Presentation of a new, restored version by Lillo Teodoro Guarneri, Director of the Istituto Italiano di Cultura in Sydney
The Istituto Italiano di Cultura is pleased to co-present with Palace Cinemas a new, completely restored version of a movie which inaugurated a new cinema genre, the ‘Western Italian-style’, or Spaghetti Western: For a Fistful of Dollars, directed by Sergio Leone in 1964. Besides its incontrovertible artistic qualities, the movie has the merit of having launched the acting career of a then still unknown Clint Eastwood, of being accompanied by one of the many, spell-binding movie scores composed by Ennio Morricone and of having rejuvenated a by then ailing Western style. The movie was followed by For a Few Dollars More and The Good, the Bad, the Ugly, also starring Clint Eastwood. The films are today known as the Dollars Trilogy and were later released in sequence in the United States in 1967, launching Clint Eastwood’s stellar acting career. In view of the American release, both the director Sergio Leone, composer Ennio Morricone and actor Gian Maria Volonté ‘americanised’ their names, becoming, respectively, Bob Robertson, Dan Savio and Johnny Wels. All the movies were shot on a low budget, the majority of them in Southern Spain, whose landscapes resemble the most celebrated locations of the American Far West.
Plot:
The Man With No Name (Clint Eastwood) enters the Mexican village of San Miguel in the midst of a power struggle among the three Rojo brothers (Antonio Prieto, Benny Reeves, Sieghardt Rupp) and sheriff John Baxter (Wolfgang Lukschy). When a regiment of Mexican soldiers bearing gold intended to pay for new weapons is waylaid by the Rojo brothers, the stranger inserts himself into the middle of the long-simmering battle, selling false information to both sides for his own benefit.
The Italian Film Festival, which reaches in 2018 its 19th anniversary, was inaugurated in 2000 by Antonio Zeccola, founder of Palace Cinemas, whose mission has been over the years the presentation and distribution in Australia of quality cinema, as well as dedicating regular annual events to the most interesting and successful movies of the international cinema production. Throughout the years the Italian Film Festival has attracted an ever-growing audience, with over 80,000 people attending the Festival nationally in 2017.
IIC members are entitled to purchase the tickets at the FF – Concession rate of $18.00 (instead of $21.50) both online and directly at the box office upon presentation of a valid IIC membership card.
Information and bookings:
www.italianfilmfestival.com.au/films/a-fistful-of-dollars
