Black and White with Red Sauce

Spaghetti alla Tarantino

A lecture by
Mary Ann McDonald Carolan, NYU Tiro a Segno Visiting Professor

Quentin Tarantino’s indebtedness to the spaghetti western and its masters, Sergio Corbucci and Sergio Leone in particular, is legendary. Elements of that genre appear in Django Unchained (2012) and The Hateful Eight (2015). The American director’s penchant for violence and gratuitous bloodshed has resulted in criticism at home and abroad, but his films have stimulated debate on issues such as racism and the legacy of slavery in the United States. As Tarantino shifts direction from the western frontier to the south and back to the west, he remains true to the ideological origins of the spaghetti western by combining trenchant political commentary with entertainment. Race is a main ingredient in both these “macaroni” films.

In ENGLISH.’

From the Casa Italiana Zerilli-Marimo.