|
Click a image. You can see it with original size. |
 |
 |
 |
| Locandina | Italian Poster(X2) | Japanese Poster |
 |
| IT 45 EPC 1803 |
| English Title | Face to Face |
| Director | Sergio Sollima |
| Screenplay | Sergio Donati , Sergio Sollima |
| Photography | Raphael Pacheco |
| Music | Ennio Morricone |
| Cast | Tomas Milian , Gian Maria Volonte , William
Berger , Jolanda Modio , Carol Andre, Gianni Rizzo |
The excellent piece of music that is not
included on CD !
The standard production set-up for at least three quarters of SpaghettiWesterns was this- Italians provided the studio interiors and leading crew.An Italian production company was accordingly listed on the credits, but sotoo was a Spanish company. The Spanish company provided additional money,lesser production crew and the all important Spanish locations so vital tothe Spaghetti western look. Italy was, and is, a democratic state. In thenineteen sixties Spain, the personal preserve of General Francisco Francoand his Falangist fascist party, wasn't. Not in the slightest. Face to Face is therefore a real puzzle. By no means the only consciouslypolitical Spaghetti Western- a whole subgenre of 'revolutionary fables' wereproduced, the Spanish authorities seem to have been particularly tolerant orjust plain lax in allowing this film to be made under their noses. Face toFace, after all, could easily be titled 'Franco Goes West'. Fascism is itscentral theme.The fascist in question is a history teacher, Brad Fletcher (Gian MariaVolente in one of the few Spaghetti roles he was not to disown later). Travelling West for his health, Fletcher accidentally frees and falls inwith bandit Bennet (Tomas Milian in a truly bizarre haircut). At firstrepelled by Bennet's criminal behaviour, Fletcher gradually acquires arespect for him. Bennet's hideout- a commune full of the dispossessed of thewest- fascinates him; 'I've never see people more alive' Fletcher notes ashe watches the commune dances in a Sierra version of Woodstock.Gradually the atomised structure of the commune starts to suggest dubiouspossibilities to Fletcher. He influences their planning in 'rational' ways, finally planning the 'perfect' robbery. This robbery fails, largely becausethe gang has been infiltrated by a Pinkerton detective, Charley Siringo(William Berger). With Bennet in jail, Fletcher takes over the gang and runsit along strict, somehow historically familiar lines. Dissent is crushed;escape is outlawed. An infiltrator is shot for 'for reasons of state'.Fletcher becomes clearly power hungry- 'the violence of ten thousand men is a force of history'. Indeed, the commune starts to represent an armed campand its people are no longer so alive.The authorities move in on the gang on two fronts. Siringo, strictly bound by the rule of law wants only Fletcher and, after the latter escapes, Bennet. The local townspeople, however despise the whole commune, setting avigilante posse on every man, woman and child. By the time Bennet reaches his old hideout there's nothing left, but bodies. Fletcher has led thesurvivors out into the desert, only to find the vigilantes waiting for them. In a multilayered conclusion, Siringo drives off the vigilantes, only to be wounded by Fletcher. Fletcher's attempt to kill him outright is prevented by Bennet, impressed by Siringo's stand against the vigilantes. Realising Fletcher has become totally corrupted, Bennet kills him. A grateful Siringo frees him and the two part. This is not, in other words, a standard Spaghetti Western. It is though an intriguing and often handsome film. The energy of its Morricone score is infectious at times, subtle at others, when, for example a festive dance is rendered into a death knell as Bennet finds the massacred commune. Like all Sollima films, there are the inevitable strange touches, notably when two warring businessmen hire gunmen and watch them fight from a balcony. All the same, the film's meaning is clear and the indulgence or stupidity of Franco's censors is either heartening or perverse. Didn't they know? |
| TOM SELDON <elpuro@email.msn.com> |
 |
 |
Sun, 10 Jan 1999 22:47:30
