Mario Bava
From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
| Mario Bava | |
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| Born | July 31, 1914 Sanremo, Liguria, Italy |
| Died | April 25, 1980 (aged 65) Rome, Italy |
Mario Bava (July 31, 1914 – April 25, 1980) was an Italian director, screenwriter, and cinematographer remembered as one of the greatest names from the golden age of Italian horror films.
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[edit] Biography
Mario Bava was born in Sanremo, Liguria. The son of Eugenio Bava, a sculptor who became a pioneer of special effects photography and subsequently one of the great cameramen of Italian silent pictures, Mario's first ambition was to become a painter. Unable to turn out paintings at a profitable rate, he went indirectly into his father's business, working as an assistant to other Italian cinematographers like Massimo Terzano, while also offering assistance to his father, who headed the special effects department at Mussolini's film factory, the Instituto LUCE.
Bava became a cinematographer in his own right in 1939, filming two shorts for Roberto Rossellini. He made his feature debut in the early 1940s, just as the second World War broke out, stopping Italian film production in its tracks. The Italian cinema only began to recover its former health after the war, when America began to produce films such as Quo Vadis (1951 film) there. Bava's colorful 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 directed his first film in 1958: Le morte viene dallo spazio (The Day the Sky Exploded), the first Italian science fiction film. Because he had no earlier credited experience as a director, it was formally credited to Paolo Heusch. In 1960 he directed one of the first Italian gothic horror films of the 1960s: Black Sunday which made a star out of Barbara Steele. His use of light and dark in black and white films is widely acclaimed along with his use of colors in films like I tre volti della paura (Black Sabbath) (1963) and La Frusta e il corpo (The Whip and the Body) (1963).
His work has proved very influential: Bava directed what is called the first Italian giallo film, La ragazza che sapeva troppo (The Girl Who Knew Too Much) (1963), and his 1965 sci-fi horror Terrore nello spazio (Planet of the Vampires) was a possible influence on Alien (1979). Although comic books had served as the basis for countless serials and children's films in Hollywood, Bava's Diabolik (1968) brought an adult perspective to the genre. 1971's Reazione a catena (also known as Twitch of the Death Nerve & Bay of Blood) is considered to be one of the earliest slasher films. Many traits of his 1966 film Operazione paura (Kill, Baby... Kill!), regarded by many (including Martin Scorsese) as his masterpiece, also appear in the Asian strain of terror film known as J-Horror.
Mario Bava has a son, Lamberto Bava, who worked for years as Bava's assistant director and later went on to a a movie-directing career of his own ("Demons," "Demons 2").
On several of his movies, Bava was credited as John M. Old.[1] Later, Lamberto Bava was sometimes credited as John M. Old, Jr.[2]
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[3] by Tim Lucas (Video Watchdog, 2007; ISBN 0-9633756-1-X).
[edit] Filmography as director
- I Vampiri (1957 uncredited co-direction)
- The Day the Sky Exploded (1958 uncredited direction)
- Caltiki - The Immortal Monster (1959, uncredited co-direction)
- Black Sunday, (Mask of the Demon, Mask of Satan, 1960)
- Esther and the King (1960, co-direction)
- Le meraviglie di Aladino (The Wonders of Aladdin, 1960 - Only some scenes)
- Hercules in the Haunted World, 1961
- Gli invasori (Erik The Conqueror, 1961)
- La ragazza che sapeva troppo (The Girl Who Knew Too Much, 1963)
- Black Sabbath, 1963
- The Whip and the Body, 1963
- Blood and Black Lace, 1964
- The Road to Fort Alamo, 1964
- Planet of the Vampires, 1965
- Savage Gringo, 1966 - Uncredited
- Kill, Baby... Kill!, 1966
- Knives of the Avenger, 1966
- Dr. Goldfoot and the Girl Bombs, 1966
- Danger: Diabolik, 1968)
- The Odyssey (1968 miniseries, directed "Polyphemus" episode)
- Roy Colt & Winchester Jack, 1970
- Five Dolls for an August Moon, 1970
- Hatchet for the Honeymoon, 1970
- Bay of Blood / Twitch of the Death Nerve, 1971
- Baron Blood, 1972
- Four Times That Night, 1972
- Lisa and the Devil, 1973
- House of Exorcism, 1974 - Edited version of Lisa and the Devil
- Kidnapped (aka Rabid Dogs), 1974
- Shock (Beyond the Door II, 1977)
[edit] External links
- Mario Bava at the Internet Movie Database
- Biography of Bava
- Images - Mario Bava, short biography
- Senses of Cinema - about his films
- Yellow, a short film dedicated to Mario Bava
- Mario Bava All the Colors of the Dark Blog - Tim Lucas
- Mario Bava-bio on (re)Search my Trash
[edit] Sources
- Mario Bava Maestro of Macabre (2001), directed by Garry S.Grant
- Mario Bava Operazione paura (2004), directed by Gabriele Acerbo & Roberto Pisoni
- Mario Bava All the Colors of the Dark (2007) by Tim Lucas
- Le ombre della paura - Il cinema italiano del terrore 1960/1980 (2002) by Paolo Fazzini & Marco Cruciani
[edit] References
| Persondata | |
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| NAME | Bava, Mario |
| ALTERNATIVE NAMES | |
| SHORT DESCRIPTION | |
| DATE OF BIRTH | July 30, 1914 |
| PLACE OF BIRTH | Sanremo, Liguria, Italy |
| DATE OF DEATH | 1980-04-25 |
| PLACE OF DEATH | Rome, Italy |
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