Claudio Del Falco: Django Undisputed

The Italian western rises again, under the banner of Trinity.

Dear Claudio, I'm very curious to know about this project of the return of the western: Django Undisputed...

This was an idea launched by Minerva. I'm making films that they distribute, but, as you know, my films are centered on martial arts. I mainly do those. So, during a meeting with Gianluca Curti we decided to make a western and bring spaghetti back to Italy. He has decided, in truth. And I, a little reluctantly at first, accepted this project...

Why, didn't you like the western genre?

No, no: let's say that, initially, the push came from him, from Curti, then later... Appetite comes with eating (laughs). I took this responsibility because there the challenge was to make a western even, let's say, visible... Because they have also made many westerns. If you do a search, in recent years they have done wasterns, but at a very low cost, so no one has seen them. Maybe they even put them on Prime, but they were poor works, without actors, with a horse... that is, the western was really shitty. Instead, we decided to make it a high-budget film, and we made an important film, with important actors, like Tomas Arana from Gladiator.

There is also Ottaviano Dell'Acqua who plays the father, an important role ...

Ottaviano Dell'Acqua makes Django great... but this is also and above all a bit of a parody of Trinity: the most important western film I saw was Trinity... I used to go to school on horseback, when I was little, go figure, so I really experienced the western (laughs). So I was inspired by They Call Him Trinity and Trinity is STILL My Name. In fact, the film will be dedicated to E. B. Clucher, to Enzo Barboni, the director of Trinity... Django undisputed will be a tribute to him. The title was found by Gianluca Curti, thinking of the Undisputed saga, with Scott Adkins. So, what does Django do here? He returns home and finds his father, who is a drunkard and is played very well by Ottaviano Dell'Acqua. Octavian made an interpretation that I won't tell you! He was very good, really formidable and I think he did one of the best roles of his career. Because I sewed it on him right ...

[Ottaviano Dell'Acqua, Anna Rita Del Piano]

 Who wrote the film? 

I wrote it, subject and screenplay. And it is entirely inspired by Trinity. I took the most beautiful things, which have remained in the history of cinema. Do you remember, for example, when Trinity slapped the bad guy, in the famous card game, where he shuffles the cards and so on? Here, I did it again the same, with those gags. Then, lunch with the family, a feast of beans... Even the famous sleigh attached to the horse, we have recreated it the same.

When did you shoot it? Have you finished it or are you still working on it?

The film is shot and I'm editing it: since we are very fast, I think it will be ready by mid-October. So, I think that for Christmas Gianluca, if he wants, can let him out.

It seems to me that you have never been a great fan of westerns, at least the classic, traditional one...

Let's say that I was born with the western, because I grew up in a family of horsemen: I went to school on horseback, so much so that everyone remembers me in Castel Gandolfo, when I went to Castel Gandolfo at the age of twelve, galloping, to go to school, middle school, high school. I used to go to Albano, to Marino, always on horseback, to do the shopping. So I grew up with horses. But classic western films, like Ford's, with John Wayne, I always found a bit boring. I watched them with my father, but I always considered them a little boring, with slow stories. The only western I've seen at least a hundred times is Trinity. But really! Because Trinity involves you, makes you laugh, is full of jokes. So, I said to myself: "Here, if we remake a Trinity 2.0, it works, because many young people have not seen it, or they want to see it updated again... And so we made this Trinity 2.0 in which we put the saloon with the prostitutes, all very curvy, the Japanese whose life, my brother, Bambino, saves ...

Well, I guess, then, that the challenge was to find the new Spencer and Hill...

So: instead of Bud Spencer we chose a bodybuilder because today Bud Spencer would no longer work: young people are critical and therefore one "with a belly" would not work, so I put Mister Olimpia, Fabio Romagnolo, a Schwarzenegger type, who beats, who punches in the head. And the boy who sees him says: "Kill, this one, so muscular, he beats!". I do Terence Hill, so I get on horseback, I go down... and for the first time I don't fight!

[Claudio Del Falco, Clara Guggiari]

 This is what I wanted to ask you. I mean, did you put something of "your" martial arts in it?

No! I was an actor. Strangely, I only acted this time (laughs).

So not even a punch is thrown?

No, I participate in the fights, but I only dodge the blows... The punches are all given by the one who plays Bud Spencer. Fabio Romagnolo is a bodybuilder, he is very good, huge, if you see him, he looks like a gentle giant. With the beard he is the same, inspired by Bud. I'm there with him and I'm always laughing, like Terence Hill, I tease everyone, I make fun, I'm the fastest gun in the West. But when I shoot, I disarm, I never kill. I'm so fast that I take the guns out of the hands of those who want to shoot me...

But after all, even Terence Hil and Bud Spencer, they didn't do any deaths in those westerns there...

Maybe in the first scene, when he eats the beans, he kills those two: this is not well understood...

They were certainly much softer than the violence of the spaghetti-western, the grim one, where there were dozens of deaths. Everything was more moderate...

The only one who dies in my film is killed by Mortimer, paid by Tomas Arana to kill me. He arrives in the town and kills the sheriff, who is played by Massimiliano Buzzanca, the son of Lando Buzzanca. He is the only one who dies. The film is very funny, also because I updated it later. In Trinity, there were some boring parts. For example, I find it very boring when they go to the prairie and the Mexicans arrive: that part was a bit boring and it's not in my film. In the second Trinity two there are some beautiful ideas, such as lunch. So I took all the funniest sequences from the two films and edited them all for a Django. There is the relationship between Django and Ottaviano, between son and father: the return home after many years, the family cemetery, where they train, the prostitutes who wash them... that is, I put the famous tub, but Terence Hill washed himself, while here I put four prostitutes to wash the character. Django Undisputed is very rich: we had a lot of extras, for the first time I had up to 70 people on stage. In my films, I had a maximum of 10. This time I exaggerated: 20 horses on stage at the same time, galloping. I mean that you can see that it's not an Italian low budget, understood? It could be an American budget. I am very satisfied with the result, I can't wait to show you. As soon as I have it ready, I will send it to you.

Listen, Claudio, but from the inside, since you have moved and are moving a lot: how is the situation in Italian cinema?

Let's say that I have wriggled out of Italian cinema. For me, Italian cinema does not exist. Maybe I'm the only actor you shouldn't have asked such a question. You have to do it to all Italian actors except me, because the films I make have an international destination: if one of my films is released in Italy or not, it's the same thing for me. What does Minerva International do? He dubbs my films, because he has the distribution of my films, I have a contract with them for distribution and what do they do? They dub them in six languages: dubbed themselves, not subtitled; and films are released in each country with their own language. I'm not an Italian actor "subtitled", you know what I mean? In the States I speak New York, so I'm a New Yorker...

[Fabio Romagnolo, Gabriele Mallimaci]

So you will also have proposals from abroad...

Absolutely, I have them all the time. I have them both from television, for Italian films, and from abroad. But now I have this close relationship with Minerva and I don't want to betray them. I've known the Curti family for thirty years, we're very good friends, now I have to make a lot of films with them. Now I do leading roles, like: I did Assassin Club, Camille Delamarre's with Paramount. But my character, after the three protagonists, is the most important, understood? So, under these conditions, I do the role, but if they call me for a film in which, perhaps, I don't like the cast, I don't do it.

Why is it difficult to do the action genre in Italy today?

They try, to make them, but they can't. So: the director is fundamental. Why am I directing myself now? The editing is fundamental, and also the actor, who must be physical, because to make films like this, you need a physical actor. So, in Italy I don't say I'm the only one, but almost... I don't know how many actors physically manage to hold a leading role by jumping through hoops, beating them, kicking in the face... I am always very trained. When I go to make a film, I know that for twenty days, eight hours a day, I fight... And I'm not even a child anymore, I'm big in age. It takes a physical preparation that Italians don't have and they should take a stuntman. So, I have little competition in Italy at the level of actors. I take advantage of it, of course, having no competition. The Italian Van Damme is me.

But it is also true that you come from an important athletic background, I mean: you are someone who has a sporting background...

Eh, I've been making these films since the nineties. And think that this year I am also doing the unified world championship of WTKA Karate, I am training for October 29 in Massa Carrara: I still don't give up. Before Django Undisputed I made two other films, one is called Iron Fighter and the other The Martial Avenger: the first will be released now in October and the other immediately following. So Django will be released as the third film as a director. I have two films of my own, about martial arts where there is revenge, the ferocious villain, who hurts and so on...

The classic scheme...

Classic, international scheme, therefore international actors. In one I have Danny Quinn, even, who I dusted off after many years, the son of Anthony Quinn, who is my coach, and then Hal Yamanouchi. In this other one, however, I have all stuntmen: Michael Seagal who is a very good stuntman actor, the son of Hal Yamanouchi who is also a stuntman, Taiyo Yamanouchi who is very good and then all stuntmen, at least thirty ...

[Claudio Del Falco, Michael Seagal]

Being a director, then, also being on the other side, what is it like? This is the third one you've directed...

I was born as a director because I went to directing school when I was young. I come from the Jovinelli family. Do you know that grandmother fed Federico Fellini? That is, Fellini went to my grandmother's theater, he was always there. I used to go to his house, when he was shooting I was an assistant director, I was there with him. So I was born as a director, I went to directing school... Then, logically, who makes the director do it? That is, it is impossible. At a certain point I made these films as an actor and I found an important team: with Matteo De Angelis, who is my dop and helps me a lot, because when I am on stage as an actor, he helps me direct. I use the stunt coordinator as a director also, sometimes I put him as a video director. Let's say that we have very few lines in these action movies. Just this morning I made the dialogue list this morning of The Martial Avenger: there were twenty lines in the whole film ...

It's just action...

Yes, because Minerva wants this, she only wants action and in Italy these films are not made for a thousand reasons, because you need the right direction, a protagonist who has the scenic power and therefore must have a physique that gives the idea, because if you put someone with a belly the film doesn't hold up. Like Sylvester Stallone when he started: we all remember Stallone's physique, in Rocky, in Rambo. He was famous for his muscles, then later we associated him with those characters he played. You need the muscles, the physical preparation, the right direction, the editor who knows how to edit, the distribution that makes you release it all over the world... because then they are films that are not released in Italy, so if you do it for Italy it is useless. You have to have a distribution in 160 countries, because, then, over all this number of countries, it grosses, it makes a good taking. I set up this whole team between distribution, production, Salvatore Alongi who is the executive producer together with Giuseppe Andreani, so we are a group. I, then, am also very fast in directing, I am very fast in directing because I have very fast techniques: I never repeat the scene, I do all the pick-ups, practically, that is, I always pick up where I came from. Then I'll fix the editing, the scene, because these are scenes that have a lot of cuts. And having 5000 cuts, you make a film in the editing, you don't do it while you shoot it. I, already having it in mind, it is useless for a kick that I have already taken to repeat it, because I take it from another angle. It takes me very few days for a film, 12, 13, 14 days at most.

How long did it take to make Django Undisputed?

12 actual days. Very fast, shot in God's heat, in August, a massacre, but I'm very satisfied. The cast go and see: there is Nadia Bengala former Miss Italy, there is Francesca Giuliano that of the Bonolis program, as well as the great Tomas Arana ...

And what is he like, Arana?

I had already shot a film with him, Ferrero's: MMA Love Never Dies. And he was my rival already there. We always talk during the year, we wish each other well. Arana gives an additional touch of internationality. Then, since we couldn't take two actors to hold our own, there are two sports champions: me, who am world champion in karate, who is Terence Hill, and Fabio Romagnolo, who is world champion in body building, who plays Bud Spencer. And so we didn't go to usurp the throne of these two fantastic characters; Ours is a different key, we are two sportsmen lent to the cinema who interpret these characters in their own way. If we had put two actors, the comparison would not have held up...