A savage morality play with lashings of gunplay, cold stares, psychopathic villains and a haunting soundtrack? It must be a spaghetti western.
The cult classic, Sergio Corbucci’s seminal spaghetti western Django, kicks off the Step Back! 1966 in Review series for Flinders 50th anniversary this week.
The movie has spawned more than 30 sequels, spin-offs and adaptations continues to inspire modern film-makers – including Quentin Tarantino’s 2012 hit Django Unchained.
Dr Luciana d’Arcangeli, Flinders Cassamarca Senior Lecturer in Italian, will introduce the special free screening at 6pm at Flinders at Victoria Square on Thursday, 25 February.
“Django was a very successful, though very violent film and more than a few people will not have seen it in Australia when it was released,” Dr d’Arcangeli says.
“I intend to show how it has informed many following films and inspired Tarantino’s creation from music to frames, from choice of actors to the violence portrayed.”
“It is always interesting to trace new creativity debts back to what has inspired them.”
Luciana’s love of film goes back to her childhood in Italy.
“I came to Australia to take up the position of Cassamarca Lecturer in Italian in 2008 as a theatre and cinema specialist,” she says.
“My love of film goes back to my early years when, as a single child, I watched more than my fair share of films on television and … on Sundays my dad would take me to watch the latest spaghetti western or Italian comedy.”
This year’s Step Back! lecture series will revisit the culture and times in which Flinders University was founded, through the eyes (and minds) of members of the School of Humanities and Creative Arts. The 6pm lecture will be followed by the film screening at 7.15pm.