Lui era Trinità is a documentary on the life and career of the film producer Italo Zingarelli, who in the 1970s brought to the screen two blockbuster hits: They Call Me Trinity and Trinity is Still My Name (both written and directed by Enzo Barboni), films that decreed the international success of the duo Bud Spencer and Terence Hill, and that continue to be as popular today. The documentary not only tells Zingarelli’s story, it is also an account of how the “Trinity series” films were conceived and the reasons for their success and that of their two unforgettable stars. Some of Zingarelli’s closest collaborators and friends have been enlisted to talk about the man and his career, including Terence Hill, Bud Spencer (in a previously unreleased 2004 interview), Dario Argento, Giovanna rally. Their voices are joined by film critic Mario Sesti and that of the director and author Luca Rea, an expert in genre films, as well as Zingarelli’s children. The result is a portrait of a film producer sui generis, a kind, generous and visionary man whose films spawned the “Fagioli Western” genre – marking the beginning of the end of Spaghetti Westerns – and changed the history of Italian cinema, and more.
DIRECTOR: Dario Marani
NATION: Italy
YEAR: 2023
RUNTIME: 96′
CAST: Terence Hill, Bud Spencer, Dario Argento, Giovanna Ralli, Barbara Alberti, Amedeo Pagani
Original version with subtitles