After an iconic turn as the original Django, Franco Nero starred in this late spaghetti western as a hirsute hero who knows water can hold more power than blood. Swirling with family feuds and pyrrhic victories, Keoma honors guerrilla alliances in a spectacular sandstorm of spirit, sound and vision.
Building a bridge between noir and the then-nascent giallo genre, co-director Luigi Bazzoni’s innovative debut is an ominously atmospheric true-crime mystery. With liminal spaces reminiscent of Antonioni, The Possessed marries arthouse to grindhouse for a fevered tale of madness and murder.
Starring Burt Lancaster and Marcello Mastroianni, this past Palme d’Or contender is set in post-fascist Naples, where food prices are inflated but women’s bodies come cheap. War is often erotic in Liliana Cavani’s films—and here its economically, politically fraught aftermath plays out sexually too.
He may not have the brand recognition of Dario Argento, but Luigi Bazzoni was every bit the giallo master. With a score by Ennio Morricone, cinematography by the legendary Vittorio Storaro, and a cast of genre stalwarts led by Franco Nero (Django), this alluring murder mystery has style to spare.