Spaghetti Western Directors – Italo Alfaro

 Spaghetti Western Director – Italo Alfaro

Italo Alfaro was born in 1928 in Firenze, Tuscany, Italy. He was an Italian film director and screenwriter. Alfaro was born into a family from Naples living in Tuscany and, after starting out in radio, worked long and hard as a writer for Italian television.

In addition to his work for the theatre, he directed four feature films in an undemanding environment, two of them sex comedies in the Decameron environment and a Spaghetti western, which, however, must be counted among the worst of its kind. As an actor, he appeared in Luigi Latini de Marchi's “La notte dell'innominato” in 1962.

Alfaro died of a heart attack while visiting filming locations in Lausanne, Vaud, Switzerland for a television series in September of 1979. He was 51.

Italo Alfaro’s only Spaghetti western which he wrote the screenplay and also directed is 1973’s

“Sentivano uno strano, eccitante, pericoloso puzzo di dollari” (Behold the Strange, Stimulating Smell of Dollars).

ALFARO, Italo [1928, Firenze, Tuscany, Italy – 9/?/1979, Lausanne, Vaud, Switzerland] – director, writer, actor.

Behold the Strange, Stimulating Smell of Dollars – 1973

Spaghetti Western Screenwriter – Age

Agenore ‘Age’ Incrocci was born on July 4, 1919, in Brescia, Lombardy, Italy. Incrocci was a member of a Brescia family including several actors, such as his sister Zoe [1917-2003], and spent his youth moving with them to numerous places in Italy. His first work in the cinema world was as a dubber for Mario Monicelli's first movie, “I ragazzi della” directed by Via Paal (1935). Subsequently he worked in radio and started writing comic scripts. He also studied law, but without graduating.

He spent the first four years of World War II in France, as a prisoner of the French Army first and, later, of the Wehrmacht. He managed to escape, however, and fought for a year with the U.S. Army. Back from the front, he worked again in radio and wrote for theatre and humor magazines.

Age wrote his first screenplay for “I due orfanelli”, directed by Mario Mattoli. In 1949 he started his famous collaboration with Furio Scarpelli, as the writing duo Age & Scarpelli.

Together with Scarpelli, he worked on a total of 120 Italian movies. These include some very famous of all, such as Sergio Leone's “The Good, the Bad and the Ugly”, Mario Monicelli's “I soliti ignoti” and many Totò movies. He also worked on some scripts on his own, such as that of Pietro Germi's “Divorzio all'italiana”.

As an actor, he took a part in “La terrazza” by Ettore Scola (screenplay by Age & Scarpelli, of course) and “Ecce Bombo” by Nanni Moretti.

Age was co-screenwriter along with his writing companion Furio Scarpelli and Sergio Leone, Luciano Vincezoni and Sergio Donati for 1966’s “Il buono, il brutto, il cattivo” (The Good, the Bad and the Ugly).

Age Incrocci died in Rome on November 15, 2005 at the age of 86

AGE (Agenore Incrocci) [7/4/1919, Brescia, Lombardy, Italy – 11/15/2005, Rome, Lazio, Italy (heart attack)] – director, writer, songwriter, actor, voice dubber, brother of actress Zoe Incrocci [1917-2003], half of the writing team of ‘Age-Scapelli’.

The Good, the Bad and the Ugly – 1966 (co)

Spaghetti Western Cinematographer – Filoteo Alberini

Filoteo Alberini was born in Orte, Papal State, Italy on March 14, 1965. He was an Italian inventor and pioneer of cinema. He began working as an artisan. After doing his military service in Padua, he was hired by the Military Geographical Institute located in Florence. In 1891 he received a gold medal for his photographic developments for the reproduction of maps.

In 1905 he began his career as a film director by filming “La presa di Roma” ("The Taking of Rome"), which is considered to be one of the first Italian feature films and his most notable work. It recounted the events of the capture of Rome by Italian troops on September 20, 1870.

According to the most authoritative version, its first screening took place precisely at Porta Pia on September 20, 1905, on the occasion of the 35th anniversary of the capital of Rome, and it is estimated that more than one hundred thousand people attended on that date and in the following days; Subsequent research has shown, however, the existence of an earlier screening at the "Cinematografo Artistico" in Livorno on September 16th.

Filoteo invented the Alberini Cinetografo in 1895 and the Autosteroscopio in 1911. He invented 70mm "Panoramica" film format in 1914. In 1928 he worked with British film engineer Roy Hill on developing a wide-screen process.

During his film career, Alberini produced a total of 135 feature films, 36 short documentaries and 57 comedies, including “Quo vadis?”, the first Italian blockbuster.

Alberini was the cinematographer on two Euro-westerns: “Amore di Apache” (An Adventurer in Love) in 1906 along with Dante Santoni and “Buffalo Bill’s Wild West” in 1906.

Filoteo Alberini died in Rome on April 11, 1937. He was 72 years old.

An annual short film festival is organized in his honor in his native Orte. In addition, the city's cinema is named after him.

In 2019, a documentary was made to celebrate Alberini's life story called “The Italian Who Invented Cinema” was directed by Stefano Anselmi, written together with Giovanna Lombardi, Alberini's biographer. The film was produced by Daniel Baldacci for Blue Cinema TV and was acquired by Rai Storia.

ALBERINI, Filoteo [3/14/1865, Orte, Papal State – 4/12/1937, Rome, Lazio, Italy] – producer, director, cinematographer, cameraman, invented the Autostereoscopio (stereoscopic device), followed by the Panoramica Alberini [1895], a primitive wide-screen technique [1897], opened Rome's first cinema (The Moderno), on January 20, 1904, co-founded Alberini & Santoni Productions [1905].

An Adventurer’s Love – 1906 (co)

Buffalo Bill's Wild West – 1906