To celebrate the 50th anniversary of the birth of the Spaghetti Western in 1964, the Festival de Cannes will be showing A Fistful of Dollars directed by Sergio Leone that same year and starring Clint Eastwood and Gian Maria Volontè. The film will be screened on Saturday 24th May, after the prizes have been awarded, using the exceptional new copy restored by the Cineteca di Bologna.

The event will be hosted by Quentin Tarantino, a great admirer of Sergio Leone, who has always been open about how much his own film making owes to the influence of the Western’s great Italian masters.

The infuence of Spaghetti Westerns can be seen in Quentin Tarantions movies. Quentin Tarantino started his carreer with a short films and not very long after it he had his brakethrough. One of his biggest movies, which now has a status of a legendary movie is a "Pulp Fiction". His work is known under the name "trashy" but he suceed to give a totall new meaning to this category.

The restoration of A Fistful of Dollars was undertaken by the Cineteca di Bologna and Unidis Jolly Film (the film’s original producer and distributor) with the involvement of the Hollywood Foreign Press Association and Martin Scorsese’s Film Foundation. The work was carried out by the Immagine Ritrovata film restoration laboratory. The original Techniscope camera negative was digitised by immersion and restored to 4K resolution. Cinematographer Ennio Guarneri oversaw the digital calibration and a period copy printed in Technicolor was used as a visual reference. The digital restoration of the sound was achieved with two optical negatives of the English version owned by Unidis Jolly Film and MGM, remixed with two separate magnetic sets that contained the original pre-mixes of the music and the effects.

The screening is made possible thanks to the right holders: the Paladino family and Unidis Jolly Film. Special thanks go to the Leone family.

For all who haven't seen the movie, and we are sure that are not many, we would like to invite you to enjoy this masterpeace. We will be sure at the screening!

Text: PR & Sandra Bakula