fueled tale
that flips the American western and gives it some European punch. The first
part of Leone’s Dollars
Trilogy, which is re-released on Friday 13 April, firmly sets out the winning blueprint for the
other two: not least in establishing both the role of Clint Eastwood’s nameless
anti-hero and his
memorable collaboration with Ennio Morricone. It’s
sequel For a Few Dollars More (1965) boasted double the budget of its predecessor and saw Lee Van Cleef and Clint Eastwood play a couple of smart but ruthless bounty
hunters closing in on a vicious gang and their horrific leader. Eastwood’s final
film with Leone The Good, the Bad
and the Ugly (1966), which
completed the Dollars Trilogy, ironically
produced some of their finest work during a period of deteriorating relations.
Eastwood stars as Blondie who, in competition with two equally dangerous and
resourceful men, is after a stash of stolen confederate
gold. The resulting film is undoubtedly one of the greatest westerns ever made.
Also screening in
the season will be Once Upon a Time in the West (1968) starring Henry Fonda,
Charles Bronson and Claudia Cardinale. A piece of
land with a vital water source becomes the focus for
this epic piece covering all the best
aspects of the Wild West; it is both a
homage to what came before and a thoroughly
entertaining addition to the genre. Leone’s
final western A Fistful of
Dynamite (1971) is set during the Mexican Revolution in 1913 and
sees a bandit and a British explosives expert reluctantly team-up in a tale that reflects the political instability
and violence rocking Italy at the time. Though often overshadowed
by his previous work, his final western is a rarely
seen treat. Completing the programme
is Leone’s final film as director, Once Upon a
Time in America (1984), which saw the director transfer his ‘adult fairytale’ approach to the
American gangster genre, following the
friendship between four youngsters from New York’s Lower East Side as they rise
within the ranks of organised crime. Despite an
all-star cast including Robert De Niro, James Woods,
Elizabeth McGovern and Joe Pesci, the film was overlooked
critically and commercially in the US, but has since
been re-appraised as one of the greatest gangster films in cinema history.
The modern westerns screening
alongside the Leone titles bring the genre right up to the present day, with
recent releases and previews of brand new features, and regular BFI series WOMAN WITH A MOVIE
CAMERA and AFRICAN ODYSSEYS also featuring films from the
genre. Based on a true story, My Pure Land (Sarmad Masud, 2017) is a western with a feminist
twist which centres on a land dispute in rural Pakistan; the screening on Thursday
12 April will be followed by a Q&A with director Sarmad Masud.
Another western with a distinctly feminist perspective is Marlina the Murderer in Four Acts (Mouly
Surya, 2017), which intelligently blends the western genre with arthouse
sensibilities; the film, which previews as part of the BFI’s WOMAN WITH A
MOVE CAMERA series will be followed by a Q&A with the director Mouly
Surya.
BFI Southbank’s regular AFRICAN ODYSSEYS series will also focus on
westerns this month, with screenings of Moustapha
Alassane, Cineaste of the Possible (Christian Lelong, Maria Silvia
Bazzoli, 2008) a documentary about living legend Moustapha Alassane, who is
driven by the desire to experiment and reinvent cinema on the African
continent; this documentary explores his life and work including forays into low-budget
westerns. La Belle at the Movies (2016),
which will be introduced by its director Cecilia Zoppelletto, is a
poetic homage to Kinshasa, which despite being a city of 10 million people,
doesn’t have a single cinema. The film looks
at Kinshasa’s once-vibrant film industry and documents the extraordinary
Kinshasa cowboy culture that grew in response to the 1960s spaghetti westerns. Screening
alongside this will be The Return of
an Adventurer (Moustapha Alassane, 1966) about a man who, returning from the US to his village in Niger,
brings western outfits to his close friends, who decide to become cowboys. Completing the AFRICAN ODYSSEYS
programme will be Africa Goes West:
The Black Cowboy, an illustrated exploration of the African diaspora’s
contribution to the classic genre.
Completing the modern westerns programme will be screenings of The Rider (2017), Chloé Zhao’s affectionate
slice of Americana that premiered at last year’s BFI London Film Festival, Hell or High Water (David Mackenzie,
2016), a neo-noir take on the western from the screenwriter of Sicario, and Sweet Country (2017), Warwick Thornton’s Australian-set film
about an Aboriginal farmer and his wife who go on the run after he kills a
white man in self-defence.
Sir Christopher Frayling on Sergio Leone’s Very
Italian Western
TRT 90min
When first
released, Leone’s westerns were popular but dismissed as inferior imitations of the
American genre. Yet time has been
kind to the ‘spaghetti western.’ In this keynote talk, Leone’s
biographer Sir Christopher Frayling will examine the distinctively Italian character
of these unique films, and chart how they’ve been re-interpreted and
celebrated as flamboyant commentary on the values and
techniques of Hollywood: ‘a myth about a myth,’ as novelist Alberto Moravia put
it.
Tickets £6.50. Joint ticket available with Once Upon a Time in the West Fri 6
Apr 19:50 £15, concs £12 (Members pay £2 less)
FRI 6 APR 18:00 NFT1
The Colossus of
Rhodes Il Collosso di Rodi
Italy-Spain-France
1961. Dir Sergio Leone. With Rory Calhoun, Lea Massari, Georges Marchal.
141min. 35mm. EST. PG
On the island of
Rhodes in 280 BC, with the backdrop of the huge Colossus statue, we follow the escapades of Darios, a Greek hero within a
sinful pagan fortress. Following in the tradition of the Italian ‘sword and
sandal’ films of the time – and for people who like their heroes
muscle-clad – there are enough
set-pieces and unintentional camp to keep most
viewers satisfied.
WED 4 APR 18:10 NFT3 / SAT 7 APR 15:50 NFT3
A Fistful of
Dollars Per un pugno di dollari
Italy-Spain-West
Germany 1964. Dir Sergio Leone. With
Clint Eastwood, Gian Maria Volontè, Marianne Koch, Wolfgang Lukschy. 96min. Digital 4K (in NFT1 and NFT3,
2K elsewhere). 15. A Park Circus release
The film that put
Leone on the map is a testosterone-fueled tale that flips
the American western and gives it some European punch. The first part of
Leone’s Dollars trilogy firmly sets out the winning blueprint for the
other two: not least in establishing both the role of Clint Eastwood’s
nameless anti-hero and the collaboration with Ennio Morricone, which resulted
in some of the most memorable musical themes in movie history. Made on a small budget and based on Kurosawa’s Yojimbo, the film
focuses on a small town caught up in a fight for control between two warring
families. When a stranger arrives he
manipulates the feud to his own advantage – resulting in a high body count and some great cinema.
Preview: Sun 8 Apr
16:15 NFT1
ON EXTENDED RUN
FROM FRI 13 APR
For a Few Dollars
More Per qualche
dollari in piu
Italy-Spain-West
Germany 1965. Dir Sergio Leone. With
Clint Eastwood, Lee Van Cleef, Gian Maria Volontè. 132min. Digital. EST. 15
In a sequel with
double the budget of A
Fistful of Dollars, Van Cleef and Eastwood play a couple of smart but ruthless bounty
hunters closing in on a vicious gang and their truly horrible leader El Indio (Volontè).
The plot – involving a heist, a musical pocket-watch and a serving of
cold revenge – is perfectly executed by Leone, and like its predecessor, the
film was a huge box-office hit.
SUN 8 APR 16:15 NFT1 / SUN 15 APR 16:00 NFT1 / WED 18 APR 18:10 NFT1
The Good, the Bad
and the Ugly Il buono, il brutto, il cattivo
Italy-Spain-West
Germany 1966. Dir Sergio Leone. With Clint Eastwood, Lee Van Cleef, Eli
Wallach. 180min. Digital 4K. 15
Clint Eastwood’s
final film with Leone ironically produced some of their finest work during a
period of deteriorating relations. Eastwood stars as Blondie who, in
competition with two equally dangerous and resourceful men, is after a stash of
stolen confederate gold. The resulting film is surely
one of the greatest westerns ever made.
SUN 8 APR 19:15 NFT1 / SUN 15 APR 19:15 NFT1 / SUN 29 APR 18:30 NFT1
Once Upon a Time in
the West C’era una volta il West + intro by
Sir Christopher Frayling*
USA-Italy 1968. Dir
Sergio Leone. With Henry Fonda, Charles Bronson, Claudia Cardinale. 164min. Format tbc. 15
A piece of land
with a vital water source becomes the focus for this epic piece covering all
the best aspects of the Wild West. This time, Leone
watched many key American westerns in order to construct his own masterpiece.
His methods more than paid off as both a homage to what came before and as a thoroughly
entertaining addition to the genre.
MON 2 APR 19:20 NFT1 / FRI 6 APR 19:50 NFT1* / THU 26 APR 17:50 NFT1
A Fistful of
Dynamite (aka Duck You Sucker) Giu la testa
Italy-Spain 1971.
Dir Sergio Leone. With Rod Steiger, James Coburn, Romolo Valli, Vivienne
Chandler. 157min. 35mm. English version. 15
During the Mexican
Revolution in 1913, a bandit and a fugitive British
explosives expert reluctantly end up working together in a tale that Leone used
to reflect the political instability and violence rocking Italy at the time.
The growing trust between the two men is given more time to develop than in Leone’s other films, and though often overshadowed
by his previous work, his final western is a rarely seen treat.
FRI 27 APR 19:45 NFT3 / MON 30 APR 18:00 NFT1
Once Upon a Time in
America
Italy-USA 1984. Dir
Sergio Leone. With Robert De Niro,
James Woods, Elizabeth McGovern, Joe Pesci. 255min + interval. Digital.
18
Leone’s final film
as a director saw him transfer his ‘adult fairytale’ approach to the American
gangster genre as we follow the friendship between four youngsters from New
York’s Lower East Side as they rise within the ranks of organised crime.
Despite the edited version being overlooked
critically and commercially in the US, it has since been re-appraised as one of
the greatest gangster films in cinema history.
SUN 22 APR 17:40 NFT1 / SAT 28 APR 17:50 NFT1
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