
Twice Upon a Time in the West. 2015. Bulgaria. Directed by Boris Despodov. Screenplay by Despodov, Andrey Paounov. With Claudia Cardinale, Alex Brendemühl. Courtesy of the filmmaker. In English, Italian, Bulgarian. 97 min.
A playfully devoted Bulgarian filmmaker invites Claudia Cardinale to make a sequel to Once Upon a Time in West in the desert of Tabernas in southern Spain, the location of countless Spaghetti Westerns, contriving a charmingly convoluted plot about a housekeeper, a leading lady, and a movie within a movie. What results is not what you think: not a postmodern, hyper-ironic quotation of Sergio Leone’s classic Western, but instead a revealing and touching look at Claudia Cardinale as she herself looks back with self-deprecating humor and wisdom on her long and storied career and her movie-star legend.