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Italian director Sergio Leone is often considered to be one of the best filmmakers ever to pick up a camera. His films were so stylized that they often split the difference between high art and low art, elevating the otherwise generic stories of his movies into visual and audio extravaganzas.

Unfortunately, Sergio Leone only lived long enough to direct eight feature films, one of which was never officially credited to him. He began with low-budgeted Sword and Sandal movies in the Italian studio system before becoming so undeniable as a storyteller that he would reinvent the Western genre, creating what's known as the Spaghetti Western. From picturesque landscapes to uncomfortable close-ups and transcendent use of music, Sergio Leone's films were undeniable and utterly unforgettable.

Related 10 Most Important Westerns of All Time The Western genre has massively influenced the cinematic medium and produced several of the most important films of all time.

In about four years time, Andrea Iervolino hopes to launch a stadium and TV studios into orbit and broadcast the world’s first zero-gravity Mma fight from space. He’d originally thought that Galactic Combat — his idea for reality-show-meets-sports-tournament following a group of spacebound fighters — would be ready sooner, within two or three years, but he’s says some “technical issues” among his aerospace partners has pushed his expectations back. “But it’s not really far away.”

Until then, the Italian producer will sadly have to contend with work on solid ground under Earth’s less exciting gravitation pull, work that includes — among a wide array of activities across entertainment, sport and beyond — being one of the producers on Michael Mann’s all-star and much-anticipated Venice-bowing biopic Ferrari. Under the Ilbe banner he runs with his business partner, rum heiress Monika Bacardi, he was brought in to provide the Italian...

Ask most cinephiles about the spaghetti western and Sergio Leone’s name will most likely be invoked. As for those who’ve delved a little deeper into the genre, chances are that they’ll name-drop one or both of the other Sergios: Sergio Corbucci (Django) and Sergio Sollima (The Big Gundown).

Back in 2021, Arrow Video’s Vengeance Trails box set aimed to broaden viewers’ horizons of the spaghetti western by spotlighting works by directors like Lucio Fulci, Massimo Dallamano, and Antonio Margheriti, whose names are more often associated with other genres. Now along comes Blood Money, which unveils several lesser-known yet excellent examples of the genre. The thematic through line this time out concerns the value placed on human life. As the grizzled protagonist of Find a Place to Die puts it: “Madness and greed were in men’s hearts a long time before you came along.”

Romolo Guerrieri’s...

Lee Broughton returns with a review of Michele Lupo’s fine-looking Spaghetti Western, Arizona Colt. Giuliano Gemma stars as the eponymous anti-hero-cum-bounty killer who goes head-to-head with Fernando Sancho’s villainous Mexican bandit. The show’s collateral damage comes in the shapely form of fan favourite Rosalba Neri while its highly reluctant love interest is played by none other than Corinne Marchand, of Cleo from 5 to 7 fame.

Arizona Colt

Region Free Blu-ray

Wild East

1966 / Color / 2.35:1 widescreen / 116 min. / Il Pistolero di Arizona, The Man From Nowhere / Street Date 9 February 2021 / Available from Wild East / 16.95

Starring: Giuliano Gemma, Fernando Sancho, Corinne Marchand, Roberto Camardiel, Rosalba Neri, Nello Pazzafini, Jose Manuel Martin, Andrea Bosic.

Cinematography: Guglielmo Mancori

Film Editor: Antonietta Zita

Art director: Walter Patriarca

Original Music: Francesco De Masi

Written by Ernesto Gastaldi, Luciano Martino

Produced by Elio Scardamaglia

Directed by Michele Lupo

A sadistic bandit, Gordo (Fernando Sancho), expands his gang...

Today, Montreal's Festival du nouveau cinéma (Fnc), which will take place between October 12 to 23. Here's the complete line-up of feature films according to the press release we received.

Opening and closing

The 40th edition of the Fnc kicks off on Wednesday, October 12, with Declaration of War by Valérie Donzelli (France) at Cinéma Impérial (Centre Sandra & Leo Kolber, Salle Lucie & André Chagnon). This critically-acclaimed second feature by Valérie Donzelli (The Queen of Hearts) tells the love story of Roméo and Juliette who are battling to save their sick child. The director and her producer Edouard Weil will be in attendance.

Ten days later, on Saturday, October 22, Monsieur Lazhar (Quebec/Canada) by Philippe Falardeau will close the Festival. Selected to represent Canada at the Oscars for Best Foreign Language Film, Monsieur Lahzar shows the efforts of an Algerian schoolteacher to help his Grade 6 students come to terms with their teacher’s death.

I will soon post a list of films I have already seen that I highly recommend as well as a list of my most anticipated films screening at this year’s Festival du Nouveau Cinema. For now here is the press release from the festival. Make sure you read carefully because there are a ton of great films to check out.

Montreal, Tuesday September 27, 2011– Montreal’s Festival du nouveau cinéma will be celebrating its 40th edition from October 12 to 23. For the past 40 years, Canada’s oldest film festival has offered film buffs a selection of the year’s most exciting new films — a bold lineup with plenty of whimsical and surprising elements, but one that also turns its lens on social realities and the evolution of film and new technologies. Over the course of this year’s 11-day Festival, audiences of all ages can take in features and shorts, fiction films and documentaries,...