Ruggero Deodato
| Ruggero Deodato | |
|---|---|
 Ruggero Deodato in 2008. |
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| Born | May 7, 1939 Potenza, Italy |
| Occupation | Film director |
| Years active | 1959–present |
| Spouse | Silvia Dionisio (m. 1971–1979) |
Ruggero Deodato (born May 7, 1939) is an Italian film director and screen writer, best known for directing violent and gory horror films. Deodato is infamous for his 1980 film Cannibal Holocaust.[1]
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[edit] Biography
Deodato was born in Potenza, Italy. He grew up in the neighborhood where Rome's major film studios are located. It was there that he learned how to direct under Roberto Rossellini and Sergio Corbucci; he helped to make Corbucci's The Son of Spartacus and Django as an assistant director. Later on in the 1960s, he directed some comedy, musical, and thriller films, before leaving cinema to do TV commercials. In 1976 he returned to the big screen with his ultra-violent police flick Live Like a Cop, Die Like a Man.
In 1977 he directed a jungle adventure called Ultimo mondo cannibale or "The Last Cannibal World" (also known as Jungle Holocaust) starring British actress Me Me Lai with which he 'rebooted' the cannibal film / mondo genre started years earlier by Italian director Umberto Lenzi.[2]
Late in 1979 he returned to the cannibal subgenre with his ultra-gory Cannibal Holocaust.[3] The film was shot in the Amazon Rainforest for a budget of about $100,000, and starred Robert Kerman, Francesca Ciardi, and Carl Gabriel Yorke. The film is a mock-documentary about a group of filmmakers who go into the Amazon Rainforest and subsequently stage scenes of extreme brutality for a Mondo-style documentary. During production, many cast and crew members protested the use of real animal killing in the film, including Kerman, who walked off the set.
Deodato created massive controversy in Italy and the United Kingdom following the release of Cannibal Holocaust, which was wrongly claimed by some to be a snuff film due to the overly realistic gore effects. Deodato was forced to reveal the secrets behind the film's special effects and to parade the lead actors before an Italian court in order to prove that they were still alive. Deodato also received condemnation, still ongoing, for the use of real animal torture in his films.
Deodato's film license was temporarily revoked and he would not get it back until three years later, which then allowed him to release his 1980 thriller La casa sperduta nel parco (House on the Edge of the Park), which was the most censored of the 'video nasties' in the United Kingdom for its graphic violence. His Cut and Run is a jungle adventure thriller, containing nudity, extreme violence and the appearance of Michael Berryman as a crazed, machete-wielding jungle man.
In the '80s he made some other slasher/horror films, including Phantom of Death, Dial Help and Body Count. In the 1990s he turned to TV movies and dramas with some success. Recently, he made a cameo appearance in Hostel: Part II as a cannibal feasting on his victim's leg.
Deodato has made about two dozen films and TV series, his films covering many different genres, including many action films, a western, a barbarian film and even a family film called Mom I Can Do It.
[edit] Personal Life
Deodato was married to actress Silvia Dionisio from 1971 to 1979. He has a son from the marriage. His current partner is Micaela Rocco.
[edit] Filmography
[edit] Director
- "Phenomenal and the Treasure of Tutankhamen" (1969)
- Waves of Lust (1975)
- Live Like a Cop, Die Like a Man (1976)
- Jungle Holocaust (1977, also known as Ultimo mondo cannibale or The Last Cannibal World)
- The Concorde Affaire '79 (1979)
- Cannibal Holocaust (1979) released in 1980
- The House on the Edge of the Park (1980, also known as La Casa Sperduta nel Parco)
- Raiders of Atlantis (1983)
- Cut And Run (1985; also known as Amazonia, The White Jungle, Inferno in Diretta and Hell...Live!)
- Body Count (1987; also known as Camping del terrore/ Camping Terror)
- The Barbarians and Company (1987)
- Phantom of Death (1988; also known as Un delitto poco comune or Off Balance)
- Dial Help (1988; also known as Ragno gelido or Minaccia d'amore)
- The Washing Machine (1993)
[edit] Actor
- Hostel: Part II (2007) as a cannibalistic client
- Red Warlock - Awakening (2010) as a client
[edit] References
[edit] External links
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