Spaghetti Western Directors, Screenwriters, Cinematographers

Spaghetti Western Director ~ Louis Malle

Louis Marie Malle was a French film director and screenwriter whose career spanned documentaries and fiction, marked by stylistic innovation and unflinching examinations of human frailty, moral ambiguity, and social taboos.

Born into a prosperous industrial family in Thumeries, France on October 30, 1932, Malle initially gained prominence through underwater documentaries co-directed with Jacques Cousteau, including “The Silent World” (1956), which secured the Palme d'Or at Cannes and the Academy Award for Best Documentary Feature. Transitioning to narrative cinema, his early features like “Ascenseur pour l'échafaud” (1958) and “Les Amants” (1958) featured jazz scores by Miles Davis and explicit depictions of adultery that provoked censorship battles and positioned Malle as a precursor to the French New Wave, though he operated more independently. Later works delved into suicide “Le Feu follet” (1963), incest “Le Souffle au cœur” (1971), and World War II-era collaboration “Lacombe Lucien” (1974); “Au Revoir les Enfants” (1987), the latter earning Academy Award nominations for Best Foreign Language Film and Original Screenplay. His American productions, including “Pretty Baby” (1978), ignited controversy for portraying child prostitution in early 20th-century New Orleans with 12-year-old Brooke Shields in nude scenes, resulting in bans and debates over artistic license versus exploitation. Malle's oeuvre, characterized by autobiographical elements and a rejection of didacticism, earned him César Awards, BAFTA nominations, and enduring recognition for prioritizing narrative authenticity over conventional morality.

Malle died in Beverly Hills, California on November 23, 1995 from lymphoma at the age of 63.

Louis Malle directed on Euro-western, “Viva Maria!” in 1965.

MALLE, Louis [10/30/1932, Thumeries, Nord, France – 11/23/1995, Beverly Hills, California, U.S.A. (lymphoma)] – producer, director, writer, cinematographer, cameraman, composer, songwriter, brother of producer, Vincent Malle [1944–2011], married to actress Anne-Marie Deschodt [1938-2014] (1965-1967), father of producer, director, writer, cameraman, film editor Manuel Cuotemoc Malle (Manuel Luis Maria Cuauthémoc Malle) [1971-    ], with actress Gila von Weitershausen (Gisela Freiin von Weitershausen) [1944-    ], daughter director,  Justine Malle [1974-    ], with Alexandra Stewart [1939-    ], married to producer, actress, Candice Bergen (Candice Patricia Bergen) (1980-1995) [1945-     ] father actress Chloe Malle (Chloe F. Malle) [1985-    ].

Viva Maria! – 1965

 

Spaghetti Western Screenwriter ~ Alessandro Ferrau

Alessandro Ferrau was an Italian journalist and film writer. He wrote screenplays for twenty-two films between 1952 to 1967.

Interested in cinema at a very young age, since the mid-1930s he had been editor of several magazines, including Il Corriere Cinematografico, Cinestar, Cinespettacolo and Cinema d'oggi. For many years, in the periodical Il Giornale dello Spettacolo he published and analyzed the takings of Italian-produced films. In 1950, together with Gino Caserta, he was the creator of the series of volumes Annuario del Cinema Italiano and, starting in 1954, promoted the Una vita per il cinema award, which was interrupted in 1992 and resumed in 2009. Together with Eduardo Passarelli, in 1952 he edited the first biography of Totò, Siamo uomini o caporali, published again posthumously in 1996 with additions, by Liliana de Curtis and edited by Matilde Amorosi with the title Totò. Are we men or corporals? Semi-serious diary of Antonio De Curtis. In 1964 he published the volume Prontuario dei termini politico, economico e sociali in uso in Italia. From 1970 he was the editor of the Actors' Yearbook.

From 1951 to 1955 and, later, from 1961 to 1968 he was also the screenwriter and, sometimes, the screenwriter, of about twenty genre films, ranging from melodramatic to mythological, to Italian westerns, up to espionage. He collaborated mainly with Domenico Paolella, but also, among others, with Carlo Lizzani and Vittorio Cottafavi. Married since 1939 to Tetella Onorati, he died on April 2, 1994, the day after turning 81.

Alessandro Ferrau co-wrote screenplays for two Spaghetti westerns: “Ric & Gian alla conquista del West” (Rick & John Conquerors of the West) with Tito Carpi and Osvaldo Civirani and “Il figlio di Django) (The Son of Django) again with Tito Carpi and Osvaldo Civirani both in 1967.

FERRAU, Alessandro (A. Ferraù) (Alessandro Ferraù) [4/1/1913, Messina, Sicily, Italy - 4/2/1994, Rome, Lazio, Italy] – journalist, writer, married to Tetella Onorati (1932-1994).

Rick & John Conquerors of the West – 1967 (co)

The Son of Django – 1967 (co)

 

Spaghetti Western Cinematographer ~ Hermann Saalfrank

Hermann Saalfrank was a German cinematographer of the silent film era. He worked on eighteen films between 1920 and 1921.

Hermann Saalfrank was a cinematographer on one silent Euro-western, “Apachenrache, 3. Teil - Die Verschwundene Million” in 1920

SAALFRANK, Herrmann (aka Hans Saalfrank) [German] [18??-19??] – cinematographer.

Apachenrache, 3. Teil - Die Verschwundene Million - 1920