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Yvonne Monlaur: Cult horror movie actress & Bond Girl contender was featured in the 1960 British classics 'Circus of Horrors' & 'The Brides of Dracula.' Actress Yvonne Monlaur dead at 77: Best remembered for cult horror classics 'Circus of Horrors' & 'The Brides of Dracula' Actress Yvonne Monlaur, best known for her roles in the 1960 British cult horror classics Circus of Horrors and The Brides of Dracula, died of cardiac arrest on April 18 in the Paris suburb of Neuilly-sur-Seine. Monlaur was 77. According to various online sources, she was born Yvonne Thérèse Marie Camille Bédat de Monlaur in the southwestern town of Pau, in France's Pyrénées-Atlantiques department, on Dec. 15, 1939. Her father was poet and librettist Pierre Bédat de Monlaur; her mother was a Russian ballet dancer. The young Yvonne was trained in ballet and while still a teenager became a model for Elle magazine. She was “discovered” by newspaper publisher-turned-director André Hunebelle,...

When I first heard about this list this morning I could have sworn it was old news, but as it turns out, this list of Quentin Tarantino's top 20 spaghetti westerns is a new thing as presented to us bt Spaghetti-Western.net. What I must have been thinking of was a list of spaghetti westerns that influenced Tarantino's Django Unchained, some of which are repeated here such as Sergio Corbucci's The Great Silence (read an essay I wrote on this one here) and the obvious, Django, and Giulio Petroni's Death Rides a Horse. However, this list is more than that and more than just Sergio Leone and Corbucci titles, though those two do make up eight of the twenty films on Tarantino's list. I haven't looked to see how many of the more obscure titles listed here are available on Netflix, but I have a feeling now that...

Looking back over the year at what films moved and impressed us, it is clear that watching old films is a crucial part of making new films meaningful. Thus, the annual tradition of our end of year poll, which calls upon our writers to pick both a new and an old film: they were challenged to choose a new film they saw in 2013—in theaters or at a festival—and creatively pair it with an old film they also saw in 2013 to create a unique double feature.

All the contributors were given the option to write some text explaining their 2013 fantasy double feature. What's more, each writer was given the option to list more pairings, with or without explanation, as further imaginative film programming we'd be lucky to catch in that perfect world we know doesn't exist but can keep dreaming of every time we go to the movies.

How...

ROME -- With director and Italian film buff Quentin Tarantino on hand as a co-presenter, the fourth edition of the Venice International Film Festival's popular Secret History of Italian Film sidebar will examine more than 40 years of spaghetti Westerns.

Venice organizers said that Tarantino -- who also participated in the inaugural Secret History event in 2004 -- will be one of directors, producers, actors and writers honoring the genre of Italy-based westerns launched by Sergio Leone's 1964 classic "A Fistful of Dollars".

The program, selected in part by scholars, will feature some 40 completely restored classic features. Among the films scheduled to screen are "El Desperado" from Franco Rossetti, Sergio Corbucci's "Djanco", "Blood for a Silver Dollar" from Girgio Ferroni, and "Shoot the Living and Pray for the Dead" by Giuseppe Vari.

Other films inspired by the genre will screen in various parts of the festival, including at least two world premieres.

The 64th annual Venice International Film festival will take place Aug.