A Bullet for the General
Like the thrilling genre it identifies, the term "spaghetti western" has steadily gained in esteem and sympathy. Born in the mid-1960s, the Italian Western is a universe in its own right, whose cinematic language, anarchic tone and spectacular iconography have had a considerable impact. Presented in collaboration with the Italian Cultural Institute of Montreal, this cycle brings together the must-see films of the "three Sergios" (Leone, Corbucci, Sollima) and a diverse selection of films by the main directors of the period. It's an opportunity to grasp the richness of a genre whose stylistic beauty is matched only by the dirtiness of its protagonists, and which has managed to be alternately irreverent and lyrical, funny and violent, bon-vivant and political, dark and luminous. The versions presented have been chosen on the basis of elements such as language (all these films were dubbed, so there is no single "original" version), complete editing and recent restorations.
Chuncho, both bandit and Mexican guerrilla, befriends an American dandy whose appearances prove deceptive. El Chuncho is the first example of a sub-genre: the "zapata western", rooted in the Mexican revolution of 1910, with an ostensibly political, anti-imperialist tone (Leone later distanced himself from this movement with Duck, You Sucker!). As Damiani pointed out, the very term "western", associated with the West and American culture, becomes here a contradiction in terms.
Damiano Damiani
Damiano Damiani is an Italian writer, screenwriter, actor and director. He ranks among the greatest directors of Italian cinema, who addressed the social problems of his time. He discovered cinema at an early age, but it was when he saw Frank Capra's New York-Miami at the age of 14 that he realized that behind the images was a message, a vision of the world, a philosophy. Damaniani began directing documentaries (a dozen between 1946 and 1956), and helped write several screenplays, including La Chronique des pauvres amants by Carlo Lizzani. He directed his first film at the age of 37, Jeux précoces, in 1959. Among others, he directed Franco Nero and Claudia Cardinale for his film about the Mafia: La Mafia fait la loi (1967), for which she won the David di Donatello award for Best Lead Actress.
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