From Spaghetti Westerns to Suburban Satire

By Michael Jacobsohn

Recently, I had the pleasure of spending an afternoon at the Metrograph cinema, an experience that offered a truly memorable double feature. The double bill was a study in contrasts: a screening of Sergio Leone’s 1968 epic, The Good, The Bad, and The Ugly, followed by a 40th-anniversary 4K re-issue of Susan Seidelman’s Desperately Seeking Susan. It was a wildly diverse pairing for a steamy summer day. The Metrograph is a jewel of a theater, located in a former warehouse on the Lower East Side. The area, at the intersection of Ludlow and Canal streets, has a rich history that I first discovered in the late 1960s. At that time, it was still home to remnants of a once-vibrant Jewish community, with a growing Puerto Rican population moving into the public housing nearby. The theater itself was about half full, mostly with young men who clearly understood they were about to embark on an epic, bloody journey through the Old West.

The Good, The Bad, and The Ugly

As Hollywood’s love affair with the Western genre was fading in the 1960s, Italian director Sergio Leone pioneered a new type of Western. Dubbed “Spaghetti Westerns,” these films were anything but spartan. For The Good, The Bad, and The Ugly, Leone imported three legendary Hollywood actors—Clint Eastwood, Lee Van Cleef, and Eli Wallach—and transported them to the Spanish countryside, which he masterfully transformed into a vision of the American Wild West during the tumultuous Civil War.

The three protagonists are greedy killers, driven by a thirst for sacks of gold. While this is a familiar trope, Leone’s cinematic vision elevates it to an art form, rivaling the samurai epics of Japanese director Akira Kurosawa. The film is characterized by intense close-ups that heighten the menace and suspense of every gunfight. Wallach’s portrayal of the double-crossing bandit is a standout. His relentless ability to shoot at anything that moves is balanced by a dark sense of humor that makes the gruesome narrative surprisingly palatable and morbidly enjoyable. Capping it all off is the ecstatic and haunting musical score by Ennio Morricone, which magnifies the viewing pleasure from the opening credits to the climatic final standoff.

Desperately Seeking Susan

After a brief ten-minute break, I made my way to the balcony for the sold-out screening of Desperately Seeking Susan. The crowd, a mix of dedicated fans and newcomers, included a large number of women who had come to celebrate the groundbreaking film and hear from director Susan Seidelman herself.

This screwball comedy stars Madonna in her first major feature role. By the mid-1980s, she was already a sensation, thanks to her groundbreaking music videos on MTV. The film’s plot is a hilarious mix-up centered on Madonna’s character, a brash, itinerant artist running around the East Village, whose identity is accidentally hijacked by Rosanna Arquette’s character, a sheltered suburbanite from New Jersey. Three men play collateral roles in this farce, blissfully unaware of the ruse unfolding around them, but they are taken along for a wild ride that ultimately leads to a worthy and satisfying conclusion.

The screening was followed by a fascinating Q&A session. Seidelman proudly shared her reflections on the film and her career, emphasizing the significant role that women played in Desperately Seeking Susan. The film was produced by two women, the crew featured women in key production roles, and, most importantly, the plot revolves around two zany female protagonists who are free to have fun—a rarity in cinema at the time. Seidelman also revealed that she was inspired by legendary Italian director Lina Wertmuller and drew a parallel between the film’s narrative and Alice in Wonderland, equating it to unhappy suburbanite appearing in Manhattan’s East Village wonderland. Her talk was followed by a book signing for her recent memoir, Desperately Seeking Something: A Memoir About Movies, Mothers, and Material Girls, which chronicles her pioneering career as a female director.

Hands down, the Metrograph provides the coolest free monthly catalogue schedule, which lists their upcoming screenings and events. Their website is equally handsome and informative.

Find out more about the Metrograph:
metrograph.com

You can see The Good, The Bad, and The Ugly and Desperately Seeking Susan by renting at Apple TV, Google Play Movies, Amazon Video, Fandango at Home, and YouTube. But do treat yourself to occasional cinema screenings of these films.

Two significant film events are coming to NYC this fall.

The Gotham Film & Media Institute is hosting its yearly The Gotham Week Project, which starts on September 29 and runs for five days. The annual event will bring independent filmmakers to 26 Bridge in Dumbo, Brooklyn. It features an invitation-only pitch forum where a select group of narrative and documentary filmmakers will have the chance to pitch their projects to film professionals who can help get their films produced and distributed. The Gotham also hosts a Film Expo, where filmmakers are invited to participate and network in a variety of workshops, lectures, screenings, and social events open to the city’s broader film community.

Find out more about Gotham Week: https://thegotham.org/gotham-week/project-market/slate-2025/

The annual New York Film Festival begins on September 26 and lasts for two weeks. The 63rd annual film festival will be held at Lincoln Center. By attending, you can save on travel expenses while seeing what the programmers at Film at Lincoln Center have deemed the best features from leading film festivals across Europe and Asia. The lineup is also sprinkled with high-profile, recent American features.

Find out more about NYFF63: filmlinc.org/nyff

Find out more about the IFC Center screening: ifccenter.com/films/the-cornelia-street-cafe-in-exile

Michael Jacobsohn is an independent New York filmmaker. His recently completed documentary, “The Cornelia Street Cafe In Exile,” will be screened at the IFC Center on Thursday, September 25th, at 6:30 pm, as part of this year’s The Village Trip music festival. He also curates and hosts a bi-monthly screening of short films by New York Metropolitan filmmakers at New Plaza Cinema.