27 August 2007

A YouTube Video Tribute To Gian Maria Volonte

This latest YouTube video is a tribute to the late, great, Italian actor Gian Maria Volonte, who's perhaps best known to American audiences for his roles as Ramon Rojo and El Indio in Sergio Leone's A Fistful Of Dollars(Per Un Pugno Di Dollari) and For A Few Dollars More(Per Qual'che Dollari In Piu), but whose career included stage, television and screen work, especially for left-wing directors like Elio Petri and Jean-Luc Godard.

While he played quite a few villains in his long career, including the police inspector who murders his mistress to see if he can get away with it in the 1970 Elio Petri film Investigation Of A Citizen Above Suspicion, which won an Academy Award for Best Foreign Language Film in 1971, he also played heroic characters, like Lulu in the 1971 film The Working Class Goes To Heaven(La Classe Operaia Va In Paradiso) and the 1979 film Christ Stopped At Eboli.

Volonte died of a heart attack at the age of 61 in 1994.

May he rest in peace.

Oh, in closing, should say that this is a video montage of clips featuring scenes from his various films, as well as some interviews done during his lifetime. They are all in Italian, with no English sub-titles, alas, but please don't let that stop you, as great acting, like any great art, can cross linguistic and cultural barriers.

Be seeing you.







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