Giulio Questi (1924–2014)

"Se Sei Vivo Spara" is one of the many spaghetti westerns that ended up having the Django moniker applied to it after the runaway success of the Sergio Corbucci / Franco Nero classic. Giulio Questi's film has no relationship with, or even mention of a character called Django, instead it is a strange, weird anti-capitalist western that strays into many aspects of gothic horror. The story sees the betrayed Stranger (Tomas Milian) clawing his way out of the grave and making his way to a small town where the bandits who betrayed him are hiding out with a huge stash of stolen gold. The treacherous townsfolk have their own designs on the gold, however, and to complicate matters even further local bandit Sorrow (Roberto Camardiel) and his band of gay, black-clad "muchachos" have also arrived in town. Everything about "Se Sei vivo Spara" is fevered with Questi's authoritative direction keeping the various strands perfectly controlled while allowing his central thesis of greed and the quest for money leading groups and individuals towards depravity and despicable deeds. The film is violent and graphic with many horror trappings ranging from a mysterious imprisoned wife to the grisly clawing apart of a bandit in the search for gold bullets embedded within his corpse to finale that sees a building engulfed in flames and one of the leading townsfolk having his head baptised in molten gold. The cast is good, with Milan formidable and taciturn as The Stranger ably supported by Milo Quesada as Templer and Francisco Sanz as Hagerman, the two leading lights of the weird town where the action plays out. Ivan Vandor provide a nice sub-Morricone soundtrack that is highly effective nonetheless. "Se Sei vivo Spara" is one of the odder spaghetti westerns; it is surreal, offbeat, gothic and violent but also strangely compelling and highly watchable.… (altro)

“La Morte ha Fatto l'uovo” is a bizarre, surreal, psychedelic proto-giallo that verges on the impenetrable while delivering hypnotic visuals and a dreamlike atmosphere. The story by director Giulio Questi, and his co-writer Franco Arcalli, is set in a high-tech poultry farm where disgruntled workers have been displaced by machinery and are demonstrating angrily at the gates. Meanwhile factory owner Anna (Gina Lollobrigida) wants to look like a prostitute to ensure the continued affection of her weird husband Marco (Jean-Louis Trintignant) who may, as a side-line, be murdering hookers in hotel rooms. Their beautiful blonde assistant Gabriella (Ewa Aulin) is conspiring with publicist Mondaini (Jean Sobieski) to some unknown end while mutated headless and wingless chickens are being developed by the farm’s odd geneticist. Bizarrely that wild, non-sensical plot is one of the least weird elements of this madly idiosyncratic thriller. Questi’s approach appears to encompasses a criticism of capitalism by way of a Marxist dialectic while throwing a frenzy of Freudian metaphors and postmodern pop art symbolism onto the screen. The cinematography by Dario Di Palma is mesmerising; full of fabulous moments replete with stunning colours, crazy montages, odd camera angles and flowing camerawork that glides in and around strange architecture. Alongside the glorious look of the film is Bruno Maderna’s insane dissonant score that is full of harsh sounds, repetitive acoustic guitar riffs and pounding piano chords. It is a strange, frustrating, annoying but utterly compelling melange that compliments every other bizarre aspect of the film.… (altro)