Enzo G. Castellari

Enzo G. Castellari
Enzo G. Castellari signing Inglourious Basterds posters at FFF (Lund International Fantastic Film Festival) in Lund, Sweden, 2009-09-20
Born	Enzo Girolami Castellari (1938-07-29) 29 July 1938 (age 78) Rome, Italy
Occupation	Film director
Years active	1960–present

Enzo G. Castellari (born 29 July 1938) is an Italian film director.

Enzo G. Castellari was born on 29 July 1938 in Rome Italy. Castellari was born into a family of filmmakers. His father was a boxer turned film maker Marino Girolami. His uncle is filmmaker Romolo Guerrieri and his brother was actor Ennio Girolami. Castellari initially was a boxer like his father and went to school to get a degree in architecture.

Castellari began work on film assisting with various jobs on sets of his father's films. Among his early credits included uncredited roles in directing films such as Few Dollars for Django (1966) and A Ghentar si muore facile (1967). Many of Castellari's early works are Westerns. He received his official credited directorial debut with Renegade Riders (1967), a film shot in Spain and influenced by Sidney J. Furie's film The Appaloosa (1966). After releasing the Western Kill Them All and Come Back Alone (1968), Casterllari did a war film titled Eagles Over London. By the early 1970s, Casterllari began exploring other genres as well such as the thriller Cold Eyes of Fear (1971), the comedy Hector the Mighty (1972), and the comedic swashbuckler The Loves and Times of Scaramouche (1976). Castellari directed his first poliziotteschi film with High Crime starring Franco Nero. Nero and Castellari formed a relationship with the film and work together for seven features. Castellari later noted his work with Nero, stating "I think that to have an actor like Franco Nero is one of the best things that can happen to a director...if it had been possible, I would have made all my films with him" Nero would work with Casterllari on the Western Keoma which was only a mild success in Italy on its release, but would later be praised as one of Castellari's best films. Casterllari created further poliziotteschi films in the late 1970s as well as the war film The Inglorious Bastards. Castellari was offered to direct the film Zombi 2, but turned it down as he didn't feel he would be the right director for a horror film.