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A Fistful of Dollars
(Per un pugno di dollari)

Screening on Film
Directed by Sergio Leone.
With Clint Eastwood, Gian Maria Volonte, Marianne Koch.
Italy/West Germany/Spain, 1964, 35mm, color, 96 min.
Print source: HFA

The first and perhaps the finest of the "spaghetti westerns" that launched the career of Italian director Sergio Leone and transformed the unassuming American actor Clint Eastwood into an international icon, A Fistful of Dollars revitalized the standard elements of the classic genre through striking widescreen cinematography, kinetic editing, vivid locations (Spain doubling for Southwest landscapes), and a memorable Ennio Morricone score. Eastwood plays a drifter who stumbles upon a feud in a remote Western settlement and wisely decides to play each side against the other. These elements, combined with Eastwood’s singular laconic style, earned Leone’s film international acclaim and led to a trio of even more successful sequels.

PRECEDED BY

  • The Flea Circus

    Directed by Tex Avery.
    US, 1954, 35mm, color, 7 min.
    Print source: HFA

With his eccentric brand of humor, Fred "Tex" Avery revolutionized studio animation during his stints at Warners (where he directed the first Daffy Duck and Porky Pig cartoons) and at Paramount, Universal, and MGM, where he created this wacky tale about a flea circus that runs away to join a dog.

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