Despite having made over 40 films ranging from westerns to thrillers to science fiction, the recent attention on legendary Italian director Enzo G. Castellari is focused on his 1978 movie from which Quentin Tarantino's box-office hit, Inglourious Basterds, gets its name.  But whereas Castellari's Inglorious Bastards is a finely-calibrated, straight-up war actioner that--with gears and pistons über-lubed and in full-throttle--redirected an ailing genre, Tarantino's new movie, however, is less concerned with reviving that same genre than with serving as the antidote to the cold mechanics of his previous homage to exploitation, Death Proof, while simultaneously extending that movie's meta-cinematic discourse.  Much like Reservoir Dogs is a heist film without a heist, Inglourious Basterds is, arguably, a war movie without a War, where the "Basterds" take up less screen time than the movie's real bastards, both of the female and male variety and all illegitimate children of a revolution that Tarantino stages not on the streets or in the air, but in the dark, flickering movie house of his imagination. Via email from Italy, Maestro Castellari was gracious enough to answer a few questions regarding his Bastards, his career, and Tarantino's own Basterds. 

   Marvin Miranda:  I remember reading Tarantino's script for Inglourious Basterds about a year ago and thinking, man this isn't at all like Castellari's Inglorious Bastards or even like any "Guys on a Mission" movie I've ever seen.  I was very disappointed after reading it, and hoped that someone had played a joke and was passing it off as Tarantino's.  But, the thing is that I just didn't get the movie on paper.  I got it once I saw it last Friday (at least I think I got it)--and LOVED it.  It's definitely making my top ten list for the year!  There are so many things going on--everything but war, really.  What's your take on Tarantino's "version" of your movie?

Enzo Castellari:  Just a fantastic, awesome, and original movie!  Full of surprises and great shots.  You never get tired of watching the movie.  I remember when I was on the set, the incredible care of every single detail.  The props master's team was always checking on everything.  Wonderful perfection.  When I met [Costume Designer] Anna Sheppard, a beautiful woman and indeed a great professional lady, she made me feel comfortable and very relaxed.  We tried many costumes and she was always there with a smile, helping and trying to get the right size for me.  The production crew was wonderful too.  The assistant directors were very kind to me.  When I walked inside the stage to meet Quentin. . . it was super great!!!  He was there standing and talking to the cast.  I silently walked in and when he saw me, was so thrilled to see me.  I was too!!!

MM:  The title of Inglourious Basterds has been the subject of trivial speculation and controversy since its announcement, mostly due to Tarantino's misspelling of both words and not explaining why he misspells them.  I believe the title for your original movie translates into something like "That Damned Armored Train" (Quel maledetto treno blindato).  Unlike Tarantino's Basterds, in your movie, the soldiers aren't called "The Bastards" nor do I remember the word "bastard" being uttered even once in that movie.  So I'd like to know:  is there a story to how that title was created for your original movie?  Because it really is such an impossibly fantastic title.  Who was responsible for it? 

EC:  Well. . . the original title is mine: “Bastardi senza gloria.”  During the reading of the script with the cast (something I always do before filming the movie), I was trying to explain to the actors what kind of people they were, “You are inglorious bastards!!”  Then, Fred Williamson stopped me and screamed, “Enzo!  This is the title of the movie!!!”  Yes it was.  Indeed a great title.  So the film [became] Inglorious Bastards.  But the distribution in Italy changed the title into “Quel maledetto treno blindato.”  Honestly, I never liked this title.  In Italy, Quentin’s movie will be released with my original title, “Bastardi senza gloria.”  In many European countries my film was released with the title Inglorious Bastards.  Quentin’s title is his.  There is no speculation or controversy about the title.  He bought the rights of the title and he invented his own title.  He is just a great, pure and fantastic artist.  His “misspelling” is a pure and personal touch.

MM:  You've mentioned that Peckinpah's The Wild Bunch and Cross of Iron were a big influence on your Bastards, especially the slow motion sequences you've referred to as "violent ballet."  There's one such sequence in Tarantino's movie, in which violence and high melodrama (and possibly even love) take a slow swirl.  It felt like I was watching a scene from the bloodiest soap opera ever!  It was wonderful!  Can you talk about the use and effectiveness of slow motion in your films?  What dimension do they bring to a film?

EC:  Slow motion is magic.  Brings magic to the film.  But you have to know how to use it and when to use the slow motion.  It expands the drama in a certain sequence.  It describes into specific details something you would not and could not see using the 24 frames [per second] speed.  Describe to me The Wild Bunch or Cross of Iron without the slow motion?  Impossible.  Peckinpah has not only influenced my Bastards, but even my way of directing.  In Europe I am considered to be the European answer to Sam Peckinpah!  Amazing things can happen in life.

MM:  I recently saw a conversation with you and Tarantino and I really loved what you said about you and him having a "movie in common."  I thought that was very gracious of you.  Can you talk about how you first learned that Tarantino wanted to use your movie? 

EC:  I read about it for the first time in Variety.  I was thrilled!!!  And I still continue asking myself, “Why me?”  I was shocked…. and I am still shocked.  But very, very honored.  I've directed many movies.  I come from a movie dynasty.  My father, Marino, directed over 130 films.  I lived on set.  I grew up with the “smell” of the set.  My uncle, Romolo, is a director too.  My son and daughter are also involved in the movie business.  My daughter, Stefania, is now a director and my son, Andrea, is my personal first assistant.  So, to think that an American director, a genius like Quentin Tarantino, has chosen my film, over billions of films done all over the world…. it is just a magnificent gift!  A dream come true.It was magic when Quentin and I met for the first time, years back, during the Venice Film Festival.  He yelled, “Maestro!!!!”  I saw this huge man walking towards me.  He grabbed me and lifted  me up.  We saw the original Bastards together, sitting next to each other and he was laughing and laughing the whole time. Great memories.  After the screening, he stood up and yelled to the whole public, “This is my Maestro!!!”.  The day after we met we had lunch together.  During the lunch, he was very nice and started to describe the beginning of his Basterds.  A genius like Tarantino was telling the beginning of his movie to me.  Great!

MM:  Some argue that the '70s were Hollywood's last "Golden Age of Cinema."  I think, however, that we can apply that title to cinema from all over the world during that decade.  In particular, to Italian Cinema.  With Italy making 400-500 movies a year in the '70s (compared to the 30-40 that are being made now), can you talk about what it was like to be an Italian director during that creative and fruitful period?

EC:  Wonderful period--it was indeed the golden years of film making.  As a director, I had plenty of freedom.  Freedom of invention.  The producer trusted me.  The actors trusted me and I trusted them.  There was always a friendly atmosphere.  Sometimes things did not work the way they had to be. . .but we always finished the movie.  The movie was always sold overseas.  The producer was happy.  We were too.  Today, that kind of atmosphere is gone, except with my current film, Caribbean Basterds.  I worked with a great producer, Alessandro Centenaro.  A real gentleman.  We trusted each other--from the beginning to the end.

MM:  Like many an Italian director of that period, you've also worked in all genres:  "Spaghetti Western," "Giallo," "Macaroni Combat," "Poliziotteschi," "Post-Apocalyptic," "Sword and Sandal;" genres that were all re-invented by the Italians after successful non-Italian movies like The Dirty Dozen, Death Wish, Mad Max, etc.  What was the general attitude in Italy during the '70s when it came to movies that were not Bertolucci or Fellini or Antonioni, especially when working in genres that were inspired by movies from other countries?

EC:  The attitude was to go to see a good, crazy Italian movie.  People loved to go to the movie theaters.  Why see one American movie?  You could see the “original” and then the other “copies."  For example, look at my Great White.  After Jaws, I directed Great White:  an enormous success (even in the U.S.).  Let’s not forget my 1990:  The Bronx Warriors--another international success, after The Warriors and Escape From New York.  Our movies had great international economic success.  The costs were low, the gain was high.  You have to know that the income of our B-movies produced the A-movies, like Fellini’s, Bertolucci’s, and many more.  Without the genre films, there was no money for the more intellectual directors to direct their movies. When the genre film ended… the A-movie ended too.

MM:  Speaking of Spaghetti Westerns, you're responsible for directing the movie that, in my opinion, should have revived the Spaghetti Western genre in the late '70s:  Keoma.  It's a fantastic western, a movie that, if I'm not mistaken, was shown one time with the soundtrack to Robert Altman's Mccabe and Mrs. Miller, a soundtrack that includes songs by Leonard Cohen.  Besides being influenced by a handful of other genres, Tarantino claims that Inglourious Basterds is his "Spaghetti Western."  How do you see the Spaghetti Western influence in Basterds?  

EC:  Fantastic film:  I just adore and love Keoma.  When I watch the movie, I always cry when they kill Keoma’s father.  Always!  Everything is great in that film.  Now, in Italy, Keoma is considered to be one of the best western movies ever made.  Naturally, after Leone's [westerns].Great combination:  Tarantino [and] “Spaghetti Westerns."  I have to ask him.  Maybe the close ups, maybe the shots, maybe the slow motion. . . maybe. . .too many maybes. . .When I edit my movies, I usually use [other] original music, to get the right feeling and beat for the editing.  Then, when I finish the movie, I take away that original music and I kindly request to the music director to compose similar music.

MM:  What do you think of contemporary successful directors like Tarantino, Eli Roth, Robert Rodriguez, Edgar Wright, Rob Zombie, etc., who seem to look back at those exploitation films from the '70s and use them as influences on their own films?  Do you think it's similar to what you and your Italian colleagues were doing back then with older American films?

EC:  Very true!  And it is very funny.  Way back, we looked at the American movies and now they look at our films.  Wonderful homage and respect.  That means we, Italian genre directors did a good job too.  Look for example at Eli Roth and Ruggero Deodato:  "what comes around, goes around”… isn’t true? 

MM:  In that same conversation with you and Tarantino, he mentions how he first saw Inglorious Bastards on syndicated television here in L.A. in the '80s.  I too remember how KTLA, KCOP, KHJ, (channels 5, 13, 9, and 11, respectively, and all syndicated tv stations during the '80s) would rotate genres from week to week, with war movies one week, westerns the next, martial arts movies after that, etc.  But it seems that your movie was never shown theatrically here in the states.  Why was your Bastards not shown theatrically in the U.S, especially since it starred Bo Svenson fresh off his success with Walking Tall Part 2 and Fred Williamson, who was a big star in the '70s?

EC:  I do not know.

MM:  You know, I was so transfixed by Tarantino's Basterds that I missed your appearance in it!  I'll be looking out for it when I see the movie again later this week.  Can you talk about that cameo?

EC:  I am standing during the cinema sequence, in the middle, between Brad Pitt and Eli Roth.  I was soooo happy.  I was like a little boy in his favorite toy store.  I was dreaming a beautiful dream.  Every single person was great.  When Brad Pitt mentions my name. . . I  could not hear anything else.  I was shocked.  Then when Eli Roth said, “Antonio Margheriti,” another Italian director, a wonderful friend and collegue of mine, I was very happy for him too.  That evening, after the wrap, I called Margheriti’s son and told him.I remember the clap boy came to me with my Bastards DVD to get it signed…from me.  We were in front of Quentin.  I was so happy the day Quentin came to me, in front of the whole crew, with the original clip board signed from him for me.  Then, Brad Pitt--a serious, incredible gentleman--told me that his son saw my movie Bastards dozens and dozens of times.  He just wanted to watch my movie and not the other American war movies!!  I told him that his son is for me like an Academy Award.  The cast was happy to sign the script for me.  The prop master was very kind too.  Tarantino made an homage to my movie inside the other movie [Nation's Pride] inside his movie.  If you see the other movie [you can see it here], you will notice Bo Svenson--and Bo was my star in my original Bastards.  The prop master made me a copy of the movie poster [for Nation's Pride]--the poster had Bo Svenson dressed in a U.S. military uniform. 

MM:  The homages seem to be going in both directions, as you are currently working on something called Caribbean Basterds.  What's that all about?

EC:  Yes.  You are right!!  An homage to my wonderful friend, Quentin.  My son, Andrea, during the filming of the movie came up with that title.  He was in Berlin with me and one day he came to me and said, “Hey dad, why don’t you change the title to Caribbean Basterds.  The movie is shot in the Caribbean and the guys in the movie are real bastards… let’s make an homage to Tarantino.  He would love it.”  And he did.  When I met him at Cannes, he loved my homage to him.  But that is not all.  There is a particular homage to Quentin inside my movie, too.  A special homage to him.  I cannot say more.  You have to see the movie.  All my fans are going crazy about the movie.  They cannot wait to see it!I filmed the movie in Venezuela. It was produced by Alessandro Centenaro for [the production company] Venice Film.  Surf Film will distribute the film.  The movie is now in post production.  I finished the editing process.  The movie sold very well during the Cannes Film Festival.  It is a movie full of action, sex, and beautiful Caribbean locations.  An indirect homage to Kubrick’s A Clockwork Orange, too.Special thanks to Teo Simone, who will be starring in Castellari's next project, Codice Silenzioso, for making this interview happen.