Country: Italy
Year: 1965
Duration: 86'


The people of a small village are constantly persecuted by a rich landowner, il Cattivissimo (the Despicable) and by his two sidekics, Ursus and Smilzo. The three of them want to get their hand on the only fertile land of the area, which belongs to Clementina, who lives in her ranch with a dog and three cows. One day Johnny arrives in the village, he is a weird guy, not violent at all. Clementina knows him and they get along well. So the poor Johnny finds himself persecuted by il Cattivissimo.
When one day he loses a golden nugget from his pocket, the trio traps him and tortures him with ants, in order to know where that valuable metal comes from. Not even torture is enough to make him abandon his apathetic non-violence. But when il Cattivissimo burst Clementina’s ranch into flames, the boy feels finally free and he kills the three outlaws in an epic fight, bringing the village back to normal.
Traduzione in inglese Francesca Sala - English translation Francesca Sala

Biography

film director

Bruno Bozzetto

Bruno Bozzetto (Milan, Italy, 1938) debuted in 1958 with the animated short Tapum! The History of Weapons and in 1960 founded Bruno Bozzetto Film, with which he made commercials and movies. One of the world’s most famous animators and cartoonists, Bozzetto has directed many films, including the series of shorts dedicated to Signor Rossi; the animated feature films West and Soda (1965) and Allegro non troppo (1976); the real-life movie Under the Chinese Restaurant (1987); the TV series Sandwich (1984); and the shorts Mister Tao (1989), Golden Bear at the Berlin Film Festival; Grasshoppers (1990), nominated for an Oscar and a Nastro d’argento in 1990; and Looo (2005), which was made in 3D. In 2014 he received the Maria Adriana Prolo Award from the National Cinema Museum Association. 

FILMOGRAFIA

Un Oscar per il signor Rossi (cm, 1960), Alfa Omega (cm, 1961), Il signor Rossi al mare (cm, 1964), West and soda (1965), Vip, mio fratello superuomo (1968), Ego (cm, 1969), Gli sport del signor Rossi (serie tv/tv series, 1975), Il signor Rossi cerca la felicità (1976), Allegro non troppo (1976), Le vacanze del signor Rossi (1976), I sogni del signor Rossi (1977), Tennis Club (cm, 1982), Sotto il ristorante cinese (1987), Baeus (cm, 1987), Cavallette (cm, 1990), Help? (cm, 1995), Adam (cm, 2002), Spaghetti Family (serie tv/tv series, 2003), Olympics (cm, 2003), Armi su strada (cm, 2008).

Declaration

film director

How did you start to draw, Bozzetto?
I think there is not a date. Since I was a child I used to fill up notebooks with little men drawn with a few strokes of a pen. In the students paper at Beccaria, the institute in Milan where I went to school, I played around with the caricatures of people and situation that tickled my fantasy. And that was sometimes the cause of a less positive mark from the most targeted teachers. When I was 15 I had already animated films as my main hobby. I went to the University of Milan where I have studied Law for a few years, waiting for the job at my father’s chemical company in Bergamo, along with my brothers. But my hobby became my job, my reason for living. (...)
I have to share the story of West and soda, or better its authorship and its screenplay with professor Attilio Giovannini, who also helps me directing in general. The choice of the topic was easy... I relied on the most popular and appreciated genre all over the world. I know that this was a significant financial risk, because of the almost unique hegemony of the Disney group and so I am going to need open doors in every market.
Do you think that West and soda could also reach Sweden, Denmark and Canada, just to say a few countries?
Of course! I already sell my animated films to them and to other countries: I support myself, like all the other productions of animated film in Italy, through televicion and cinema advertising.
Will your film last like a regular one, won’t it? Let’s be honest, Mr Bozzetto: did you get your inspiration from the western satire that Disney brought through the character of Pecos Bill in the popular film Lo scrigno delle sette perle and from the medium length film by the Czechoslovak Jiri Trnka, made of “puppets” and called Il canto della prateria?
I really admire Walt Disney, but I didn’t think of his Pecos Bill. Maybe I took into consideration a certain scathing humour used by Trnka in Il canto della prateria. I actually watched it several times. But as you have surely noticed, my satire is more Latin, more substantial. (...)
The fact that my film takes so much from the most used features of the western genre means that it would highlight and clarify even to young people the flaws and the values of every character, with the final triumph of good over evil. (...)
In your articles you need to write about my assistants as well. Unfortunately they just talk about me, when they write about West and soda, while it is well known that in a cartoon, especially in an important one, they should be given more relevance.

Traduzione in inglese Francesca Sala - English translation Francesca Sala

Cast

& Credits

Director: Bruno Bozzetto.
Soggetto e sceneggiatura: Bruno Bozzetto, Attilio Giovannini.
Fotografia (eastmancolor): Luciano Marzetti.
Art director: Giovanni Mulazzani.
Editor: Giampiero Boneschi.
Direzione animazione: Guido Manuali.
Animazione: Giuseppe Lagan`, Franco Martelli.
Revisione: Roberto Scarpa.
Production company: Bruno Bozzetto.
Italian distribution: Cineriz.
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