Mario Bava is an Italian film director, screenwriter and cameraman. Biography, filmography

2024 Author: Leah Sherlock | [email protected]. Last modified: 2023-12-17 05:25

Italian film director, cameraman and screenwriter Mario Bava is a recognized horror master who has no equal in creating horror films, the author of the best science fiction of the 60s and 70s of the last century. He is one of the founders of "jallo" - a genre of super horror stories that cause numerous fainting in the auditorium.

First exposure to cinema

Mario Bava, whose biography was no different, was born in the Italian city of San Remo, on July 31, 1914, in the family of the monumental sculptor Eugenio Bava, who worked in cinema, providing the production of films with motionless and inactive scenery. Especially difficult was the design of the background when shooting historical films. As a teenager, Mario Bava helped his father. Then he began to look closely at the work of the operator, which seemed to him incomprehensible and mysterious.

First Speci alty

After a while, Mario Bava mastered the profession of an operator and began to participate in filming as an assistant. first moviewhich he shot himself in 1933 was called "Mussolini" and told about the reign of the dictator. The young cameraman worked creatively, those around him appreciated the young talent. Every venerable Italian filmmaker would love to work with Bava. Filmed Mario quickly and efficiently, usually taking one or two takes.

In total, Mario Bava directed forty-five films as a cinematographer, earning the title of master of special effects. Then he became interested in directing, began to try his hand at staging, and also successfully.

Mario as director

The work of the cinematographer allowed Bava to thoroughly study the process of staging films, and in the end he made his debut. His first break was the film "I'm a Vampire", the production of which stopped in the middle due to a quarrel between director Ricardo Fred and the producer. The director left the set, and Mario Bava, who worked on the project as a cinematographer, took over his duties and finished the film. The results of his work were impeccable.

Then Mario Bava was no longer young, he was forty-three years old, and he had some experience. Then Mario began to "correct" unsuccessfully made films and succeeded in this matter. His abilities for directing were obvious, and his knowledge and experience in camera work made it possible to get good results.

Staging

Further on, Bava began to make films on his own from start to finish, like an experienced director. His author's work was the film "Maskdemon", based on the drama "Viy" by Nikolai Vasilyevich Gogol. So the genre of "horror" came into Mario's work. the beginning of a long series of horror films, at the same time the director begins filming the film "Scourge and Body", which centers on a 19th century castle and its inhabitants..

Horror tension

Then the director shoots: "Six Women for a Killer", "Three Faces of Fear" and "Horror from Deep Space". All works are classic horror films, but the director presents them to the viewer under incredible, inhuman tension. It is as if the paintings are pierced by an electric current of hundreds of thousands of volts, and no one knows how to withstand it. In the end, the film company with which Mario Bava had a contract decides to end the relationship with the director, because the censors were at a loss and did not know how to fit films in the giallo genre to American moral standards.

The director relents and releases a horror comedy starring Vincent Price. The audience began to smile a little. And immediately followed by the blood-curdling film "Operation" Fear ", the purest giallo. Some directorial tricks of Bava began to echo the works of such masters as Fellini, Scorsese,Argento.

Despite the accolades of well-known directors, as well as intellectuals from among moviegoers, Mario himself modestly called himself a craftsman, not a director. His self-criticism was exaggerated, and his degree of modesty suggested pathology.

And yet, the director made really terrible, hopelessly creepy films. But the most surprising thing was that the artistic level of the films did not suffer.

Illusion and reality

The director's world is a distorted space that has lost its relative harmony. Reality and illusion, two absolutely incompatible things, Bava links with each other with fantastic ease, without looking. But at the same time, he still has to balance on the line that separates the real and supernatural worlds.

Having fenced off from the whole world with an impenetrable wall of self-irony, Bava successfully uses the possibilities of cinema to convey and spread mysticism, everything anomalous and terrible.

Flourishing time

The end of the sixties of the last century was the most productive period for the director. In 1969, Mario made The Red Sign of Madness, a tongue-in-cheek parody of Hitchcock's Psycho, forcing the viewer to adopt a maniac's point of view.

The picture "Five dolls under the August moon" was filmed in the same year. This is a black comedy in the manner of the detective story "Ten Little Indians" based on the work of Agatha Christie.

"Bay of Blood" is a horror film that would later serve as the basis forAmerican films "Friday the 13th" and "Halloween".

All films have been successfully screened in the US and Europe. Mario Bava became a role model and gained followers such as Dario Argento and Margheriti Antonio.

The decline of the genre

However, in the seventies, the popularity of Mario films declined. Then disaster films and police action films based on real events came into fashion. European cinema began to show light porn like "Emmanuele". Brutal plots that you don’t need to think about have gone to the rental. Mario's meditations somehow faded into the background and few people were interested.

However, producer Alfred Leone gave Bav a small budget and free rein. The result of such a peculiar experiment was the picture "Lisa and the Devil", filmed in 1973. This film is recognized by many as the pinnacle of all the director's work. The complex plot construction of the film, unexpected combinations of the facts of the biography of the maniac-necrophile Ardisson Victor and philosophical fabrications, more like obsessions, gave an unexpected result.

Mario ran Hoffmann's sinister doppelgänger motifs through the entire film with their horrendous dialogue. "Lisa and the Devil" was not only a classic horror film, but also contained a touch of romanticism.

Diabolik

Until 1968, Mario almost never filmed anything. Then he received an offer from Dino De Laurentiis to work on a film adaptation of popular comics. Directed brilliantlycoped with the task, while he spent only 400 thousand of the allocated three million budget. The film was called "The Devil".

Following him, Mario shot two jallos and one horror film "Blood Bay", which set a record for the number of deaths: there were exactly thirteen of them in the picture.

In 1972, Bava began to create another horror film "The House of the Devil" based on the work "Demons" by Dostoevsky. However, before the release of the screen, it was discovered that the Mario film is in many ways similar to Friedkin William's The Exorcist. As a result of rough editing by producer Leone Alfred, who tried to reduce the similarity at the last minute, "Devil's House" was practically destroyed.

Mario started having financial problems, but despite this, he turned down another offer from Dino De Laurentiis to shoot a big-budget remake of "King Kong". Bava explained his refusal by the fact that when filming an expensive film project, there are too many people crowding on the set, and he does not like it.

Depression

Production of the next picture, conceived by the director called "Wild Dogs", over which he pondered for five years, was suspended. The reason was the bankruptcy of the parent company. The forced abandonment of further filming of the film "Wild Dogs" was a real shock for Mario, he was never able to finish the job. The director fell into a deep depression, closed all the film projects he had started and retired.

Only inIn 1977, the son of master Lamberto persuaded his father to take on the production of a horror film called "Shock". Mario reluctantly set to work, not believing in success. However, high-quality shooting, superbly built episodes, provided the film with recognition from the general public. The name of the painting was changed to "Something Behind the Door".

Revival of creativity

Inspired by success, Bava accepted the following year an offer to film the famous novel by Prosper Mérimée "Venus of Illa". Despite the fact that Mario was forced to ask his son to help in filming due to poor he alth, the film turned out to be spectacular and rightfully became considered the last "signature" work of the great director.

Unfortunately, for a number of reasons, including technical, the film "Venus of Ill" was shown only in 1980, after the death of Mario. The film was the latest example of the director's grandiose cinematic skill.

The Venus of Illis is a huge bronze statue of a woman, blackened from long time underground. When it was dug up, Venus caused a terrible tragedy. One day, a young man who was about to get married jokingly put his wedding ring on the statue's finger. At night, a terrible retribution for his frivolity awaited him. "Venus of Illia" considered herself a bride, came to the bedchamber, and, ignoring the cries of the real bride, took possession of the groom, crushing him and breaking all his bones. The newlywed died in terrible agony among the rubble of the wedding bed.

Filmography

During his career, Bava has shot more than fifty films as a director and about the same number as a cameraman. The following is an abridged list of Mario's work as director. Each of these films was created in the "horror" genre.

• "Fish Soup" (1946).
• "Holy Night" (1947).
• "Legendary Symphony" (1947).
• "Flavius Amphitheater" (1947).
• "Symphonic Variations" (1949).
• "Cops and Thieves" (1951).
• "The Travels of Odysseus" (1954).
• "Beautiful but dangerous" (1956).
• "Vampires" (1957).
• "The Labors of Hercules" (1958).
• "K altiki the Immortal Monster" (1959).
• "Mask of Satan" (1960).
• "The Girl Who Knew Much" (1963).
• "Three Faces of Fear" (1963).
• "Scourge and Body" (1963).
• "Six Women for a Killer" (1964).
• "Vampire Planet" (1965).
• "Operation Fear" (1966).
• "Devil" (1968).
• "Blood Bay" (1971).

Mario Bava, whose filmography is quite extensive, given the specifics of his work (horror and giallo are complex genres), has done a lot as a director and cameraman. He will forever remain in the honor rolls of American cinema.

Great director, consummate master of horror films, passed away on April 251980. Mario Bava left an heir, Lamberto Bava, who tried to continue his father's work and create the same high-quality horror films, but so far he only turns out parodies.