If distance makes the heart grow fonder, maybe that explains how europeans revitalized the cowboy myth for the world of cinema. Europe entered this dialogue with the American cinema well before the advent of the Spaghetti Western.
The birth of the cowboy character in French cinema was around 1905 with the Westerns of Joë Hamman, shot in the Camargue and in the Alps. Sometimes referred to as "the John Wayne of France, Joë Hamman starred in his films, which were inspired by his true life adventures living on an American Indian reservation.
Before the major tidal wave hit Europe in 1963 with Sergio Leone's first western, "FOR A FISTFULL OF DOLLARS" a ripple of influence already started a few years before with the film adaptation of many Karl May Novels'. His writings featured the character of Winnetou, an Apache indian, who becomes "blood brothers" with an American trapper. These inter-european co-productions shot in Yugoslavia made the western genre very successful in Germany and around Eastern Europe, but let's get back to our Spaghettis....
Encouraged by the hits of the Leone films, the Italian producers managed to transcend the kid oriented novels of Karl May and added violence and eroticism. This way they could reach an adult audience rather than a kiddie matinee crowd. More than 400 westerns were shot and released between 1963 to 1975, the year when the genre slowly rode into the sunset...
Thirty years later, the afficionados are rushing to dvd shops to get their hands on luxurious Japanese dvd boxed sets of Italian Westerns, while everywhere in Europe small distributors are releasing a few forgotten gems. Jean-Pierre Dionnet, with his TV show "Cinéma de quartier", also brought the Italian western back on the scene, with, for example, a retrospective of Sergio Sollima's Westerns and many other majestic restorations like Corbucci's THE BIG SILENCE.
Meanwhile
in America, Wild East DVD is almost the only company to specialise in European
Westerns, with English versions hardly ever seen or available in America
for decades. They are also responsible for great trailer compilations, a
perfect way to enjoy the highlights of some of the more obscure titles,
superbly illustrated with a color booklet reproducing original posters of
each film.
At last, if additional proof was needed, the very serious Franco-German TV station, ARTE, is preparing a special thematic evening around European Westerns for Spring 2006… "Il était une fois le western spaghetti" Sunday, 23 April, 8:40-midnight.
another article about the Turkish Westerns....
