Tuesday, June 30, 2020

New Blu-ray release “Django’














“Django”
(1966)

Director: Sergio Corbucci
Starring: Franco Nero, Edaurdo Fajardo, José Bodalo Loredana Nusciak

Country: U.K.
Label: Arrow Films
Discs: 2
Region: A/1
Blu-ray
Format: Anamorphic, NTSC, Widescreen
Resolution: HD 1080
Language: English
Subtitles: English
Running time; 91 minutes
ASIN: B07GVXHRRB
Extras: Audio commentary by film critic, historian and theorist Stephen Prince, six double-sided collector s postcards, double-sided fold-out poster, limited edition 60-page perfect-bound book featuring new writing on the film by Howard Hughes and Roberto Curti, and original reviews, reversible sleeve featuring original and newly commissioned artwork by Sean Phillips, newly filmed interview with assistant director Ruggero Deodato, newly filmed interview with co-writer Franco Rossetti, newly filmed interview with Sergio Corbucci s wife Nora Corbucci, archival interview with co-writer Piero Vivarelli, archival interview with stuntman and actor Gilberto Galimberti, discovering Django, newly filmed appreciation by Spaghetti Westerns scholar Austin Fisher, an Introduction to Django by Alex Cox, an archival featurette with the acclaimed director,
gallery of original promotional images from the Mike Siegel Archive, original trailers
Available; June 30, 2020
DISC 2 Texas Adios [LIMITED EDITION EXCLUSIVE]
·  Audio commentary for by spaghetti western experts C. Courtney Joyner and Henry C. Parke
·  Newly filmed interview with star Franco Nero
·  Newly filmed interview with co-star Alberto Dell'Acqua
·  Newly filmed interview with co-writer Franco Rossetti
·  Hello Texas!, newly filmed appreciation by Spaghetti Westerns scholar Austin Fisher
·  Gallery of original promotional images from the Mike Siegel Archive
·  Original trailer

Special Birthdays


Vincent St. Cyr (actor) would have been 80 he died in 1997.

Monday, June 29, 2020

European Western Comic Books ~ Album de il Giorno

serie Album de il Giorno
Album Series of the Day


This comic book series of books features the adventures of Cocco Bill and other heroes designed by Benito Jacovitti. Issue #1 features a photo exhibit about the author. The series was published in 1962 with issue #1 in January 1, 1962 and ends with #8 on August 8 1962. It was published in Milan, Italy by Editrice Segisa under the direction of Italo Pietra and was issued monthly


Titles
01 (00.01.62) - "Coconut Bill" (Coconut Bill)
02 (00.02.62) - "Coconut Bill and the Apaciones" (
Coconut Bill and the Apaciones)
03 (00.03.62) - "Coconut Bill and the revolucion" (
Coconut Bill and the Revolution)
04 (00.04.62) - "Sergeant Coconut Bill" (Sergeant Coconut Bill)
05 (00.05.62) - "Coconut Bill in Canada" (Coconut Bill in Canada)
06 (00.06.62) - "Coconut Bill vs Coconut Bill" (Coconut Bill vs Coconut Bill)
07 (00.07.62) - "Kamumilla Kokobì" (
Kamumilla Kokobì)
08 (00.08.62) - "The Cossack Coconut Bill" (
The Cossack Coconut Bill)

Titles
01 (00.01.62) - “Cocco Bill”
02 (00.02.62) - “Cocco Bill e gli Apaciones”
03 (00.03.62) - “Cocco Bill e la revolucion”
04 (00.04.62) - “Il sergente Cocco Bill”
05 (00.05.62) - “Cocco Bill in Canada”
06 (00.06.62) - “Cocco Bill contro Cocco Bill”
07 (00.07.62) - “Kamumilla Kokobì”
08 (00.08.62) - “Il cosacco Cocco Bill”

Special Birthdays


Mario Carotenuto (actor) would have been 105 today, he died in 1995.













Jean Kent (actress) would have been 100 today, she died in 2013.

Sunday, June 28, 2020

Who Are Those Composers ~ Natili Polizzi



Ignazio Polizzy Carbonelli & Claudio Natili were members of an Italian rock band called ‘The Romans’ formed in 1959 by Natili. Polizzy and Natili wrote several songs together for the group and for other singers. They composed other film scores for films such as “Marcia trionfale” in 1976 and “Napoli: I 5 della squadra speciale” (1978). Polizzy has since died but Natili


POLIZZI, Natili (aka Polizzy Natili) (Ignazio Polizzy Carbonelli) [193?, Rome, Lazio, Italy – 4/21/2017, Rome, Lazio, Italy] – singer, musician (keyboards), grandfather of actor Riccardo Polizzy [1961-    ], Claudio Natili [1/10/1941, Rome, Lazio, Italy -     ] – composer, songwriter, singer, musician (guitar) grandson of songwriter Alvise Natili, grandfather of singer Patrizia Pradella, member of the singing groups ‘I Santo California’, ‘Nagabel’.
White Fang and the Kid - 1977

Special Birthdays


Giuseppe Colizzi (producer, director, screenwriter) would have been 95 today, he died in 1978.













Fernando Delgado (actor) would have been 90 today, he died in 2009.













Joachim Hansen (actor) would have been 90 today, he died in 2007.

Saturday, June 27, 2020

Spaghetti Western Locations for “Day of Anger”


We continue our search for filming locations for “Day of Anger”. After being told there are two deputies out in the street in front of the Talby’s saloon Scott goes out the back door and runs into Murph who’s been hired as a deputy. Murph tells Scott to be careful or he’ll be killed. Scott ignores him and goes around the side of the saloon and runs into Cross, now a deputy. He challenges Cross and when he draws another deputy in hiding opens up on Scott but he manages to shoot and kill them both. Talby comes out and asks Scott if everything is okay. Scott tells him there are no more deputies in town with a fast pistol. Talby tells him to come in a celebrate but Scott says no and walks away into the darkness.

 
This scene was filmed on the Cinecitta western set in Rome and in the saloon.



For a more detailed view of this site and other Spaghetti Western locations please visit my friend Yoshi Yasuda’s location site: http://y-yasuda.net/film-location.htm and Captain Douglas Film Locations http://www.western-locations-spain.com/

Special Birthdays


Volker Vogeler (director) would have been 90 today, he died in 2005.

Friday, June 26, 2020

Spaghetti Western Trivia ~ Álvaro de Luna sees double



In “The 3 Swords of Zorro” Spanish actor Álvaro de Luna, appears twice as two soldiers.
When Paredes murders the stepmother of the future Zorro, he is one of the soldiers who hold Juan Ortiz until he surrenders and then in Maria's tavern and he appears again as one of the soldiers who stand in line in front of the swords, he is the first one on the left with a mustache, he may also appear be in the final battle.


Once Upon a Time in Spaghetti Westerns

Join Jay Jennings and myself as we run down the top 10 most prolific actresses on the Euro-western and a special tribute to Martine Beswick today at High Noon PST.

Voices of the Spaghetti Western ~ “Taste of Vengeance”


As we know most of the Euro-westerns were co-productions from Italy, Spain, Germany and France which incorporated British and American actors to gain a worldwide audience. The films were shot silent and then dubbed into the various languages where they were sold for distribution. That means Italian, Spanish, German, French and English voice actors were hired to dub the films. Even actors from the countries where the film was to be shown were often dubbed by voice actors for various reasons such as the actors were already busy making another film, they wanted to paid additional salaries for dubbing their voices, the actor’s voice didn’t fit the character they were playing, accidents to the actors and in some cases even death before the film could be dubbed.

I’ll list a Euro-western and the (I) Italian, (S) Spanish, (G) German and (F) French, (E) English voices that I can find and once in a while a bio on a specific voice actor as in Europe these actors are as well-known as the actors they voiced.













Today we’ll cover “Taste of Vengeance”
[(I) Italian, (S) Spanish, (G) German, (F) French, (E) English]

Bryan Clarke – Gianni Garko (I) Gianni Garko, (S) Jesus Nieto, (G) Klaus Kindler
Daniel – Sean Todd (I) ?, (S) Ángel María Baltanás, (G) Wolfgang Hess
Julie - Elisa Montés (I) ? (S) Ana Maria Sazar, (G) ?
Robert Clarke – Jerry Wilson (I) Roberto Miali, (S) Carlos Revilla, (G) ?
John Murray – Julio Peña (I) ?, (S) Julio Peña, (G) ?
















KINDLER, Klaus (1930 – 2001)

Klaus Kindler was born in Heidelberg, Germany on January 1, 1930, After attending an acting school in his hometown, Kindler made his 1950 debut as Georg in Götz von Berlichingen at the Wiesbaden State Theater. This was followed by appearances on the stages of Hamburg, Dortmund and from 1954 at the German Theater Göttingen under Heinz Hilpert. Initially cast as the young lover (Romeo, Leonce, Mortimer), and in later roles like Andres in Woyzeck were also were part of his repertoire.

From 1960 onwards, Klaus Kindler withdrew from the stage more and more. Modern theater did not meet his expectations, nor did German film at the time. He now focused almost exclusively on the dubbing of foreign films. Actors he often dubbed include Clint Eastwood (in For a Fistful of Dollars, For A Few Dollars More and all films from 1976 to Kindler's Death), Al Pacino (in Carlito's Way and The Scent of a Woman), Steve McQueen ( in The Great Escape and Papillon), George Segal (in Who is Afraid of Virginia Woolf?), Jean-Paul Belmondo (Adventure in Rio) and Alain Delon (in Le samouraï). In the first James Bond film Dr. No he spoke for Sean Connery, in the western series Big Valley lent both Lee Majors and - 25 years later - Richard Long his voice, in the western series The Virginian he was heard mainly as trampas (Doug McClure). In the Nikita television series, Kindler was the voice actor for Don Francks the first three seasons. Until 2005 you could still hear him in a radio commercial for Liebherr refrigerators. From 1985 to 1991 he also gave the character Gruffi his voice in the children’s series Disney's Gummy Bear gang.

In between, Kindler also occasionally took on roles on television. In the multi-part The Fifth Season, he was synchronized by his colleague Siegfried Rauch himself, because he mastered the required Tyrolean dialect better.

Klaus Kindler was married to actress Monika Dahlberg.  He died on April 16, 2001 in Pfaffenhofen an der Ilm, Bavaria, Germany.

Who Are Those Guys? Edwin J. Collins


Edwin J. Collins was born in Cheltenham, Gloucestershire, England in 1875. He was an actor for Cricks & Martin Studios from 1910-1911 but was became better known as a director of more than 50 short films between 1912 and 1923 for the same company and then for H.B. Parkinson.

Collins died in Richmond, Surrey, England on January 14, 1937. He was 62 years-old.


COLLINS, Edwin J. (aka Ed Collins) (Edwin Joseph Collins) [1875, Cheltenham, Gloucestershire, England, U.K. – 1/14/1937, Richmond, Surrey, England, U.K.] – director, writer, cameraman, film actor.
A Rake’s Romance - 1909

Special Birthdays


Helen Wart (Ana Maria Miserocchi) (actress) would have been 95 today, she died in 1988.













Maria Monti (actress) is 85 today.










Claudio Ruffini (actor) would have been 80 today, he died in 1999.

Thursday, June 25, 2020

RIP Étienne Périer


French director, screenwriter Étienne Périer, died on June 21, 2020 at the age of 88 in his home in Plan-de-la-Tour. Born in Brussels on December 11, 1931, Etienne Perier crossed the camera in hand last century, a script under his arm, from one end of the world to the other. He was an assistant to Henri Georges Clouzot in "Les Diaboliques", in 1957, and he worked on a film with his friend Bernard Buffet, a short film which won him an award at the Venice Festival in 1958. This success will propel him. He works with Jean Cocteau to write and prepare the "Testament of Orpheus". From then on, his career will never stop. A director, and scriptwriter, from I953 until 1958, he collaborated with Charles SPAAK on several scenarios including "Charmants boys" and with Dominique Fabre who, subsequently, wrote most of his French films. He was co-director and screenwriter on the 1984 TV Euro-western ‘Louisiana’ starring Margot Kidder.

RIP Paolo Giusti



Italian film and fotoromanzi actor Paolo Giusti died in a Rome hospital after a long stay on June 24, 2020. He was 77. Born in Rome on October 21, 1942 he was known as a fotoromanzi actor and appeared in small roles in films. He was sometimes billed as Paul Just and was also a singer. Paolo appeared as Chris in the 1967 Euro-western “Death Rides Along” as was to appear in “The Last of the Gunfighters” a 1967 western that was never completed.

50th Anniversary of the “One Damned Day at Dawn… Django Meets Sartana!”


Today marks the 50th Anniversary of the premier of “One Damned Day at Dawn… Django Meets Sartana” directed by Demofilo Fidani and starring Hunt Powers and Fabio Testi.  The story is about a stagecoach which arrives in Black City bringing the new sheriff, Jack Ronson. The country is under the control of Budd Wheeler, an adventurer who, in league with the Mexican bandit Sanchez, is terrorizing the region. The old telegraph operator, Mc Laren, informs the young sheriff of the code of silence that reigns in the country and the misdeeds that for over five years Sanchez and Budd have committed. Meanwhile in Black City comes an unknown knight - who is actually the "bounty hunter" Django - who checks into the only accommodations available, a shabby tavern. Django has come seeking vengeance for the death of two of his friends and at the same time will try to pocket the large rewards for Sanchez and Budd, meanwhile, the sheriff Ronson has been challenged to a showdown with Budd but Django intervenes and exterminates Budd and his men. The news of the death of Budd unleashes the wrath of Sanchez, who arrives in town with his band. Ronson fights against Sanchez and his henchmen and manages to eliminate them, with the help of Django. When they finally leave Black City, Ronson reveals that he actually is the "bounty hunter" called Sartana.


Quel maledetto giorno d’inverno… Django e Sartana all’ultimo sangue – Italian title
Django e Sartana – Italian title
Lo scerifo – Italian title
Quel Maledetto Giorno d’Inverno… Django e Sartana all’Ultimo – Argentinian title
Django møder Satan – Danish title
Django ontmoet Satan – Dutch title
Django et Sartana – French title
O serifis – Greek title
Oi dyo ektelestes – Greek title
Django e Sartana… ate ao ultimo sangue – Portuguese title
Duell i gryningen – Swedish title
Django and Sartana’s Showdown in the West – English title
One Damned Day at Dawn… Django Meets Sartana            ! – English title

A 1970 Italian film production [Tarquinia Cinematografica (Rome)]
Producer: Demofilo Fidani
Director: Miles Deem (Demofilo Fidani)
Story: Demofilo Fidani
Screenplay: Demofilo Fidani, M.R. Vitelli Valenza (Mila Vitelli)
Cinematography Franco Villa [Eastmancolor]
Music: Coriolano Gori
Running time: 90 minutes

Cast:
Django – Hunt Powers (Jack Betts)
Sartana/Sheriff Jack Ronson – Stet Carson (Fabio Testi)
Bud Wheeler/Willer – Dean Stratford (Dino Strano)
Sheriff Mason – Calogero Caruana
Paco Sanchez – Dennis Colt (Benito Pacifico)
Joe ‘The Worm’ Smith – Lucky McMurray (Luciano Conti)
Dolores – Simone Blondell (Simonetta Vitelli)
Peter Sturges – Franco Pasquetto (Gianfranco Pasquetto)
Widow Sturges – Mariella Palmich (Azzurra Pamphilli)
Frank Cutler – Celso Faria
Paco – Pietro Torrisi
Bill/Willy McLaren – Dan Reesy (Attilio Dottesio)
Mordera – Robert Dannish (Roberto Danesi)
Bart – Antonio Basile
Sanchez henchman – Michael Brank (Michele Branca)
With: Joel Moore, Franco Graziosi, Luciano Pallotta


Spaghetti Western Location ~ Tembleque, Spain


Tembleque, is a village 40 kilometers south of Aranjuez (and 80 kilometers south of Madrid), it is located a short distance from the Andalusian Highway in a flat area typical of Castilla La Mancha. It remained intact and was characterized by the large 18th century church of Nuestra Señora de la Asunción, with a 17th century bell tower, and the suggestive Plaza Mayor. This square, quadrangular, on three sides has a building with a porch and a wooden terrace on two floors, which, in the past, starting from the sixteenth century, were used as stages for theatrical performances, spectacular religious ceremonies and bullfights. It is one of the most characteristic squares of Castile. Similar examples are found in Chinichon and Colmenar de Oreja. Tembleque's plaza Mayor is used as a set to represent Mexican towns in some scenes from "The Forgotten Pistolero" (1969), and in episodes of the TV series ‘Zorro’ (1990) and “What Am I Doing In the Middle of a  Revolution? (1972), in which the great church appears.


 
“The Forgotten Pistolero” (1969)





 
“Zorro” (1990)






 
“What Am I Doing In the Middle of a  Revolution?” (1972)

Special Birthdays

John Briley (screenwriter) would have been 95 today, he died in 2019.













Radmilo Curcic-Cure (actor) would have been 90- today, he died in 1993.

Wednesday, June 24, 2020

RIP Charly Bravo


Spanish supporting and character actor Charly Bravo died in his room at the Estrella de Madrid hostel on June 23, 2020. He was 77. Born Ramón Carlos Mirón-Muñoz Bravo on March 6, 1943, Bravo appeared in more than 200 movies and was the face of a thousand different men. From western films to “Conan the Barbarian”, he became one of the most common faces on the screen in his supporting roles. He proudly carried the title of being the Spaniard who had worked in the most in westerns such as “A Town Called Hell”, “Captain Apache”, “A Man Called Noon” and 20 more.

Spanish porn star arrested after man dies during 'mystical' toad venom ritual




CNN
By Jack Guy
June 5, 2020

Porn star Nacho Vidal is under investigation for manslaughter, after a man died during a ceremony involving toad venom.

Vidal and two other individuals were arrested on May 29, according to his lawyer, David Salvador.

They were arrested on suspicion of manslaughter and following an 11-month investigation, according to a statement from Spain's law enforcement agency, the Guardia Civil.

They appeared before a judge on the same day, a spokesman for the supreme court of Valencia told CNN.

All three were released provisionally and investigations continue, according to the spokesman.

Police have not named the man who died. The names of the two other people -- a man and a woman -- who were arrested along with Vidal have not been made public.

He said the person who died had used the toad venom before and had wanted to experience it again.

The individual attended the ritual organized by Vidal and the two other people, the Guardia Civil said.

Police said the incident took place in July 2019 in the town of Enguera, near Valencia, in eastern Spain.

The person died during what the Guardia Civil called a "mystical ritual involving the inhalation of venomous vapors from the Bufo alvarius toad."

Also known as the Colorado River toad or the Sonoran Desert toad, the amphibian releases a venom called 5-MeO-DMT, which is known to have hallucinogenic effects, according to the Addiction Center website.

The toads grow to 18 centimeters or more, making them one of the largest native toads in North America, according to the Arizona-Sonora Desert Museum. The species is found from central Arizona to southwestern New Mexico and the Mexican state of Sinaloa.
The Guardia Civil said that those arrested carried out the rituals on a regular basis for therapeutic and medicinal purposes.

The law enforcement agency said the practice posed a serious health risk, but the dangers were masked by "what looked like an inoffensive ancestral ritual."

However, Salvador denied that his client took part in regular rituals. He said Vidal had some friends who knew how it worked and he had taken it a few times.

Vidal, aged 46, has appeared in at least 10,000 scenes, in a porn career spanning 26 years, according to his website. He’s appeared in three Adult Euro-westerns: “A Fistful of Balls” (1998), “Outland I: Beyond the Far West” and “Outland II: Looking for Freedom” (2016) as Sandor Kalimdor.

Franco Franchi and Ciccio Ingrassia: the record pair. The secret of their success Part 2


By Domenico Palattella

The most important partnership they had however, was with the director Lucio Fulci, who directed them perhaps in their best films: from the hilarious  "00-2 secret agents"  to  "I due evasi di Sing Sing" , passing through  "Il lungo, il corto, il gatto" and  " 00-2 Operazione Luna ", all films that easily exceeded one billion lire in receipts. In 1966, at the height of their golden age, it is the amusing film "Come svaligiammo la Banca d’ItaliaHow", considered by many to be the couple's best film. The film in question, was directed by Lucio Fulci, the director who best managed to understand and exploit the undoubted, enormous abilities of the couple, and was also the director who best understood their first level comic potential. It is no coincidence that the 20 films directed by Fulci, who came from a long apprenticeship as assistant director in several films with Totò, are considered among the best of the famous couple. Besides, Franco and Ciccio were very comfortable working with the Roman director. Other films worth mentioning include "Ma chi t’ha dato la patente?(1971),  "I due vigili (1967),  "Per un pugno nell’occhio (1964),  "Due bianchi nell’Africa” (1970), "I due deputati" (1969), "I barbieri di Sicilia"  (1967), "I due sanculotti"  (1966),  "Franco e Ciccio on the warpath"  (1971),  "I due pompieri"  (1968),  "The Two Craziest Beetles in the World"  (1970) and countless other hit films, never a flop! Even "The Primitive Love" of 1964 is considered, by an authoritative critic like Marco Giusti, "a stracult of fearful strength with magnificent colors".

It is said that it was a pleasure to work on the set with both, they were very disciplined, kind and available to everyone. Franco and Ciccio, who had suffered from hunger in the years of their apprenticeship, were always very generous with friends, helped many people to live and made many old characters and actors of the unemployed a chance to work: like Enzo Andronico, Ignazio Leone and a very young Lino Banfi, which shortly thereafter would break through in the cinema of the 1970s and 1980s. Even the committed cinema, however, noticed them: Steno directed them in the film "A Monster and a Half" (1965), and Pier Paolo Pasolini wanted them alongside Totò in the episode of "Capriccio all'italiana", "What are the clouds?" 1968. But above all Franco and Ciccio interpreted a free, but delicious reduction of the "Don Quixote and Sancho Panza" from Cervantes. The film is from 1968, and the two actors outdo each other, respectively Ciccio in the role of the errant knight, and Franco his faithful squire. It is the most beautiful Italian film inspired by the legendary work of Cervantes, clean, linear, fun, conceived with a certain libertarian spirit that leaves its mark (Sancho / Franks who becomes governor and legislator in favor of the people, the final incitement of Don Quixote / Ingrassia to "fight against the wind" as the inevitable fate of an unapproved life, but the public showed, in any case, to prefer them, in their unleashed farces, where, albeit in a repetitive way, they had the opportunity to express their potential comedy, freely, with a free rein. To date, by critics, a certain process of reassessment in the historical-cultural field of their artistic production has begun, a well-deserved reassessment. Between various quarrels, the 1973 division, reconciliation and other various vicissitudes, theirs was a fraternal friendship, indeed more, a bond that went beyond friendship, a blood bond, an indivisible bond even after death, a divine bond. We both knew it very well, and we who are the public also knew it very well, in this regard I quote a moving phrase by Franco Franchi which testifies, without a shadow of a doubt, their indissoluble bond: a blood bond, an indivisible bond even after death, a divine bond. "We are the couple! See also separate, we are always together. Where I am there is also Ciccio and where there is Ciccio you always look for me. Like Stan and Ollie. When Ollie made those films with John Wayne he wasn't laughing, because you always thought of Stanley. Franco and Ciccio are one of those indivisible photographs, which cannot be torn apart. God made us like this, united, and united we must remain”. 

Yet both Franco and Ciccio, in the few years of artistic separation, have shown that they are both very valid actors, even taken individually. Franco continued to reap hits in popular cinema, and above all stand out "The Midday Executioner" and "Last Tango in Zagarol", two precise parodies of two very successful films: "The Executioner of the Night"  with Charles Bronson, and  "Last tango in Paris” by Bernardo Bertolucci. Franco's two parodies were, and it is a remarkable novelty, much appreciated by critics as well as by the public. In the meantime Ciccio was discovered and employed by committed directors, Federico Fellini above all, who directed him in the famlous  "Amarcord" (1974), which won the Oscar for best foreign film in 1975. But there is no shortage of heights in popular cinema as well, in 1975, in fact, Ciccio Ingrassia directs and interprets the film "The exorcism" , with Lino Banfi also in the cast. The film, which had great success then, has become today, a real "cult movie" of popular vintage cinema. It is certain that Franco Franchi is not entirely wrong: albeit very good as always, it has a certain effect to see in the few films they have played separately, Franco alone without Ciccio, or vice versa.

And yet, after yet another reconciliation, it is with their last coupled film, in 1984, that Franco and Ciccio verge on perfection. The icing on the cake to a great career, with the film  "Kaos", by the brothers Paolo and Vittorio Taviani, in the episode "The jar", taken from the most beautiful novel by the writer Luigi Pirandello. It is in these 40 minutes, of their episode, that for the length is a full-length medium-length film, that Franco and Ciccio overcome themselves by showing off an applause, poetic, dramatic, composed, poignant interpretation, which even moves the critics. It seemed almost that Pirandello, in writing the story, had thought of Franco and Ciccio, to make the deeds of Zi Dima and Don Lollò live: absolutely perfect. A fabulous interpretation that earned him thunderous applause at the Venice Film Festival, for both, and the failure to win the Golden Lion, as best actors ex-aequo, just because the critics, giving the prize to Franco and Ingrassia, would have seen his credible credibility collapse. "Never was the most effervescent and perfect couple seen in the frequent staging of the famous Pirandellian novel". And for the same Franco and Ciccio it was a moment of revenge and great pride: "at best there is never an end, it fascinates me, it moves me to have played Pirandello, and paired with Franco, a unique emotion"  (Ciccio Ingrassia ); "I never thought I would be invited one day, here to the Venice Film Festival, and to receive thunderous applause, and I would never have imagined playing Pirandello one day" (Franco Franchi).



Franco and Ciccio, in conclusion, really represented Italy and the Italians in their daily vicissitudes to survive, to keep going, and they are also a symbol of friendship, the real one, the one that even if you fight, lasts for the whole life, the deep one, which survives death. They were, not one of the couples of Italian cinema, but probably "the couple of Italian cinema" , their myth is alive more than ever today, perhaps even more than then, and they are by right among the greats of our cinema as bearers of that noble and ancient art of making people laugh that has its roots, far away, in the mists of time.