The sidebar - in it's forth edition has spawned parallel initiatives like the Secret History of Asian Cinema (2005) and Secret History of Russian Cinema (2006).
The event's godfather will be US director Quentin Tarantino who returns after his 'Italian Kings of the Bs' retrospective dedicated to Italian genre films was a popular element of the first edition of the Secret History of Italian Cinema side bar in 2004.
This year's retrospective will focus on Tarantino's selection of 'cult directors of Westerns' including Sergio Leone's classic The Good the Bad and the Ugly, the film Tarantino has often referred to as his 'favourite' and which has been referenced in his own films.
The sidebar will include other cult favorites of the American director like Sergio Corbucci's A Dollar a Head (Navajo Joe) starring Burt Reynolds as well as less known directors like Franco Rosetti's El Desperado.
In all, 40 titles will be screened during the 64th Venice Film Festival, and will include the most important Spaghetti Western classics as well as 'films that have not been in circulation for at least a decade.' The films screened will be restored and shown in their full versions.
The biennale promises that the Spaghetti Western theme will reverberate throughout the festival: 'there will be many contemporary and new references to the Spaghetti Western offered as world premieres in the various sections,' organisers promised.
Additionally, Spaghetti Western stunt men, directors, producers, actors, photographic directors and screenwriters will be on hand at the film's presentations.
Curators of the Secret History of Italian Cinema 4 - Spaghetti Westerns program are Marco Giusti and Manilo Gomarasca with Paolo Luciana ad Cristina Torelli (of the L'Officina Filmclub) along with leading scholars of the Spaghetti Western genre.
No comments yet