The Good, the Bad and the Ugly Coming Soon to a Cinema Near You? July 18, 2008
Posted by Ian W in : Spaghetti Western News , 3 comments
Classic film distributor Park Circus has Sergio Leone’s The Good, the Bad and the Ugly set for a cinema re-release on 1 August. The only confirmed screenings are at the BFI Southbank in London, where it’s showing as part of their Clint Eastwood season (which also includes A Fistful of Dollars and For a Few Dollars More), and the Filmhouse Cinema in Edinburgh, but Park Circus do add “and key cities” after those two venues.
In an attempt to find out if one of those “key cities” would be Leicester (my city of residence) I contacted the Odeon and Vue cinema chains as well as the local independent , the Phoenix, which usually shows a mixture of classic, arthouse and mainstream films.
I got a speedy response from the Odeon:
Dear Ian
Thank you for your e-mail.
Unfortunately, The Good, The Bad and the Ugly will not be showing in any ODEON cinemas as part if its limited release.
Yours
ODEON Guest ServicesDDD
Next came the Vue:
Dear Sir,
Thank you for your email.
Please be advised that this film is not going to be released at Vue cinemas in the near future. However we are currently doing a ‘Movies That Matter’ season which you may be interested in. For further information please visit the website www.myvue.com .
Kind Regards,
Jodie Fox
Guest Services.
With hope of seeing Leone’s masterpiece fading I received this from the Phoenix:
Hi Ian
Yes, it’s likely that we’ll be screening it in Sept. It actually opens on August 1st but we’ll be playing it for probably no more than 2 or 3 days tops. Email again in a couple of weeks and we ought to have a definite on this.
Regards
Alan
So a glimmer of hope! I did wonder if my email actually made the Phoenix aware that the film was being released, and, as their August schedule was finalised, they are now trying to book the film for September.
So to sum up, if the only cinema near you is an Odeon or a Vue then you’re out of luck if you want to see one of the classic Spaghetti Westerns on the big screen. If you have a local independent cinema I recommend you get in touch and urge them to screen the film.
On a positive note, the Filmhouse in Edinburgh will be screening new prints of A Fistful of Dollars and For a Few Dollars More in September. Hopefully these new prints will also be showing soon in “key cities” around the country.
Koch Media’s Latest Batch of Spaghetti Western DVDs July 15, 2008
Posted by Ian W in : Spaghetti Western News , 3 commentsIf you’re a Spaghetti fan and you only buy UK Region 2 DVDs then you’re missing out. There have been a lot of hard to find films released on DVD in Japan not to mention Region 1 releases from Blue Underground and even major studios like MGM, who recently released the Sergio Corbucci/Burt Reynolds movie Navajo Joe. But the company that’s probably done more than any other to bring rare Italian Westerns to DVD is Germany’s Koch Media.
Koch Media have been releasing Spaghettis for several years now, most of which have either featured English audio or English subtitles. Towards the end of last year they began releasing the “Koch Media Western Collection” which, at least to date, has consisted entirely of Italian films. Some have been re-releases while others are making their first appearance on DVD.
The collection currently consists of:
1) El Chuncho, quien sabe? aka A Bullet for the General (1966) Directed by Damiano Damiani
2) Yankee (1966) Directed by Tinto Brass
3) Arizona si scatenò… e li fece fuori tutti aka Arizona Colt Returns (1970) Directed by Sergio Martino
4) La Resa dei conti aka The Big Gundown (1966) Directed by Sergio Sollima
5) Killer Kid (1967) Directed by Leopoldo Savona
6) Sette dollari sul rosso aka Seven Dollars on the Red (1966)
Which brings us to this month’s DVDs which were released on Friday 11 July:
7) Per una bara piena di dollari aka Barrel Full of Dollars (1971)
Directed by Demofilo Fidani this stars Klaus Kinski and Jack Betts. Koch Media’s website lists this as 1.33:1 (hopefully open matte) with Dolby Digital 2.0 German and Italian sound and German subtitles. It’s expected (although I can’t confirm it at the moment) that this will also contain English subtitles as Koch Media have included them on the other DVDs in the series without advertising the fact. Extra features include an interview with Fidani’s daughter, the original trailer and a gallery of promotional material.
8) La Strada per Fort Alamo aka The Road to Fort Alamo (1964)
This early Spaghetti (it was released shortly after A Fistful of Dollars) is most notable for the fact it’s one of only three westerns made by horror maestro, Mario Bava. The film is presented in 2.35:1 anamorphic widescreen and again features German and Italian audio and German subs. As with Barrel Full of Dollars, English subs may be there but can’t be confirmed at the moment. Extra features comprise an interview with Bava’s son, Lamberto and film historian Antonio Tentori, the theatrical trailer and a poster gallery.
9) Un Treno per Durango aka Train for Durango (1968)
Mario (Vampire in Venice) Caiano directs Spaghetti regulars Anthony Steffen and Mark Damon. The film gets an anamorphic 2.35:1 transfer and German and Italian audio tracks. Subs are again listed as German only but English will probably be included. A making of featurette, interview with star Mark Damon, trailer and poster gallery are the supplementary material, along with a four page booklet that will, almost certainly, be exclusively in German.
When I can confirm the presence (or absence) of English subs on these new releases I’ll post it on the site.
One of the nice things about Koch Media’s discs is that they are not ridiculously overpriced, Amazon.de list them at just under 10 Euros which is a steal given the high prices films with much weaker transfers go for in the US and Japan. The next set of releases should include Navajo Joe and it will be interesting to see how the Koch disc compares with the bare bones MGM Region 1 release.
A Bowl of Spaghetti July 13, 2008
Posted by Ian W in : Site News , 1 comment so farRegular visitors to Film Journal may have stumbled across my other blog, Mine Was Taller, which acts as an online diary of the films I’ve watched each week. A Fistful of Spaghetti is going to be a very different beast altogether.
I’ve wanted to try my hand at a more focused blog for some time and when Film Journal opened it’s doors to new signups again recently I decided now was as good a time as any to get started. Picking a subject proved surprisingly easy. I’ve always been a fan of Westerns but have only recently begun to discover the riches of the Italian Western, beyond the Eastwood/Leone movies anyway. While the traditional oater gets excellent coverage on Film Journal in blogs like From the Cheap Seats and Riding the High Country, the Spaghetti variety gets little mention beyond Sergio Leone’s classics. I’m hoping to change that and hopefully bring to light a few hidden gems.
My initial plan for A Fistful of Spaghetti is to do one in depth review a month, along with posts covering upcoming DVD releases and other Spaghetti related news, but this may change as the site evolves. Hopefully it will be fun and informative both for the reader and for me! So grab a bowl, the first helping will be served shortly…