The explosions ring out in front of the saloon and a cowboy collapses: setting for countless spaghetti westerns in the 1960s and 70s, the region of Almería, in Andalusia, still exploits this golden age, between amusement parks, festivals cinema and shooting of new films.
“A Fistful of Dollars”, “The Good, the Bad and the Ugly” and “Once Upon a Time in the West”, masterpieces by Italian master Sergio Leone, were not filmed in the United States but in the south of Spain, near Almería, in the Tabernas desert: 28,000 hectares of dunes, canyons, steppes and cacti.
Dusty streets, wooden facades, sheriff’s office and saloon: vestiges of the time, three hamlets which once served as a setting have today become amusement parks… while continuing to host filming.
Here, a cart, there, a gallows, a little further away a church and a coffin. At Fort Bravo, one of these villages, fake cowboys put on a show in performances on horseback, with gunshots fired.
– “A family affair” –
Cowboy boots on his feet and a sleeveless vest on his back, Rafael Aparicio is one of them.
At 49, he started as an extra on film sets: “I must have been 14 or 15, and that’s where I learned everything: horses, knowing how to fall from the top of a building, fighting on the ground …”.
In the parking lot, around fifteen trucks, large campers and a white tent suggest filming in progress.
“It’s the light” that attracts directors to such a remote region, Italian actor Fabio Testi, 83, told AFP, who himself has played in several films shot in these settings: “You can turn from 7:00 a.m. to 9:00 p.m., it will always be the same light.”
“The landscapes are the same as in Arizona and southern Texas. It doesn’t rain. And it’s much cheaper than the United States,” adds José Enrique Martinez, author of “Almería, a world of films “, or “Wanted… on the trail of Sergio Leone”.
“Cinema in its early days in Almería was a family affair. Everyone wanted to be in the films. The workers called in sick to go to the shoots, where they were better paid,” says the historian, himself a native of the region.
The extras are legion, and entirely plausible to portray cowboys or Mexican peasants with sun-tanned skin.
When Sergio Leone puts his camera in Tabernas, everything becomes “more industrial”, with infrastructures, associations of riders, carpenters etc. at approved rates, continues José Enrique Martinez. Dozens of westerns were filmed there in the 1960s.
“Sergio Leone put on the music of Ennio Morricone, people got into the mood and there he went +Clap, action!+”, remembers Fabio Testi. “It was like Texas for us, it was really desert. There was a hotel in Almería and that’s it.”
This isolation is sometimes burdensome for certain stars, like Clint Eastwood, who complains of the endless journeys to Tabernas. In 1968, Almería airport was created, allowing Sean Connery, Brigitte Bardot and Louis de Funès to arrive more quickly.
– “Long live westerns!” –
The region is not only a land of westerns: it has also been used for films set in North Africa or the Middle East, such as “Lawrence of Arabia”, recalls Robert Yareham, author of “Movies made in Spain” .
After the 1970s, activity in Tabernas slowed down, but it has picked up again recently, with the filming of the future series “Lucky Luke”, “Zorro” with Jean Dujardin, “Strange way of life”, the short film in the form of a queer western by Pedro Almodóvar, or even “The Crown” and “Games of Thrones”.
And for 14 years, the Almería Western Film Festival has resurrected this memory of the Andalusian Wild West every October.
Hat and bandana around his neck, Juan Castro, a 41-year-old teacher, gets into the game, proud of the only festival dedicated to westerns in Europe: “It does not belong to the past, it is still alive, we must continue to promote it so that it does not fall into oblivion”.
This year, the jury awarded “Until the End of the World”, by Viggo Mortensen. On stage, the American did not forget to pay tribute to his hosts: “The western is not dead, it’s not true. Long live the western and long live the western filmed in Almería!”
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