Offscreen 2010

In collaboration with the Cinematek and Nova, the festival will revive the glory of the Spaghetti Western on the big screen. We've selected the finest films out of 500 Westerns from across the Alps, all made between 1964 and 1971. Their razor-sharp style will get your heels and spurs tapping to the rhythm of blazing bullets.

"Spaghetti Western" was originally a pejorative term invented by journalists who appreciated the genre, which was considered inferior to the Westerns made in America. Although these films received little attention at first, their reputation grew over the years, allowing filmmakers such as Sergio Leone to emerge as forerunner directors of the genre. His Dollar trilogy blossomed in the art's birthplace (and starred a very young Clint Eastwood as the "Man with No Name"). Directors like Sergio Sollima and Sergio Corbucci, actors like Franco Nero or Tomas Milian, and the composer Ennio Morricone defined the Spaghetti Western through their use of baroque images, gratuitous fighting, elegant soundtracks and politically incorrect storylines with strangely named anti-heroes such as Ringo, Sartana or Django. These low-budget films were shot in the desert sands of Almeria, Spain, and persisted in breaking every possible convention of the genre. Italian culture was a heavy influence, infusing their visual aesthetic and storylines with Roman Catholic iconography and biblical references.
Keeping with the political climate of the times, some directors and screenwriters used this popular genre as a vehicle for their Marxist and anti-imperialist sentiment. Such was the case with the famous "Zapata" Westerns, which played out against the backdrop of the Mexican Revolution.

Two notorious connoisseurs and Spaghetti Western aficionados, Gian Lhasa and Alex Cox, will be present to introduce some of the films from this enticing selection.