[Corbucci] called me for whatever reason… one day I he called me from Ischia, where he was on holiday: “Ruggero, there’s a beautiful girl here who dances the tamure, but nobody knows how to win her over, only you can do it!’ So I went to Ischia and won her over. Now that beautiful girl is the mother of one of the Boccoli sisters. And I’m forgetting even more amusing incidents that happened over the years or when I was shooting the westerns in Spain with him.
It didn’t end all that well with Corbucci, though, we had some disagreements after Django, he didn’t honour me with his presence at my marriage and he deceived me into shooting a film with his producer… in truth I think he wanted to hijack a big proposal that I’d received from Dino De Laurentiis; after I refused the offer from this noted producer it was accepted by Sergio’s brother Bruno and almost immediately afterwards I was fired from his producer friend’s project. It was a little grievance, contrary to the pleasure I experienced in being the long-time assistant director to the great Sergio Corbucci.
[notes] This was a slightly difficult section to translate but I think I got the gist of it here. Regarding the film that Deodato mentions, this flummoxes me rather, as the only collaboration between Bruno Corbucci and Dino De Laurentiis I know of is the 1972 film Boccaccio. But that does tie in with Deodato’s marriage to Silvia Dionisio in 1971 so I’d guess that that’s the one. The Boccoli sisters – Brigitta and Benedicta – are famous Italian showgirls who have also appeared in several films.
