Sergio Sollima

{{Short description|Italian film director and script writer}} {{Infobox person | name = Sergio Sollima | image = Sergio_Sollima.jpg | birth_date = {{Birth date|df=y|1921|4|17}} | birth_place = [[Rome]], Lazio, Italy | death_date = {{Death date and age|2015|7|1|1921|4|17|df=y}} | death_place = Rome, Italy | occupation = Film director, producer, screenwriter | years_active = 1962–1998 | children = [[Stefano Sollima]] | other_names = Simon Sterling }}

'''Sergio Sollima''' (17 April 1921 – 1 July 2015) was an Italian [[film director]] and [[Screenwriter|script writer]].

==Biography== Sollima graduated from the [[Centro Sperimentale di Cinematografia]] in 1935. During World War II he was in the [[Italian Resistance]].<ref>p. 93 Fisher, Austin ''Radical Frontiers in the Spaghetti Western: Politics, Violence and Popular Italian Cinema'' I.B.Tauris, 6 Feb 2014</ref>

After the war, he gradually progressed from working as a film critic to screenwriting to becoming a director<ref>{{Cite web | first=Nick | last=Vivarelli | title=Sergio Sollima, Italian Director Best Known Internationally For Spaghetti Westerns, Dies at 94 | work=[[Variety (magazine)|Variety]] | url=https://variety.com/2015/film/global/sergio-sollima-italian-director-best-known-internationally-for-spaghetti-westerns-dies-at-94-1201533774/ | date=3 July 2015 | accessdate=6 April 2019}}</ref> Like many Italian [[Cult following|cult]] directors, Sollima started his career as a screenwriter in the 1950s and wrote many [[peplum film]]s in the 1960s. He made his directing debut doing one of the four sequences in the [[anthology film]] ''[[Of Wayward Love]]''. Sollima filmed three [[Eurospy]] films and then moved to [[spaghetti westerns]]. ''[[The Big Gundown]]'' (starring [[Lee Van Cleef]] and [[Tomas Milian]]) was released in 1966 with big success, despite the fact that it had to compete with [[Sergio Leone]]'s ''[[The Good, the Bad and the Ugly]]'' and [[Sergio Corbucci]]'s ''[[Django (1966 film)|Django]]''. Sollima soon filmed two more westerns. ''[[Face to Face (1967 film)|Face to Face]]'' (Milian and [[Gian Maria Volonté]]) was released in 1967 and ''[[Run, Man, Run!]]'' (Milian) in 1968. Although Sollima directed only three westerns and they never reached the level of popularity as the ones by the other Sergios (Leone and Corbucci), each of them is highly regarded among genre enthusiasts.

In 1970, Sollima switched genres again and directed the [[Charles Bronson]] and [[Telly Savalas]] starred ''[[Violent City]]'', which was one of the first violent and fast-paced Italian [[crime film]]s often known as [[poliziotteschi]]. Like for all of his westerns, the soundtrack was provided by [[Ennio Morricone]]. Sollima's last well-known film is ''[[Revolver (1973 film)|Revolver]]'', a poliziotteschi film starring [[Oliver Reed]] and [[Fabio Testi]].

Sollima directed the six-part Italian TV series ''[[Sandokan (1976 TV series)|Sandokan]]'' starring [[Kabir Bedi]] with several [[feature film]]s spun off the series.

==Selected filmography== {{div col|colwidth=30em}} * ''[[Tripoli, Beautiful Land of Love]]'' (1954) *''[[Of Wayward Love]]'' (1962) *''[[Agent 3S3: Passport to Hell]]'' (1965) *''[[Agent 3S3, Massacre in the Sun]]'' (1966) *''[[Requiem for a Secret Agent]]'' (1966) *''[[The Big Gundown]]'' (1967) *''[[Face to Face (1967 film)|Face to Face]]'' (1967) *''[[Run, Man, Run]]'' (1968) *''[[Violent City]]'' (1970) *''[[Devil in the Brain]]'' (1972) *''[[Revolver (1973 film)|Revolver]]'' (1973) *''[[Sandokan (1976 TV series)|Sandokan]]'' (1976, TV miniseries) *''[[The Black Corsair (1976 film)|The Black Corsair]]'' (1976) *''[[La tigre è ancora viva: Sandokan alla riscossa!]]'' (1977) {{div col end}}

==References== {{reflist}}

==External links== * {{IMDb name|0813177}}

{{DEFAULTSORT:Sollima, Sergio}} [[Category:1921 births]] [[Category:2015 deaths]] [[Category:Spaghetti Western directors]] [[Category:Film directors from Rome]] [[Category:Poliziotteschi directors]]