I vecchietti del West (Oldies of the West)

 

Riservata

By Claudia Ali

November 2012

Good, ugly, bad. And also a little more over the years. They are the original Roman cowboys, the protagonists of the legendary western spaghetti in the limelight for a special evening, in the company of Quentin Tarantino. There are about thirty of them, including actors, screenwriters and directors of the old Italian westerns, attested by Quentin himself – and he himself who decided who to invite – tomorrow in Piazza Cavour at the preview of the new film he wrote and directed, Django Unchained, starring Jamie Foxx, Leonardo DiCaprio, Christoph Waltz, Samuel L. Jackson and Kerry Washington.

Django Unchained will be released in Italian cinemas on the promised January 17, distributed by Warner Bros. Here they are, awaited by Barbara Salabe and Nicola Maccianico, president and general manager of Warner, as much as the protagonists of the film: Franco Nero (the first Django), accompanied by Patrizia Brandimarte, Giuliano Gemma (Ringo), George Hilton (Alleluia) Gianni Garko (Sartana), Fabio Testi. And yet also a pioneer of the genre, Nicola Di Gioia, stuntman and actor born in 1944, who boasts a dozen westerns. The role for him which is best remembered by fans was that in Poker With Pistols.

He always talks about shooting himself with blanks by mistake with a gun in his pocket. A harmless flare of course, however, what a hole it would make in his pants. And then Lucio Rosato, who also grew up on his grandfather's farm on the Prenestina and who made Navajo Joe with Sergio Corbucci. Leader of a gang of villains, Lucio Rossi in the film rapes and kills the splendid Rosalba Neri, one of the rare black-haired women in the western with Edwige Fenech. Both will be present at the preview in cult the director of the Rome International Film Festival.

Marco Muller will deliver the Lifetime Achievement Award of the seventh edition to Quentin Tarantino. The great composer Ennio Morricone will deliver the prize. And again, always recruited with the care of the film critic Marco Giusti, who even dedicated a dictionary to the Italian western, the western directors Enzo G. Castellari, Mario Caiano, Franco Giraldi, Giulio Questi, Umberto Di Martino, Ruggero Deodato, Giancarlo Santi, historical assistant of Sergio Leone, Carlo Lizzani, the widow of Sergio Corbucci, Nori. A curiosity: Ursula Andress, Gloria Guida and Sydne Rome will also participate in the evening at Tarantino's request.