A Dutch western? Intriguing. Are you making it in the Netherlands and in Dutch?
Back on topic Valeri strikes me as one of the few directors who could pull off something a bit special and Leone-like. How many of the better directors like Corbucci, Tessari, Sollima, Valeri every had that much of a budget?
It will be shot in The Netherlands for the most part, though I have one scene in mind that is to be shot in Belgium (just across the border).
Language will be English. It’s going to be very spaghetti western influenced, and it will feature some people I already worked with on some western shorts.
I’m aiming for a runtime of 60 - 70 min.
I normally don’t like comedy westerns but MNIN is easily top ten stuff for me, no matter who directed it. It just goes deeper than a comedy supposed to. I have to agree with Stanton (the stars have aligned my friend!) and say its one of the best directed SWs or western in general.
I certainly understand why some may view it as an abomination. Its very uneven and its seemingly beneath Fonda to be sharing slapsticks with Trinity right? Sometimes you wonder if the film can make up its mind on what it wants to be. I get that. But I don’t really see it as a major problem.
Richard your reaction to MNIN is similar to my reaction to El Puro. I guess we all have our own “El Puro”, the film we loath that everybody else seems to love.
Bad Lt., Any word on the extended director’s cut of Ninja Say Your Prayers being released?
"El Puro", the film we loath that everybody else seems to love.
Never loved El Puro.
Me neither, 5/10.
@ col, the ninja film is dead. Which is too bad, as I still have footage shot in Istanbul and the Alpes. But it really wasn’t going anywhere. Maybe I’ll make a 10 - 15 min. Short out of it someday.
[quote=“Col. Douglas Mortimer, post:23, topic:3210”]I normally don’t like comedy westerns but MNIN is easily top ten stuff for me, no matter who directed it. It just goes deeper than a comedy supposed to. I have to agree with Stanton (the stars have aligned my friend!) and say its one of the best directed SWs or western in general.
I certainly understand why some may view it as an abomination. Its very uneven and its seemingly beneath Fonda to be sharing slapsticks with Trinity right? Sometimes you wonder if the film can make up its mind on what it wants to be. I get that. But I don’t really see it as a major problem.[/quote]
I think that MNIN for most of its runtime is a fine fusion between the parodying comedy and the melancholic twilight western stuff. Just like other films did it before like Little Big Man or Butch Cassidy and the Sundance Kid. Only when there is only slapstick for slapstick’s sake the balance is destroyed. But that are only about 3 - 4 min of its runtime. This doesn’t sound much, but it is. Cut it out and you will get a pretty different feeling film.
The second reason is that I give most of the credit of MNIN to Leone is that I studied Vallerii’s SWs very closely and found nowhere in them anything but very pale Leone imitations. Nothing, and I really mean nothing, which is directed only nearly on the same level as most of MNIN is. From his first film on he had mostly bigger budgets than many other SW directors, and comparatively did not make much with them. And just before MNIN he had a comparatively big budget and some stars, and he totally blew it. Even for his standards, which are not that high imo.
And a war actioner he made with Nero after MNIN is a boring mess too.
I can’t agree Stanton, I think Day of Anger and The Price of Power are two of the better directed spaghetti westerns, particularly, The Price of Power which has many interesting and imaginative cinematic scenes.
Quoted for truth and accuracy.
DAY OF ANGER and THE PRICE OF POWER are two of the best-directed spaghetti westerns, particularly so. They are not in Leone’s trademark style, which is to the advantage of both films. Stanton’s analysis is always going to add up to the same thing, no matter who he’s talking about. He’s entitled to his opinion, but it is preposterous to suggest that no one but Leone is worthy. Many fine directors helmed spaghetti westerns; it’s only the scripts that stink. And the very idea of and story for MY NAME IS NOBODY stinks, particularly. Leone knew it, too. That’s why he didn’t put his name on it.
Hmm… What? I hope my eyes don’t deceive me, but Stanton said that Valerii’s spaghetti westerns never surpassed Leone flicks (or never were as good as his), thus MNIN must have been heavily influenced by Leone and it was more Leonesque than Valeriesque. He does not suggest that nobody but Leone is worthy in spaghetti western genre. And of course there were good scripts in the genre, no exaggerating.
Everyone is expressing his own opinion and when it differs from a common view, it doesn’t necessarily mean it’s bad since everybody perceives cinema in a different manner. This is why it’s so divisive. Stanton thinks Day of Anger is mediocre, you say My Name is Nobody is garbage and sartana1968 firmly believes that Once Upon A Time In The West is a piece of stinking trash, a colossal ennui-infected monument filled with excessively languorous sequences of unbridled boredom. Amen. I don’t think this discussion is going anywhere.
Apart form agreeing 100 % with Mickey’s previous post:
Not for me. Luckily there are lots which are far superior.
They are not in Leone's trademark style, which is to the advantage of both films.
I think they are in Leone’s style, but look like a lame copy.
Stanton's analysis is always going to add up to the same thing, no matter who he's talking about.
And which “same thing” could that be?
He's entitled to his opinion, but it is preposterous to suggest that no one but Leone is worthy.Leone was the best imo. Only Corbucci was imo on his level in some of his films. There are plenty of fine directed SWs, but Leone was a class of his own. Well, that's why Leone is on of my favourite directors ever.
Many fine directors helmed spaghetti westerns; it's only the scripts that stink. And the very idea of and story for MY NAME IS NOBODY stinks, particularly. Leone knew it, too. That's why he didn't put his name on it.
Don’t think so. Especially MNIN has a pretty good and intelligent script. And Leone had worked on it very hard. It seems that one of the actual reasons for Leone was that he did not wanted to be associated with a comedy, which MNIN obviously is in parts.
Rather stinky, those scripts … yek
I agree with Stanton (not just one that one “same thing”), Leone was by far the best director in the business. Corbucci occasionally came close, but none of his films is at the level of Once Upon or GBU. Like I’ve said before: there’s quite a gap between these two movies and the rest of the bunch.
Sollima and Petroni weren’t brilliant directors, but they were good film makers. Tessari was a good film maker too, his two ringo movies and the later Don’t turn the other cheek are well-made, well-directed movies. And then there’s this guy from Boot Hill some people think highly of …
Well, let’s face it… Leone is one of the best directors of all time. It’s hard to be as good as him.
And, of course, there were some good scripts in the genre… not many, but there were some.
I have to disagree on that…the bathroom/slapstick humor does ruin it, but there are some great moments that are as good as most SW’s…it’s just a shame there aren’t more of them.
Tend to look at films from the point of view which I enjoy the more, for whatever reason regardless of who is the better director. Sometimes the two go hand in hand for me, but not all the time.
To make that clear, MNNIN wouldn’t change a bit for me if now it would become an indubitable fact that Valerii was the only creative force behind the movie.
Or that it was Fidani who directed it …
There are a few names that may attract you to a movie. In my case for instance Woody Allen, Raoul Walsh, John Ford (unfortunately i’ve seen all Leones). The name alone doesn’t change anything, of course. I don’t like movies because they’re made by a director I like. And most of my favorite directors also made bad movies.
Neil Summers, who played Squirrel, told me that Leone directed the shotglass saloon scene that he was in and the house of mirrors scene. Neil said they had to return to Rome to shoot the mirror scene as Sergio could not find enough mirrors in Almeria to do the scene and that their were no soundstages there at the time.
[quote=“JonathanCorbett, post:3, topic:3210”]As is common knowledge Leone at some point declared that he directed at least four sequences: opening, graveyard, 150 outlaws gang and final duel. Sorely disappointed, Valerii swore on the memory of his dead father that the only scenes directed by Leone with the second unit have been the saloon sequence and a small part of the outside party, explaining that the technique used for the explosions in the Wild Bunch sequence is the same he used years before in A Taste for Killing (1966).
I believe Valerii: the fact that Leone (which by the way as producer said he was disappointed with the final outcome) was a far more important and talented film-maker does not automatically make him more credible as a man.
See also Reply #196 in film’s thread.[/quote]
The film has Leone’s style . . . but Valerii was one of his ‘pupils’, so that is hardly surprising. In fact, Price of Power captures this very well and Leone had nothing to do with it.
It also has a Leonesque theme . . . the end of the west. But that reflects his role in conceiving the film and working with the script.
However, the movie’s core is typical Tonino Valerii, with a novice learning from a pro ~ some interesting father figure stuff gong on. Very similar to Day of Anger and Price of Power. This dynamic is the heart of the movie. Instead of Gemma, Hill’s Trinity character is easily slotted in. The motif starts with For A Few Dollars More, but Valerii went furthest with developing it. Its his signature storyline.
I don’t know whose story to believe, but I think that people really want this to be another Leone western. But I think its a Valerii movie. He is under-rated, being one of the 5 or 6 best directors in the genre, I think.
Although on the other hand, is there not some sort of “father - younger generation” dynamic in For a Few Dollars More between Colonel Mortimer and Manco?