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Director Sergio Sollima sets the template for twenty years of violent action cinema for Rough Tough Charles Bronson. Precise stunt scenes and clever direction are at the service of a script that can’t produce a convincing line of dialogue. It’s a mishmosh of sex, bullets and car chases. Bronson is betrayed by his love for Jill Ireland, and Telly Savalas is shoehorned in as a (surprise!) nasty gangster. Much of it does play like gangbusters — the opening and closing especially — and the dynamic title instrumental is one of maestro Ennio Morricone’s best.

Violent City

Blu-ray

Kl Studio Classics

1970 / Color / 2:35 widescreen / 109 + 96 min. / Città violenta, The Family, Final Shot / Street Date May 17, 2022 / available through Kino Lorber / 29.95

Starring: Charles Bronson, Jill Ireland, Michel Constantin, Telly Savalas, Umberto Orsini.

Cinematography: Aldo Tonti

Production Design: Francesco Bronzi

Art Director: Franco Fumigalli

Film Editor: Nino Baragli

Stunts: Rémy Julienne, Goffredo Unger

Original...

Welcome to Ground Zero for ‘Committed Cinema’ Italian style. Director Giuiano Montaldo filmed his dream project on location in Ireland and a bit in Boston, with top stars Gian Maria Volontè and Riccardo Cucciolla. In one of the highest-profile American ‘media’ trials ever the famed immigrants Sacco and Vanzetti were tried for a crime but convicted by politics: even the judge asserted they were guilty by definition. Montaldo shows how wrongly justice can be served without whitewashing the defendants. UK actors Cyril Cusack and Milo O’Shea up the performance level, and the Ennio Morricone / Joan Baez songs have kept the film alive.

Sacco & Vanzetti

Blu-ray

Kl Studio Classics

1971 / Color / 1:85 widescreen / 125 min. / Street Date May 3, 2022 / Sacco e Vanzetti; Intolerance (shooting title?) / available through Kino Lorber / 29.95

Starring: Gian Maria Volontè, Riccardo Cucciolla, Cyril Cusack, Rosanna Fratello, Geoffrey Keen, Milo O’Shea, William Prince, Claude Mann, Edward Jewesbury, Armenia Balducci, Valentino Orfeo,...

It’s still one of the most popular movies ever, and fans are proving that by shelling out for an umpteenth home video release, this time on the 4K Ultra HD format. Everybody knows exactly what to expect from Clint Eastwood, Lee Van Cleef and Eli Wallach, but what about the transfer quality and encoding — Sergio Leone’s film was originally shot in the half-frame Techniscope format, which is on the low-res side to scan in 4K. Kino adds a Blu-ray disc and a mountain of accumulated extras from earlier editions.

The Good, The Bad and The Ugly

4K Ultra-hd + Blu-ray

Kl Studio Classics

1966 / Color / 2:35 widescreen / 162 min. / Il buono, il brutto, il cattivo / Street Date April 27, 2021 / available through Kino Lorber / 39.95

Starring: Clint Eastwood, Lee Van Cleef, Eli Wallach, Aldo Giuffrè, Luigi Pistilli, Rada Rassimov, Enzo Petito, Benito Stefanelli, Aldo Sambrell, Al Mulock, Antonio Molino Rojo, Mario Brega, Chelo Alonso,...

More mysterious than ever, Sergio Leone’s ode to (condemnation of?) revolution is said to be the centerpiece of his three ‘Once Upon a Time’ movies linking western violence to the modern age of brutal politics and ruthless gangsterism. Crudeness rubs shoulders with sad, beautiful images as Leone takes on a theme he claimed not to like very much. The writers Donati and Vincenzoni show him the way, while James Coburn and Rod Steiger bring to life the non-narrative moments of what becomes a broad, mural-like epic.

Duck You Sucker (A Fistful of Dynamite)

Blu-ray

Kl Studio Classics

1971 / 157 154, 138, 120 min. / Giù la testa, A Fistful of Dynamite, Il était une fois … la révolution / Street Date March 6, 2018 / available through Kino Lorber / 29.95

Starring: James Coburn, Rod Steiger, Maria Monti, Rik Battaglia, Romolo Valli, Antoine St-John, Vivienne Chandler, David Warbeck.

Cinematography: Giuseppe Ruzzolini

Film Editor: Nino Baragli

Art Direction: Andrea Crisanti

Original Music: Ennio Morricone

Written by Sergio Leone,...

The strangest Italian portmanteau picture of the sixties features glorious Silvana Mangano in dozens of costume changes, directed by big names (Visconti, De Sica, Pasolini) and paired with a woefully miscast Clint Eastwood. The other major attraction is a delightful music score by Piero Piccioni, with an assist from Ennio Morricone.

The Witches

Special Edition Blu-ray

Arrow Academy

1967 / Color / 1:85 widescreen / 120 (?) 111 105 min. / Le streghe / Street Date January 30, 2018 / 34.95

Starring: Silvana Mangano, Clint Eastwood, Annie Girardot, Francisco Rabal, Massimo Girotti, Véronique Vendell, Elsa Albani, Clara Calamai, Marilù Tolo, Nora Ricci, Dino Mele Dino Mele, Helmut Berger, Bruno Filippini, Leslie French, Alberto Sordi, Totò, Ciancicato Miao, Ninetto Davoli, Laura Betti, Luigi Leoni, Valentino Macchi, Corinne Fontaine, Armando Bottin, Gianni Gori, Paolo Gozlino, Franco Moruzzi, Angelo Santi, Pietro Torrisi.

Cinematography: Giuseppe Rotunno

Film Editors: Nino Baragli, Adriana Novelli, Mario Serandrei, Giorgio Serrallonga

Original Music: Ennio Morricone, Piero Piccioni

Written by Mauro Bolognini, Fabio Carpi,...

Sergio Leone’s Civil War gunslinger epic is everybody’s favorite western, and most everybody has a bone to pick regarding problems with the previous DVDs and Blu-rays. The good news is that Kino’s 50th Anniversary Special Edition takes giant leaps in correcting older audio issues . . . but the bad news . . .

The Good, The Bad and The Ugly

Blu-ray

2-Disc 50th Anniversary Special Edition

Kl Studio Classics

1966 / Color / 2:35 widescreen (Techniscope) / 187 161, 148 min. / Il Buono, Il Brutto, Il cattivo/ Street Date August 14, 2017 / available through Kino Lorber / 29.95

Starring: Clint Eastwood, Lee Van Cleef, Eli Wallach, Aldo Giuffrè, Luigi Pistilli, Mario Brega, Al Mulock, Aldo Sambrell.

Cinematography: Tonino Delli Colli

Production Designer: Carlo Simi

Film Editor: Eugenio Alabiso, Nino Baragli

Original Music: Ennio Morricone

Written by Agenore Incrocci, Furio Scarpelli, Luciano Vincenzoni, Sergio Leone, story by Luciano Vincenzoni, Sergio Leone.

Produced by Alberto Grimaldi

Directed by Sergio Leone

I’d like to report...

Once Upon a Time in America

Directed by Sergio Leone

Written by Leonardo Benvenuti, Piero De Bernardi, Enrico Medioli, Franco Arcalli, Franco Ferrini, Sergio Leone ​

Italy/USA, 1984

Widely and justly heralded for his trendsetting Spaghetti Westerns, Sergio Leone’s final and arguably most ambitious work was in another staple American genre. Like these Westerns though, this film was as much of its respective variety as it was about it. Once Upon a Time in America, with its name obviously derived from Leone’s previous Once Upon a Time in the West, is a gangster film of the highest order, and, at the same time, it recalls so many of its predecessors, from the Warner Brothers classics of the 1930s to The Godfather. This was by design. As Leone himself notes, “My film was to be an homage to the American films I love, and to America itself.”

Out now on...

Three men standing around, sixty-five shots in two-and-a-half minutes, and one of the most thrilling moments in cinema history. Obviously the hours of story that come before the climax of The Good, The Bad and the Ugly have a lot to do with why we care so much what happens to Blondie (and to Angel Eyes and Tuco), but this new video essay from Max Tohine breaks down the technical side of how Sergio Leone and the film’s editors Eugenio Alabiso and Nino Baragli capitalized fully on the groundwork by delivering the exclamation mark moment that the story needed. It’s a testament to visually delivering what characters are thinking, particularly in a game theory-laden standoff. It’s also educational from a filmmaking perspective and damned interesting from the fan side of things. Source: Reddit...

Main Competition

Golden Marc.Aurelio for Best Film: "Marfa Girl" by Larry Clark

Best Director Award: Paolo Franchi, "And They Call It Summer" ("E la Chiamano Estate")

Special Jury Prize: "Ali Has Blue Eyes" ("Alì ha gli occhi azzurri") by Claudio Giovannesi

Best Actor Award: Jérémie Elkaïm, "Hand in Hand" ("Main dans la main")

Best Actress Award: Isabella Ferrari, "And They Call It Summer" ("E la Chiamano Estate")

Best Emerging Actor Award: Marilyne Fontaine, "A Child With You" ("Un enfant de toi")

Best Technical Contribution: Arnau Valls Colomer, for the cinematography of "Never Die" ("Mai morire")

Best Screenplay Award: Noah Harpster and Micah Fitzerman-Blue for "The Motel Life"

Cinemaxxi Competition

The International Jury, chaired by Douglas Gordon and composed of Hans Hurch, Ed Lachman, Andrea Lissoni and Emily Jacir, awarded:

CinemaXXI Award (for feature-length films): "Avanti Popolo" by Michael Wahrmann

Special Jury Prize . CinemaXXI (for feature-length films): "Picas...