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Lamberto Bava

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Lamberto Bava
Lamberto Bava at the 2012 Days of the Dead, Indianapolis, USA.
Born (1944-04-03) 3 April 1944 (age 80)
Rome, Italy
OccupationFilm director
Parent(s)Mario Bava (father), Eugenio Bava (grandfather)

Lamberto Bava (born 3 April 1944) is an Italian film director. Born in Rome, Bava began working in 1965 as an assistant director on his famous father Mario Bava's films. He later went on to direct his first solo feature film Macabre in 1980, and spun off a successful career as a movie director from there. Known in the 1980s primarily as a horror film director, Lamberto Bava today works predominantly in the Italian television industry.

Biography

Lamberto Bava was born in Rome, Italy on 3 April 1944.[1] Lamberto's father Mario Bava was a film director primarily known to fans today as a director of horror films.[1] Lamberto's film career began working as an assistant director on his father's 1965 film Planet of the Vampires.[1] Lamberto later collaborated with his father on other projects including Kill, Baby, Kill (1965), Danger: Diabolik (1966), Bay of Blood (1971), Baron Blood (1972), Lisa and the Devil (1972) and Shock (1977).[1] On Shock, Lamberto Bava was credited as a screenwriter as well as assistant director.[1]

Lamberto Bava had a co-directing credit with his father Mario on the television film La Venere d'Ille, which was an entry in the Il Giorno del Diavolo film series.[1][2] Aside from his work with his father, Lamberto also helped write films directed by Italian director Ruggero Deodato, such as Ultimo mondo cannibale (1977) and Cannibal Holocaust (1979).[2] Both Mario and Lamberto also worked on Dario Argento's classic horror film Inferno (1980).

Early 1980s theatrical films

A meeting with producer Pupi Avati led to the 36-year-old Lamberto Bava finally directing his own feature film Macabre in 1980, which he co-wrote with Pupi and Antonio Avati.[2][3] According to Lamberto Bava, after sitting through a screening of Macabre, Mario told him "Now, I can die in peace".[2] Ironically Mario Bava died two months later in April 1980.[2]

Following the release of Macabre, Lamberto Bava was invited by Dario Argento to assist him with his 1982 giallo film Tenebre, on which Bava was credited as an assistant director.[4][5]

In 1983, Lamberto Bava directed his second feature film, A Blade in the Dark[4] which was originally developed as a made-for-television movie shot in 4 segments on a very low budget. The film stars Andrea Occhipinti as a music composer who becomes involved in a series of murders while staying at a secluded villa.[6] The gore effects were deemed too intense for television, so the film was released theatrically instead.

Bava's next two film projects were in different genres. Bava was given a script for Blastfighter (a combination of Mad Max/ First Blood/ Deliverance rolled into one) originally created as a project for director Lucio Fulci.[7] Blastfighter starred Michael Sopkiw as Tiger, a detective who moves into the backwoods with his daughter, where he is terrorized by a group of redneck thugs.[8]

Lamberto's next film, Monster Shark, was a science fiction film about a mutated shark that goes on a killing spree with two marine biologists attempting to track down the creature.[7] It was to Bava's credit that he was able to turn out a very entertaining film, considering how phony the rubber creature looked.

Later 1980s theatrical and television films

In 1985, Lamberto Bava re-teamed with Dario Argento on the film Demons.[9] Argento co-wrote and produced Bava's film about a theater showing invitation-only screenings of a horror film. In the theater's lobby, a young woman is scratched by part of a display and transforms into a hideous creature who then attacks other audience members, spreading her demonic infection.[9][10]

The film was followed by a sequel Demons 2 in 1986 which had some of the same cast and crew members from Demons.[9] Demons 2 features a television program which causes an outbreak of zombies in an apartment complex.[11]

Bava also made the television film You'll Die at Midnight the same year,[9] about a series of murders which are similar to ones committed 15 years prior, even though the murderer supposedly had died in a fire.[12] Bava himself makes a cameo appearance in the film as a photographer in one scene.[9]

While working on You'll Die at Midnight, Bava began preparing his next film, Delirium (1987)[11] which starred Serena Grandi as Gioia, a magazine publisher whose sexy model employees end up murdered in bizarre ways, their corpses posed in front of blownup photos of her which Gioia receives from the murderer.[13]

Bava returned to television work making several episodes for a series of one-hour-long films produced by Dario Argento called Turno di notte.[14] Bava's episodes were entitled "E ...di Moda la Morte", "Heavy Metal", "Buona Fine È Migliore Principo", "Giubetto Rosso", "Il Bambino Rapito" and "Babbao Natale".[14] None of these episodes have been dubbed in English, or offered to foreign markets on DVD unfortunately.

Between 1987 and 1988, Bava directed 4 feature-length TV movies for the Italian television program Brivido Giallo, which were entitled Graveyard Disturbance, Until Death, The Ogre and Dinner with a Vampire.[14] All four of these films have been dubbed in English and released on DVD in the USA.

Between 1989 and 1990, Bava made 4 additional feature-length TV movies for the Alta Tensione TV series....Eyewitness, The Man Who Didn't Want to Die, School of Fear and Prince of Terror.

He soon after returned to making theatrically released horror films, such as Mask of the Demon (a 1991 homage to his father's 1960 classic Black Sunday)[15] and Body Puzzle (1993) starring Joanna Pacula. Many of Bava's horror films were written and even produced by him as well. He was fortunate in the 1980s to be able to work with screenwriter Dardano Sacchetti who had contributed a number of classic horror scripts to Lucio Fulci just a few years earlier.

Post-1980s works

From this point on, Bava mostly worked in television. In 1991, Bava directed Fantaghiro, a television miniseries that was influenced by films such as Legend, Willow and Ladyhawke.[16] The series was aimed more at family audiences than Bava's previous work, and the violence was kept to a minimum.[16] Fantaghiro concluded in 1997 with a total of eight feature-length TV episodes.[16]

While working on the Fantaghiro series, Bava worked on other television projects as well, including Desideria (1994-5) and a second fantasy series titled Sorellina e il Principe del Sogno (1996).[16] In the late 1990s, Bava made another made-for-television film entitled Pirates: Blood Brothers.[16] Bava's more recent horror film work includes The Torturer (2005) and Ghost Son (2006).[16][17]

Filmography (as director)

  • Shock (1977) released in the USA as Beyond the Door 2 (Lamberto co-directed this film with his father Mario Bava, and helped write the script)
  • La Venere d'Ille / The Venus of the Island (1979) a 60-minute TV movie co-written & co-directed with his father, Mario Bava
  • Macabre (1980) (Italian: Macabro) aka Frozen Terror (Lamberto's first solo directorial effort)
  • A Blade in the Dark (1983) (Italian: La casa con la scala nel buio / The House with the Dark Staircase)
  • Blastfighter (1984) aka Force of Vengeance (a combination Rambo/Deliverance take-off)
  • Monster Shark (1984) (Italian: Shark: Rosso nell'oceano) aka Devil Fish, aka Devouring Waves
  • Demons (1985) (Italian: Dèmoni)
  • Demons 2: The Nightmare Returns (1986) (Italian: Dèmoni 2)
  • You'll Die At Midnight (1986) (Italian: Morirai a mezzanotte) aka Midnight Killer
  • Turno di notte (1986) (Italian TV series) – he directed six episodes, including "E' di Moda la Morte", "Heavy Metal", "Buona Fine e Miglior Principio", "Giubetto Rosso", "Il Bambino Rapito" and "Babbo Natale"
  • Delirium (1987) (Italian: Le foto di Gioia / Photos of Gioia)
  • Dinner with a Vampire (1987) (Italian: A cena col vampiro) (TV movie; part of the Brivido giallo series)
  • The Ogre (1987) (Italian: La casa dell'orco / House of the Ogre) (TV movie; part of the Brivido giallo series) inexplicably released on video as The Ogre: Demons 3
  • Until Death (1987) (Italian: Per sempre / Forever) (TV movie; part of the Brivido giallo series) inexplicably released on video as The Changeling 2
  • Graveyard Disturbance (1987) (Italian: Una notte al cimitero / A Night in the Cemetery) (TV movie; part of the Brivido giallo series)
  • The Prince of Terror (1988) (Italian: Il maestro del terrore / The Master of Terror) (TV movie; part of the Alta tensione series)
  • The Man Who Didn't Want to Die (1988) (Italian: L'uomo che non voleva morire) (TV movie; part of the Alta tensione series)
  • School of Fear (1989)(Italian: Il gioko/ The Game) (TV movie; part of the Alta tensione series)
  • Eyewitness (1989) (Italian: Testimone oculare) (TV movie; part of the Alta tensione series)
  • Protezione a vista (1989)
  • Mask of the Demon (1989) (Italian: La maschera del demonio) released on video as Demons 5: The Devil's Veil
  • Fantaghirò (1991) (TV movie)
  • Body Puzzle (1992) aka Misteria
  • Fantaghirò 2 (1992) (TV movie)
  • Fantaghirò 3 (1993) (TV movie)
  • The Dragon Ring (1994) (Italian: Desideria e l'anello del drago) (TV movie)
  • Fantaghirò 4 (1994) (TV movie)
  • Princess Alisea (1996) (Italian: Sorellina e il principe del sogno) (TV movie)
  • Fantaghirò 5 (1996) (TV movie)
  • The Princess and the Pauper (1997) (Italian: La principessa e il povero)
  • Pirates: Blood Brothers (1999) (Italian: Caraibi) (TV miniseries)
  • Human Currency (2000) TV miniseries
  • The Torturer (2005)
  • Ghost Son (2007)
  • Visions of Murder (2012) (Italian: Presagi) (TV movie) aka The Medium
  • Tailor-Made Murder (2012) (Italian: Omicidio su misura) (TV movie) aka Perfect Murder
  • Kammerspiel (2012) (Italian: Vite in ostaggio / Hostage Lives) (TV movie)

Notes

  1. ^ a b c d e f Paul, 2005. p.66
  2. ^ a b c d e Paul, 2005. p.67
  3. ^ Buchanan, Jason. "Macabre (1980)". Allmovie. Rovi Corporation. Retrieved October 1, 2013.
  4. ^ a b Paul, 2005. p.68
  5. ^ "Tenebre (1982) - Cast and Crew". Allmovie. Rovi Corporation. Retrieved October 1, 2013.
  6. ^ Firsching, Robert. "A Blade in the Dark (1983)". Allmovie. Rovi Corporation. Retrieved October 1, 2013.
  7. ^ a b Paul, 2005. p.69
  8. ^ "Blastfighter". BFI Film & Television Database. London: British Film Institute. Retrieved July 14, 2014.
  9. ^ a b c d e Paul, 2005. p.71
  10. ^ Binion, Cavett. "Demons". Allmovie. Rovi Corporation. Retrieved October 2, 2013.
  11. ^ a b Paul, 2005. p.72
  12. ^ "Morirai a mezzanotte (1986)". British Film Institute. Retrieved July 14, 2014.
  13. ^ Firsching, Robert. "Delerium". Allmovie. All Media Guide. Retrieved July 14, 2014.
  14. ^ a b c Paul, 2005. p.74
  15. ^ Paul, 2005. p.75
  16. ^ a b c d e f Paul, 2005. p.77
  17. ^ Buchanan, Jason. "Ghost Son". Allmovie. All Media Guide. Retrieved July 14, 2014.

References

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