Mario Bava
Mario Bava | |
---|---|
![]() Mario Bava in 1975 | |
Born |
Sanremo, Liguria, Italy | 31 July 1914
Died |
27 April 1980 65) Rome, Italy | (aged
Occupation | Film director, screenwriter, special effects artist, cinematographer |
Children | Lamberto Bava |
Parent(s) | Eugenio Bava |
Mario Bava (31 July 1914 – 27 April 1980) was an Italian director, screenwriter, special effects artist and cinematographer from the "golden age" of Italian horror films. His work kick-started the giallo film genre and the modern "slasher film".[1] His son Lamberto Bava later went on to become a noted horror film director in his own right.
Biography
Mario Bava was born in Sanremo, Liguria on 31 July 1914. He was the son of Eugenio Bava (1886-1966), a sculptor who also worked as a special effects photographer and cameraman in the Italian silent movie industry. Mario Bava's first ambition was to become a painter. Unable to turn out paintings at a profitable rate, he went into his father's business, working as an assistant to other Italian cinematographers like Massimo Terzano. He also helped his father at the special effects department at Benito Mussolini's film factory, the Istituto LUCE.
Bava became a cinematographer in his own right in 1939, shooting two short films with Roberto Rossellini. He made his feature debut in the early 1940s. Bava's camerawork was an instrumental factor in developing the screen personas of such stars of the period as Gina Lollobrigida, Steve Reeves and Aldo Fabrizi.
Bava completed filming I vampiri (aka The Devil's Commandment) for director Riccardo Freda in 1956, a movie now referred to as the first Italian horror film. Bava was originally hired as the cinematographer, but when Freda walked out on the project midway through production, Bava completed the film in several days, even creating the innovative special effects that were needed. He also handled the cinematography and special effects on the 1955 Kirk Douglas epic Ulysses and the 1957 Steve Reeves classic Hercules, two films credited with sparking the Italian sword and sandal genre.
Bava co-directed The Day the Sky Exploded in 1958, the first Italian science fiction film, predating even the sci-fi films of Antonio Margheriti. Because he had no earlier credited experience as a director, the film was credited solely to Paolo Heusch. In 1959, Bava completed Caltiki - the Immortal Monster, again for Riccardo Freda who left the project prematurely, and also worked on the lighting and special effects for 2 Steve Reeves epics, Hercules Unchained and The Giant of Marathon.
In 1960, Bava directed the gothic horror classic Black Sunday, his first solo directorial effort, which made a genre star out of Barbara Steele. His use of light and dark in black-and-white films is widely acclaimed along with his spectacular use of color in films such as Black Sabbath, Kill, Baby... Kill!, Blood and Black Lace and The Whip and the Body.
His work has proved very influential. Bava directed what is now regarded as the earliest of the Italian giallo films, The Girl Who Knew Too Much (1963) and Blood and Black Lace (1964). His 1965 sci-fi/ horror film Planet of the Vampires was a thematic precursor to Alien (1979). Although comic books had served as the basis for countless serials and children's films in Hollywood, Bava's Danger: Diabolik (1968) brought an adult perspective to the genre. Many elements of his 1966 film Kill, Baby... Kill!, regarded by Martin Scorsese as Bava's masterpiece, also appear in the Asian strain of terror film known as J-horror. 1971's A Bay of Blood is considered one of the earliest slasher films, and was explicitly imitated in Friday the 13th Part 2.
Mario Bava was very disappointed with the theatrical distribution of some of his later films. His Lisa and the Devil (1972) was never picked up by a distributor, and had to be later re-edited by the producer (with new 1975 footage) into an Exorcist-clone retitled House of Exorcism in order to get released. Bava's Semaforo Rosso (1974) was never released theatrically during his lifetime; the film only appeared on Video in the late 1990s, re-edited with some new footage, as Rabid Dogs, and was released again later on DVD in 2007 in a slightly altered version under the title Kidnapped.
In 1977, Bava directed his last horror film, Shock, which was co-directed with his son Lamberto Bava who did the work uncredited. Bava later did special effects matte work on Dario Argento's 1980 film Inferno. Mario Bava died of natural causes on 27 April 1980 at age 65. His doctor had given him a physical just a few days before he died from a sudden heart attack, and had pronounced him in perfect health. Right before Bava's death, he was about to start filming a science fiction film titled Star Riders, a project on which Luigi Cozzi had hoped to collaborate. [2]
Mario Bava's son Lamberto Bava worked for 14 years as Bava's assistant director (beginning with Planet of the Vampires), and went on to become a horror film director on his own. On several of Mario's movies, Mario was credited as John M. Old.[3] Later, Lamberto was sometimes credited as John M. Old, Jr.[4] When Lamberto directed his first solo film Macabre in 1980 and screened the completed work for his father, Mario commented jokingly to Lamberto: "I am very proud of you. Now I can die in peace". (He actually did die less than two months later.)
Several books have been published about Mario Bava: Mario Bava by Pascal Martinet (Edilig, 1984) and Mario Bava edited by Jean-Louis Leutrat (Éditions du Céfal, 1994) in French; Mario Bava by Alberto Pezzotta (Il Castoro Cinema, 1995) in Italian; The Haunted Worlds of Mario Bava by Troy Howarth (FAB Press, 2002) and most recently, the massive critical biography Mario Bava: All the Colors of the Dark by Tim Lucas (Video Watchdog, 2007; ISBN 0-9633756-1-X).
Filmography
Year | Film | Worked as | Notes | ||
---|---|---|---|---|---|
Director | Writer | Cinematographer | |||
1943 | Annabella's Adventure | Yes | |||
1943 | Sant'Elena, piccola isola | Yes | |||
1946 | L'Elisir d'amore | Yes | |||
1947 | Uomini e cieli | Yes | |||
1948 | Natale al campo 119 | Yes | |||
1948 | Pagliacci | Yes | |||
1949 | Anthony of Padua | Yes | |||
1949 | Follie per l'opera | Yes | |||
1950 | Miss Italia | Yes | |||
1950 | È arrivato il cavaliere! | Yes | |||
1950 | Song of Spring | Yes | |||
1950 | Vita da cani | Yes | |||
1950 | Her Favourite Husband | Yes | |||
1951 | La Famiglia Passaguai | Yes | |||
1951 | Amor non ho... però... però | Yes | |||
1951 | Cops and Robbers | Yes | |||
1951 | La Famiglia Passaguai fa fortuna | Yes | |||
1952 | Papà diventa mamma | Yes | |||
1952 | Gli Eroi della domenica | Yes | |||
1953 | Balocchi e Profumi | Yes | |||
1953 | Il Bacio dell'Aurora | Yes | |||
1953 | Perdonami! | Yes | |||
1953 | Il Viale della speranza | Yes | |||
1953 | Villa Borghese | Yes | |||
1954 | Terza liceo | Yes | |||
1954 | Hanno rubato un tram | Yes | |||
1954 | Graziella | Yes | |||
1954 | Cose da pazzi | Yes | |||
1955 | Buonanotte... avvocato! | Yes | |||
1955 | Le avventure di Giacomo Casanova | Yes | |||
1955 | Ulysses | Yes | Yes | ||
1956 | I Vampiri | Yes | Yes | Alternative titles * The Devil's Commandment
| |
1956 | Roland the Mighty | Yes | Alternative title Orlando e i Paladini di Francia | ||
1956 | Città di notte | Yes | |||
1956 | Beautiful But Dangerous | Yes | |||
1956 | Mio figlio Nerone | Yes | Alternative titles * Nero's Mistress
| ||
1957 | Hercules | Yes | Alternative titles * Le Fatiche di Ercole
(translation) | ||
1958 | The Day the Sky Exploded | Yes | Alternative title Death Comes from Space (La morte viene dallo spazio) | ||
1959 | Hercules Unchained | Yes | Alternative title Ercole e le Regina di Lidia (Hercules and the Queen of Lydia) | ||
1959 | Caltiki - The Immortal Monster | Yes | Yes | Alternative title Calitiki il mostro immortale | |
1959 | The Giant of Marathon | Yes | Yes | Alternative title The Battle of Marathon (La battaglia di Maratona) | |
1959 | The White Warrior | Yes | Yes | Alternative title Agi Murad, the White Devil | |
1960 | Black Sunday | Yes | Yes | Yes | Alternative titles * Mask of the Demon
|
1960 | Esther and the King | Yes | Yes | ||
1961 | Hercules in the Haunted World | Yes | Yes | Yes | Alternative title * Ercole al centro della terra
|
1961 | Erik the Conqueror | Yes | Yes | Yes | Alternative titles * Fury of the Vikings
|
1961 | The Wonders of Aladdin | Yes | |||
1961 | The Last of the Vikings | Yes | |||
1963 | The Girl Who Knew Too Much | Yes | Yes | Yes | Alternative title * La ragazza che sapeva troppo
|
1963 | Black Sabbath | Yes | Yes | Yes | Alternative title * Three Faces of Fear
|
1963 | The Whip and the Body | Yes | Yes | Yes | Alternative titles * What?
|
1964 | Blood and Black Lace | Yes | Yes | Yes | Alternative title Six Women for the Murderer (Sei donne per l'assassino) |
1964 | The Road to Fort Alamo | Yes | Yes | Alternative title Arizona Bill | |
1965 | Planet of the Vampires | Yes | Yes | Yes | Alternative titles * Demon Planet
|
1966 | Knives of the Avenger | Yes | Yes | Yes | Alternative titles * Bladestorm
|
1966 | Kill, Baby, Kill | Yes | Yes | Yes | Alternative titles * Curse of the Living Dead
|
1966 | Dr. Goldfoot and the Girl Bombs | Yes | Yes | Alternative titles * Dr. Goldfoot and the Love Bomb
| |
1966 | A Gunman called Nebraska | Yes | Yes | Alternative titles * Ringo from Nebraska
| |
1968 | Danger: Diabolik | Yes | Yes | Yes | Alternative title Diabolik |
1968 | The Odyssey (made for Italian TV) | Yes | Yes | Alternative title The Adventures of Ulysses (directed the Polyphemus episode) | |
1970 | Five Dolls for an August Moon | Yes | Yes | Alternative title * Island of Terror
| |
1970 | Hatchet for the Honeymoon | Yes | Yes | Yes | Alternative titles * Blood Brides
|
1970 | Roy Colt and Winchester Jack | Yes | Yes | Yes | |
1971 | Bay of Blood | Yes | Yes | Yes | Alternative titles * Twitch of the Death Nerve
|
1972 | Baron Blood | Yes | Yes | Alternative titles * The Torture Chamber of Baron Blood
| |
1972 | Four Times That Night | Yes | Yes | ||
1972 | Lisa and the Devil | Yes | Yes | Alternative titles * The Devil Carries the Dead / El diablo se lleva a los muertos
| |
1974 | Rabid Dogs (aka Kidnapped) | Yes | Yes | Yes | Alternative titles * Cani arrabbiati
|
1977 | Shock | Yes | Yes | Yes | Alternative titles * Beyond the Door II
|
1979 | La Venere d'Ille (The Venus of the Island) | Yes | Yes | Yes | Alternative title La Venere d'Ille |
See also
- Hughes, Howard (2011). Cinema Italiano - The Complete Guide From Classics To Cult. London - New York: I.B.Tauris. ISBN 978-1-84885-608-0.
References
- ↑ "Mario Bava". The New York Times.
- ↑ "Planet of the Vampires". Monthly Film Bulletin. London. 53 (624): 59–60. 1986. ISSN 0027-0407.
- ↑ Johnson, Gary. "The Golden-Age of Italian Horror: c. 1957-1979". imagesjournal.com. Retrieved 15 August 2012.
- ↑ "BAVA, Lamberto". bfi.org.uk. Retrieved 1 July 2012.