django by Francesca Comencini competes with the cult of Sergio Corbucci, pays homage to it and renews it. Very little remains of that gunslinger who went around the world, perhaps only the name, the hat and a little mud: his manhood left her in the 1966 film. In the series, broadcast tonight on Sky and streaming on Now, Django (Matthias Schoenaerts) is in a deep crisis, he has to deal with himself, with the past and his own fragility. The director of Gomorrah – the series in his western he goes beyond the idea of a virile man with a gun and offers us a frontier that echoes today. Will fans of the original like it?
It is the women who take the stage. There are Sarah (Lisa Vicari), the daughter of Djangothe only survivor of her family who survives a carnage, ready to become “queen” of the city of New Babylon where absolute freedom reigns, and Elizabeth Thurmann (Noomi Rapace), white city lady who wants cleanse the world of sinners who reside in the other city. Two women who collide in the name of two different community visions.
Django: the plot
This western he keeps an eye on our cinematic past and opens his eyes wide on today. «This was the most complicated aspect not to betray: combine tradition with innovation» says Francesca Comencini. It doesn’t start in fifth grade Djangoforget the tight rhythms, here everything is more dilated and the beauty comes with the passing of time and with the episodes.
Even the characters, ElizabethSarah and the same Django, slowly take shape. So don’t stop at the first few episodes, go further.
We are in the 1872after the Civil War, but in the South of the country blacks continued to suffer discrimination and violence. A stranger, Django (Matthias Schoenaerts), as in the most classic of western structures, arrives in an unknown city in Texas, New Babylon, founded by John Ellis (Nicholas Pinnock) e Sarah (Lisa Vicari), his daughter. From that moment on, the most famous spaghetti western gunslinger wants to win her back.
However, there is a war against Elmdalethe city of whites led by Elizabeth Thurman, stepsister and enemy of Ellis: its purpose is to free oneself from sinners of New Babylon in the name of Godespecially after discovering that the petrolium.
A modern western that speaks of inner fragility, racism and homosexuality
Djangodirected by Francesca Comencini, David Evans and Enrico Maria Artale, «is measured against a legendary general to tell the conflicts, contradictions, fears of our time – says Comencini, also artistic director of the series – we address the theme of war, of racial discrimination and tell characters looking for a solution to their conflicts interior». As Maddalena Ravagli, screenwriter together with Leonardo Fasoli defines it: «This series is a western and a psychological thriller».
On the one hand there is history, the American Civil War, on the other the reference to today: two communities in conflict, one open to novelty, the other closed which excludes anyone who could threaten well-being.
And then there’s him a man, insecure and fragile. An idea of a cowboy far from the one told in Django of Corbucci and in Django by Quentin Tarantino. And here we also address the issue of homosexuality. Expect everything, we said it: Django is not what it used to be.
Matthias Schoenaerts. (Sky)
The cameos in Django: from Franco Nero to Manuel Agnelli
As in Django Unchained by Tarantino also in the Sky series it could not be missing Franco Nero in a cameo. Here he plays the role of the reverend Jan. With a past as a doctor Jan he’s the only one who can help Django when Sarah gets sick. After the initial mistrust, the man decides to help him. Nero promises that sooner or later he will return as the gunslinger who brought him good luck. The western was already in the pipeline Django Lives, but Covid stopped the project. «The film is only postponed» assures the actor.
Beyond Black, Thomas Trabacchi, Camille Dugay (daughter of Francesca Comencini) e Vinicio Marchioniwho played cameos, there is also Manuel Agnelli, his first time on set. «I’m a child again – says the singer – I’ve always loved westerns and I’ve been preparing for this moment since I was 5 years old».
Agnelli interprets Oscarsthe owner of an oil extraction company who will have to deal with the henchmen of Elizabeth. You will see the former frontman of Afterhours hold a rifle. Rocking.
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