THE Gian Maria Volode, in addition to being a great actor, he was also a great person. A tireless fighter for the rights of the downtrodden of the whole world, an exponent of human suffering, a selfless ideologue to the end. At a time when political and social cinema flourished in Italy, with huge figures in directing, writing and acting, Volode left the opportunities of a great career abroad to stay close to a people emerging from a painful defeat, he was trying to throw off the fascist stigma, to find his pride, to face the new challenges, the much-vaunted “economic miracle”.

And that’s because Gian Maria Volode was the most famous Italian actor abroad and in America, due to his performances in spaghetti westerns and, above all, in the films of the greatest Sergio Leone “For a Handful of Dollars” and “Duel in El Paso”, where he held the roles of the sadistic, gang leader opposite Clint Eastwood. Roles that, as he had confessed, he had no respect for and did them for the money and to be able to do what he wants in the theater and in Italian cinema.

Completing 90 years since his birth (April 9, 1933), it is an opportunity to remember the paradoxes of his youth, his career in cinema, his indomitable attitude in art and in life, his sudden death in Florina, on the set of movie by Theodoros Angelopoulos “The View of Odysseus”.

Fascist father – rich mother

Gian Maria Volode was born in Milan in 1933, but grew up in Turin, where his father Mario, a fascist officer from Sarono and commander of the Brigata Nera, was serving. His mother, Carolina Bianchi, was the offspring of a rich family of industrialists in Milan, while his younger brother, Claudio, was also an actor. The acting bug will catch him before he reaches adulthood. Thus, he will “kick” her out of his family’s metropolitan environment in the mid-1950s, to go to Rome to study acting at the Accademia Nazionale di Arte Drammatica Silvio D’Amico, from which he will graduate in 1957 to enter in the profession, through television and theatre, before establishing himself in film.

“No” to Hollywood

He will make his film debut in 1960 in the film “Under Ten Flags”, by Dulio Colletti, alongside Charles Lawton and Van Heflin. Very quickly, however, international recognition will come, when in 1964 he will star in the famous western “For a Handful of Dollars” and immediately, the following year, in Sergio Leone’s “Duel in El Paso”. Interpreting in the first film “Ramon Rojos” and in the second “El Idio”, two wonderful roles, which will open the door for him to a great career in America and Hollywood and he will close it without a second thought, as his principles are not they allowed him to become a link in the chain that would “serve the conservative structures of society, the mechanisms of power.”

Digging into the character

Volode, who will play almost anything, even comedic roles, such as in the hilarious Mario Monicelli’s The Brave Brancalone and A Magnificent Hornbill, where he will excel is in drama, crime, social films, all having political content. In almost all of his performances, Volode, sacrificing his natural beauty and unparalleled charm, did a detailed and meticulous research to prepare for the role, to dig into the character. He was not satisfied with his acting skills, but he wanted to contribute his own visual criticism of the physiognomy of the characters, to put real life into the film.

Memorable performances

His collaboration with the extremely political director Elios Petri, will give him memorable roles. In the film “To Each His Own” (1967) he will be the high school teacher who investigates a mafia crime, while in the iconic police film “Beyond Suspicion” (1970) he will uniquely play the top police officer who murders his mistress and tests the police if they can find that he is the criminal. A performance that will earn him the David di Donatello Gold Award. He will follow in 1971 the famous “The Working Class Goes to Heaven” keeping the role of the neurotic worker, while at the same time he will shoot “Sacco e Vanzetti”, this time directed by Giuliano Modaldo, playing the proud anarchist Bartolomeo Vanzetti . With the important Francesco Rosi, he will film “The Mattei Affair”, while in 1979 he will star in the excellent political drama “Christ Stopped at Emboli”. Here we will stop, as Volode gives one of his best performances as a writer and painter exiled by the Mussolini regime to a village in Basilicata. A village, which lives in misery, while its inhabitants remain pawns of power, slaves to preconceptions and conservative stereotypes. Rosi makes use of Carlo Levi’s text and Tonino Guerra’s script, while Volode’s sensational interpretation goes perfectly with that of our own Irini Papa, who gives her change.

He also participated in masterpiece films, such as the detective film “The Red Circle” by the great Jean-Pierre Melville, alongside Alain Delon and Yves Montand, and the political drama “Todo modo” again by Elio Petri and alongside Marcello Mastroianni.

Dead in Florina

In 1994, while he was in Florina for the filming of Angelopoulos’ film “The View of Odysseus” under difficult circumstances, his heart would betray him and on December 6 he would be found dead. The then young assistant director of the film Margarita Manda, who was the first to find the legend of European cinema dead, will narrate through the pages of her book: “Falling face down in the bathroom. Gian Maria. Half naked. Frosted. Dead. My left hand on his carotid artery. I know before I touch him. My first time finding someone dead and the dead person is Gian Maria Volode. Just the night before we were singing until three in the morning together in the dining room of “Lygos” Pandiera rossa triomfera…”

Gian Maria Volode died prematurely, at the age of only 61, but as he would have liked, in the preparations of another film, next to his beloved colleagues, close to young men and women, singing “Avanti Popolo”. He will leave proudly, as he lived his whole life, leaving behind a daughter, his interpretations, his political thinking, his struggles, for a just world. A chance for all of us to rediscover him – even in Italy…