Nearly every film that Aristide Massaccesi made contains elements
of the horror genre, starting with "Heroes in Hell" and "Diary
of a Roman Virgin" up to the recent "Fatal Seduction", whose form
is an erotic thriller, with elements that one expects in a horror film.
Think of the persistent recurrence of the theme of castration
in Massaccesi's work, from "More Sexy Canterbury Tales" in '72, to
"Chinese Kamasutra", in the '90's.
We can see how certain macabre and fetishistic elements
in world cinema got their start in Massaccesi's films.
It's not surprising, therefore, that at the end of the '70's, when traditional
horror was updated by more gory American films,
Massaccesi found himself at home in this new type of cinema.
It was a type of filmmaking he'd been long practicing.
His were internationally renowned films that reached cult status, such as
"Buried Alive", "Anthropophagus" and "Absurd".
"Death Smiles at Murder", from 1973, is a film which, despite
echoes of the nascent mystery-thriller genre begun by Dario Argento
with "The Bird with the Crystal Plumage", still follows the gothic model
that characterizes the previous decade, as seen in the work of directors
like Mario Bava, Riccardo Freda and Antonio Margheriti.
"Death", the first and only work he shot using his own name,
and not the usual pseudonym, seems to follow closely
Sheridan Le Fanu's story, "Carmilla".
The leads in "Death Smiles at Murder" included the blonde actress
Eva Aulin, who appeared in hits such as "I Am What I Am"
by Tinto Brass, or "Death Laid an Egg" by Giulio Questi.
We also see the Italian star Angela Bo, unforgettable as Rosy Steward
and who appeared in so many spaghetti westerns.
In addition, we see Klaus Kinksi, even stormier than usual, who plays
a mad doctor convinced he can bring the dead to life
with an ancient Aztec formula.
It was the first time I'd done a horror film, and the material interested me
a lot. For that reason I wanted to sign it with my own name -
Aristide Massaccesi. There were also actors you might call important.
There were Klaus Kinski, Eva Aulin, who'd had a hit...
afterwards she totally disappeared - but at the time she was very famous.
The film was special...
...so I signed it with my own name, Aristide Massacessi.
Just for the pleasure of putting my own name on a piece, you know?
It looks like someone's in a real hurry. - Yes. Odd.
The story for "Death Smiles at Murder", which is part yours
...and part Scandigliato's.
How did you get the idea of making a horror film...
...set in such a gothic environment? Were you attracted to that type of film?
Yes, from taking photographs and so on, I really liked creating
a sort of film that was, as you say, gothic, based partly on photographs
and cheap special effects, that sort of stuff.
Everything started like that. Romano Scadigliato had been a friend of mine...
...for years, he used to work as assistant director while I was working...
...as a cinematographer and so on, and so we were friends.
He was easy to work with, so we did the story together.
Klaus Kinski was also in it. - Klaus Kinski was in it for
the money. You'd call him, give him the money, he'd be there two days.
A complete whore. But I must say he gave you
something more for your money. He was very flexible, got into
the character - even if it was a form of madness on his part - not done
in a very lucid manner. He was fascinated by parts calling for insanity.
He got a kick out of doing films that were sort of over the top.
Luciano Rossi is also in the film - he's a very special sort of character.
What ever became of him? - Luciano Rossi was a very sweet guy.
I wouldn't say he was completely normal, either. In fact
the poor guy's in a nursing home. He went crazy suddenly, apparently.
But last I heard, he'd got out and become a sort of tramp who
hangs around town. He's from the town of Alatri, near Frosinone...
They gave me some sad news concerning him, to tell the truth.
The availability of film footage from World War II convinced...
Massaccesi and Franco Gaudenzi, the producer, to make "Heroes in Hell", 1973.
The film includes such excellent actors as Ettore Manni, Lars Bloch
and Klaus Kinski. However, its theatrical release lasted a very short time,
possibly due to the fact that the war film genre had already seen its
glory days during the previous decade.
The film is worth a look, however, for the way in which original footage
is mixed into the story, and also for some strong scenes. For example
when a bullet is extracted from a body, they show every last detail.
You change genres after "More Sexy Canterbury Tales", and make
"Heroes in Hell", produced by Gaudenzi, which is a war movie.
Naturally there was discovered footage stuck in there, too.
In fact if you look, you see material in black and white, dogfights, battles
and bombardments. That all came from footage Gaudenzi bought.
We were supposed to use it somehow, so we built a story around it.
I changed my name for this film because at the time directors
from Eastern Europe were all the rage.
I called myself Mikail Wotruba.
It sounds like an Eastern European director...
Stay still, damn you, or I'll kill you!
Stay still!
Done.
Let's go.
I'll take these.
One film that stands out among Massaccesi's works is "Naked Warriors",
made in 1971. It stands aside "Diary of a Roman Virgin", since Aristide
made the two films in rapid succession, using many of the same extras.
"Naked Warriors" was made in co-production with an American company
and represents a rare example of the re-vitalization of the gladiator genre
after it had appeared to be extinct for years.
"Naked Warriors", "Duel of the Champions " by Terrance Young,
and "The Magnificent Gladiator" by Alfonso Brescia
are rare 1960's examples of historic films set in the ancient world.
Massaccesi's film stands out for its almost entirely female cast,
along with its use of a colorful and experimental eroticism.
"Naked Warriors" was brought to life by Gaudenzi in co-production with
Roger Corman. Corman sent this young man, Steve Carver,
who'd made maybe one or two films - maybe only one.
Guadenzi didn't really want to rely on him, so I went over
to handle the cinematography and to direct two other movies connected
with this one. One was "Una vergine per I'impero romano",
which never came out - I don't know why - and the other was
"The Arena." I directed the scenes in the arena and the action scenes,
Carver directed some because - at that time my English wasn't too good -
and nearly all the actresses spoke English. So Steve Carver did
the scenes with more dialogue, and I did the action scenes.
Pam Grier is one of the actresses. - She was a black American girl
who was extremely good. Now she made a comeback with Tarantino's film.
She was a very good person, very flexible, a real pro.
There was also Rosalba Neri playing the head of the women gladiators.
You worked as cinematographer on a film made that same year called
"The Devil's Wedding Night", in which Rosalba Neri appeared again...
along with Mark Damon. What do you recall about that film?
Was it a horror film? - It was a Dracula film, if I remember correctly.
The director was a certain Paolo Solvay (Luigi Batzella). We called him
the bus driver 'cause he seemed more a like bus driver than director.
But he had his talents, too. A capable commercial director.
Mark Damon was then a distributor for Park Films.
He was involved somehow in the film... it was later distributed by Pack.
It's a film with all the elements of a horror movie, set
in a town called Bassolano, inside a castle there.
Rosalba Neri? What do you remember about her?
Rosalba Neri at the time was a sort of poor man's Barbara Steele...
Barbara cost too much to get at that time, so we used Rosalba...
She had the same dark hair, was a little vampire-like, if you will...
Another film you made was "Pugni, pirati e karate", with the pirate theme
you've handled also recently, in both the porn genre and in non-porn.
Yes. "Pugni, pirati e karate" came out of the fact that Gaudenzi again
had bought some pirate film stock. But there was enough for 7 films.
So we came up with a little story that we first called
"Pantagruel and Gargantua". We realized nobody knew who they were,
so we changed it to "Pugni, pirati e karate". That too was made in 6 days.
It was an action and adventure film. - What have you done lately?
Lately I've made a film called "The Predator of the Antilles".
That was also made with stock pirate footage.
It's what you might call a more big budget film.
I mean a budget that's big for me, of course! One that I could afford...
But it's pretty good, I'm getting a lot of satisfaction out of it, also
in terms of money. Together with film, since we built a piece of a ship,
a Spanish galleon, in a field in Hungary, I made 3 or 4 porno films.
That was in order to cover the costs of building that ship.
But you didn't have problems getting normal actors to act in a porn film?
I didn't make the movies at the same time. I did the porn films first
using the section of the ship, near the bow, and then I returned to Rome
for a week, then went to Hungary to do "Tortuga", as it was called then.
Now it's called "The Predator of the Antilles", which is not a porn film.
At first it was announced as being directed by Mario Bianchi.
Who's Mario Bianchi and what's your relationship with him?
Mario Bianchi directed regular films until about 7 or 8 years ago.
He's made a lot more porn films than I have, with Moana and Cicciolina...
So he's been in porn a lot longer than I have.
He's very talented, however... A very patient guy.
He manages better than I can, doing soft-core versions of porn films.
It's hard for me to get porn actors to do soft-core acting.
He's a lot more patient and manages to get them to act.
He's a lot better than me at turning out soft-core versions of his porn.
We were supposed to do a film in Hungary about a year and a half ago.
I think it was called "Pirates". He gave me that part - I don't remember
much now - I memorized my lines...
And we worked on a Disney set in Budapest.
There was a large set, a large ship. But production was blocked.
I ended up packing my suitcase...
It was postponed and that was the last I heard of it.
"Red Coat" represents Massaccesi's first chance with a budget
that is large compared to his previous work.
It also afforded him the chance to work with actors who, at the time,
were well-known, including Fabio Testi, who was on his way to becoming
a star of action films, especially crime drama.
The film also included an upcoming young female star, Renata Cestie
who had appeared in a series of tear-jerkers that made her name.
Written in 2 days by Luigi Montefiori and loosely based on "White Fang",
"Red Coat" is a sort of western set amid the snows of Canada.
Despite the fact that it's a family film, there are some violent scenes
and its rather sad story line sets it apart from the films of that time.
I was supposed to do a sequel to a film that Lucio Fulci was directing,
called "White Fang". I went to Canada to take dog sled lessons.
The film went well - they also made a documentary that won a prize.
I was sent to do the sequel, sent by the father of Donati, who was head
of Coralta Film, a company in which Ermanno Donati
headed all the production. For my film, we used some of the unused
footage from "White Fang" and we made "Red Coat".
Was the story yours? - Montefiori and I wrote the script.
That is, he was writing it already, he was working with Donati.
The problem was, we had only three days there also, a long weekend,
during which I wrote the script with Aristide, who was continually
afraid that I'd fall asleep and not get any writing done...
I remember he went to buy me a roast chicken and would feed me
chicken as I was typing, since we absolutely had to finish the script
by Monday morning.
There was a very rigid deadline for this film since Fabio Testi, or De Rita,
I don't remember which, were under contract for another movie.
So we were forced to begin at a set time.
The producer forced me to stay glued to Montefiori for 2 days,
in order to get the script done. I remember I'd go get him stuff to eat -
he ate a lot, since he's very tall - he still eats a lot...
I'd go get him chickens that I'd hold up to his mouth as he was writing...
That was also to keep him awake so he'd finish.
Three days without sleep, with Montefiori eating chicken non-stop
and me trying to keep him awake...
Smells good, doesn't it? T ry it...
You cowardly bastard! - No! Let him eat in peace...
Come on... eat up...
You've eaten enough to choke a horse...
You've killed him, you idiot!
He's worth a million dollars and you've killed him!
Fun like this is worth even two million!
So I'll kill you instead, you bastard! - We have to go, Haggard, or else...
Leone's dead and there's nothing we can do about it.
"Tough to Kill" I made with Giuseppe Zaccariello, who'd made a film
before that called "The Bermuda Triangle" or something like that.
It was a big success. He had a story by Donati, a great story,
which we sort of ruined... In fact the film wasn't too good, because
the script we got out of it was no good. Zaccariello wanted to change
some things, and in fact the film suffered because of that.
But it was an action film with Donald Brough, Luke Merenda,
Where did you shoot the film? - In Santo Domingo.
Did you go there just to shoot this film, or did you shoot anything else?
Just to shoot this one. I'd been in Santo Domingo for a lot of other things,
I'd shot "Papaya dei Caraibi", "Erotic Nights of the Living Dead", etc.
All these films, "Papaya" and "Erotic Nights" and so on,
including "Hard Sensation", include horror elements, apart from their
erotic content. In "Erotic Nights of the Living Dead"
where the horror elements come to the fore,
riding on the success of films like Lucio Fulci's "Zombie 2".
Yes. This was just to wring as much emotion out of it as possible,
you might say. That's the only reason.
Aristide's talent was... The first film he worked on as director,
as director and producer, was made in Santo Domingo.
I don't know if I've already told this story.
We'd gone to Santo Domingo, invited there by Aristide,
to make a series of three movies. One was supposed to be a serious film,
and the other two were sort of erotic, movies you don't have to do much
work to make. He showed me pictures of Santo Domingo, which I liked,
so I went there, really for a vacation.
While we were shooting these three films, I was crazy about gambling
at the time, and I lost my entire pay for the these films and all the other
money I had in a week. So I was penniless at the end of the first week.
Not even enough to pay for the hotel room.
In fact I had to share a room with Dirce Funari, one of the actresses,
despite the fact that we weren't romantically involved. I'd be sleeping
at 4 a.m., she'd come in - we caught some sleep when we could.
Since I had no money, and Aristide refused to give me an advance
on other jobs, I tried to convince him to do another movie.
I said, "Why don't you shoot something of your own? You have the actors,
the location..." So while we were shooting the other films -
we'd do a scene, change our clothes, shot the scene of another film -
to use the same set - I'd be the good guy one minute
and the bad guy the next - So I said, "Let's do another story.
You can bring home another film that's all yours when we leave."
He said, "No, I don't have a story..." and I'd say "I'll write it for you."
So we agreed on my salary, and in 3 days I wrote "Sesso nero".
When it came out it made a lot of money.
He read it, liked it, and made it. I played a small part, as a nightclub
manager, in a scene we shot back in Rome, however.
I was paid two million lira. It cost him about 20 million to make.
It ended up making hundreds of millions, a great success.
That was the first film produced and directed by Aristide.
Of course he'd directed others, but none that were completely his.
Massaccesi's filmography is distinguished as much by horror
as by erotic works. His horror films have earned him an international
reputation as on of the genre's most interesting directors.
But his horror films represent a small part of his vast production.
Few, but especially valuable films, such as "Buio Omega", from 1979,
six years after his first and successful experiment in the gothic genre,
"Death Smiles at Murder"."Beyond the Darkness" is also inspired by
Italian horror films of the 60's. "Beyond the Darkness" is nearly a remake
of Mino Guerrini's film, "ll terzo occhio". Guerrini, in fact, is responsiblefor the screenplay
of this new version. But similarities between "Beyond the Darkness",
and Guerrini's 1967 film end here. At least on the surface.
Massaccesi, in recounting this story of necrophiliac love, as Guerrini
had done before him, adds his own brand of exceptionally perverse and
sick atmospherics, and an extremely black sense of desolation.
The film's gore, which made it famous, is less impressive, in the end,
than the subterranean, nightmarish world in which the main character
lives, next to the embalmed corpse of his girlfriend, Cinzia Morreale.
That was a great experience. I made that with Ermanno Donato, too,
he was the producer. People think I shot scenes of a real autopsy.
But there's no sense in going to shoot a real autopsy, since
everything's made up. There's no point. I shot it by going to the butcher
near where we were shooting, and buying pounds and pounds of innards.
We shot close-ups of these innards.
We did the scene of the incision - I learnt this from Giannetto de Rossi,
who was and probably still is a great make-up artist - using pork rind.
We'd go buy loads of pork rind, that we'd lay over the body,
completely covering the breasts or wherever it was,
and then we could cut without worries, having placed some protective
stuff underneath, of course, since without it we'd have
cut her belly open along with the pork rind...
"Beyond the Darkness" was re-issued then in '86 as "In quella casa buio omega".
Both versions, the 1976 one and that one, were edited versions
of the film that made the rounds abroad. Was that your doing,
or was it the result of censorship cuts?
It was the censors. They determined that it was too violent.
The sexual elements were also determined to be too explicit also.
So they made a lot of cuts.
What do you think of censorship in general?
It doesn't exist anymore. It's been completely abolished, unfortunately.
It's unfortunate because back then, when a porno film came out,
the fact that it was in some way "banned" acted as an added incentive
to seek it out, since there was that taboo element.
You earned more money, because of the banning of the movie.
But censorship, in my opinion, is anachronistic, it's hard to understand
why an 18-year-old kid who can get sent off to war to be killed,
can't go see two people making love. It's a hold-over from ancient times.
In your opinion, is it true that a scene that's particularly violent and gory
can harm the tension you want to maintain in the film?
That is, is it better to have a film with more violence and gore that lacks
tension, or vice-versa? Can you reconcile the two things?
Of course you can reconcile them, since - well, it's well known how
women or girls close their eyes during scenes that are particularly
violent. Well, something that comes just before convinces them, in fact,
to close their eyes!
Let's look at another film that's especially crude: "Anthropophagus".
This is one of the films that made your name abroad.
How did the idea of shooting a horror film during a period when
you were doing mainly porn come to you?
Well, Montefiori once again wrote the story. It was very good.
The film was made precisely to sell in other countries.
We went to Greece to shoot certain parts, also to give it a certain
international flavor. Something interesting about Anthropophagus:
There's a scene we shot in some 2000 year old Roman catacombs.
In the niches of these catacombs, there are niches carved into the walls,
there are the corpses of the Christians buried there.
After 2000 years there were a few skulls, some bones...
When we went to shot there, I sent someone to rent gunny sacks
full of fake, plastic bones to add to the real ones, in order to make
the catacomb much more macabre looking.
So we placed rented, plastic skulls and bones all over.
There were three huge sacks of them. When we finished the day's shoot,
I said, Let's gather all the fake bones up and go.
The guy who was gathering up all the bones took everything.
He even took the real bones that had already been there.
So I found it all stored at my house, in a space on the ground floor,
even the ancient Christian bones mixed up with the fake ones.
And when we returned the fake, rented bones to the shop, they found
the real ones mixed in, and brought those back to me, because they
couldn't bring themselves to bring them back to the Catacombs.
So I ended up with these bones, enough to build myself a little ossuary.
Maybe someday someone will want to make a pilgrimage to my house...
He had a story he got from someone I don't remember,
that began pretty well. There was a boat in the middle of the ocean,
with a man, a woman and a child who'd died or fainted, three castaways.
From those elements we had to invent the rest, there was just that.
So I took that scene to use as a recurrent flashback in order to tell the story...
...of this group of people going to an island where this man had gone crazy
after he'd eaten his son, during the time at sea and so on...
The film was basically quite banal. I've really never liked it.
I mean, I had fun making it... The scene, for example, with the fetus
and Serena Grandi... the cruder things got, the harder we laughed!
But I honestly can't say I'm proud of that film.
I can imagine Aristide who shot the film using a rabbit...
Yeah, with a rabbit... The people who were a bit shocked by the film
were the actors who didn't yet know him. He had a language all his own.
He'd talk about the crudest things in the sweetest voice. There was
an enormous contrast. You can imagine a director who comes up to you
and says sweetly, "Please spread your thighs and put this dead rabbit..."
He wasn't vulgar at all, he was very kind. But he'd say the damnedest things!
So they go like this for a second... But in the end everyone did
what he told them to.
The film included the very young Serena Grandi, who used a pseudonym.
How did you get in touch with the actress?
A distributor practically forced me to take her, I can't remember the name.
This distributor sent her to me saying she was a young actress who
might make it big. Serena Grandi... There was the scene with the fetus,
Montefiori rips the baby right out of her and eats it...
Everybody has wild ideas about that scene... it was just a rabbit
we bought at the butchers on the corner, the ones hanging on hooks...
We shaped it so that it looked like a fetus, and put a little blood on it
to make it look real, fake blood, of course... And we had Montefiori
eating this dead rabbit...
Tisa Farrow is an actress who'd already done "Zombie 2" and Margheriti's
"The Last Hunter". How did you get her?
I contacted her because I'd seen her in those other movies, Fulci's "Zombie".
She had a very genuine face, especially good in a horror film.
She wasn't a great beauty, but she was intriguing.
I got in touch with her through my brother, who'd been in a relationship with her.
So I called her and she came to Italy for the movie.
To tell the truth, she wasn't a professional actress, not really.
She was professional when she was working, but when she wasn't acting
she worked as a taxi driver in New York.
She did that even though she was Mia Farrow's sister... - Yes.
And Saverio Vallone? - Saverio Vallone was chosen because he was
a handsome kid, so we chose him.
Where did you shoot "Anthropophagus"?
We went to Greece, a very short trip.
But we shot the rest at Sperlonga, which seems like a Greek village
by the sea.
Claudio Bernabei and I were in back of a couple at the Metropolitan Cinema
in Rome, there were maybe four people in the whole place.
Just those two in front of us, quietly watching the film.
When we got to the scene of the rabbit ripped out of Serena's womb,
they got up in disgust, I can't remember their comments, and walked out.
Claudio and I were the only ones watching the rest.
The movie had only a 2 day run...
The film was completely panned by the Italian critics, like all my films
to tell the truth. There was never a single one they liked, never.
In other countries it had a great success, and is still talked about.
It was such a success that you made a sequel. - Yes, a sequel...
A film first called "Rosso sangue", and then "Absurd".
It was really a prequel to "Anthropophagus", with Montefiori
without the monster makeup.
There was Montefiori, and then the actor who played the priest
who's chasing him here... Edmund Purdom.
You've worked with him a lot. - Yes, a bunch of times. He was well-known,
but he wasn't very good, not really. But he did The Egyptian, an American film
that was a big hit, so for that reason we hired Purdom. For a cameo.
Anyway, he was always professional, a professional actor in short.
"Absurd" is memorable for another reason, also. There for the first time
you meet Michele Soavi, who played a small part, one of the motorcyclists.
Then you went on to have a relationship that was...
Michele Soavi's a kid who loves to make horror films.
I think he's one of the best young directors in Italy.
In "Absurd" I tried to do a little bit more. But later on I lost that enthusiasm
as it became clear that it would end up being something with a little bit less,
as usual. He always went for the bone, never wanted to experiment.
I remember I tried...
How did you meet Aristide?
He phoned me one day, I remember, and said, "Listen, Pierluigi, I want
to make a film. Come to my office and we'll talk."
I said, "Listen, Mr. Massaccesi" - since I didn't know him - "Listen,
I don't work on those kinds of movies."He said"No, you idiot,
it's an adventure picture." So I went over, and we hit it off.
Can you shoot a gun if necessary?
I do, but the others don't. If you shoot a man, the only thing you see
is a body falling. But someone who's telepathic feels the mind
of the dying person invaded with pain and terror. It's as if he were dying, too.
He knew his stuff inside and out, having worked as cameraman and so on.
He knew how to frame a scene, even with a low budget for lighting etc.
He knew his trade completely.
Was there a problem wearing those heavy clothes?
Yeah, they'd put very thick clothes on me, and boots that weighed a ton.
So I had a bit of a hard time walking and so on.
But when you saw the movie, it looked all right...
Yeah, he'd make fun of me during the shoot, saying "Look how you walk
you clumsy fool" and that kind of thing. Then the American buyer came
and told him "That guys walks really well, gosh!" - So I wore those
boots for every film, in order to walk that way...
You remember another film you did with Aristide, but directed by Montefiori?
I vaguely remember it...
Your character is killed halfway through, you were playing a good guy...
Do you remember whether Montefiori directed the whole film, or was
part of it directed by Aristide?
No, I think Montefiori directed the whole thing.
Aristide was good with that sort of thing. When he's entrusted the direction
to someone, he didn't interfere with it, unlike the usual producer.
To be honest, when he said, "Let's direct it together", I answered
"No, I'll direct, and you can watch and learn how it's done."
He got really pissed off. No, I told him that the first day on the set.
On the first day of the shoot, we were in the basement of the Hilton hotel,
you know, where there are all the pipes, for heating and so on -
in order to shoot a strange scene, like out of James Bond -
Aristide and Donatella were on the set. He stood there like this, watching me.
He wanted to see what I would say. Then the cameraman showed up,
and I said "Put the camera here, with this lens, then we'll do a dolly shot..."
And he was totally quiet. After five minutes I was thinking he'd come up...
I was saying to myself "it's impossible for him to hold his tongue".
And in fact he comes up and goes "why'd you put the camera there?"
I said "Aha! Aristide!" I must say that I hadn't asked him for a salary
as director. When he'd proposed we direct together, I knew it was because
he didn't want to pay me! So I said, "I'll direct". He started to object
and I told him to pay me an assistant director's salary. I didn't care
about the money - at the time I didn't give a damn about money.
So when he came up to me and asked why I'd placed the camera there
I said: "Ari, you're paying me to direct, not to teach you how to direct."
He got really pissed off, called me every name in the book and split.
Afterwards he didn't appear on the set anymore...
But I must say he always let me work in peace, since of course he knew me.
The thing that was fun for me was to do something that everyone said
couldn't be done. We'd just answer: "It can be done, don't worry".
Tell us about the series of the three "Ghosthouse" movies...
Which one were you most pleased with?
"Ghosthouse 4". Umberto Lenzi made one. Fabrizio Laurenti made another...
...that was the one that made the most money and was the best...
since Linda Blair was in it, David Hasselhoff, and a lot of actors
that really stood out in that kind of movie...
And perhaps the place it was shot in, a nice place in Massachusetts...
Then we did another "Ghosthouse" with Fragasso, which didn't do too well...
That was "Ghosthouse 5". Anyway they weren't a great success.
What do you think of Fulci's films?
Fulci's films were the best I produced.
Unfortunately the ones I worked on weren't so successful, maybe
because of distribution problems, or financial problems and so on...
Even that one was affected...
It didn't do well, even if I think it's the best film I've worked on.
It was a great film, with a great atmosphere, Fulci's very good
so the shoot went great, with John Savage, and we brought
a jazz band in to do the music, since there was a jazz soundtrack...
We had helicopters... But it didn't make a single cent...
But it's probably not the movie's fault. It's maybe the fault of the mess
we'd found ourselves in at the time.
How was it with Fulci and D'Amato? What's the difference between them?
Working with them? It's hard to answer that question.
Aristide was more sort of part of the trade. He had less illusions.
He was like a guy born on a movie set. Fulci had his intellectual side.
Fulci might say stuff, make references on the set that Aristide
wouldn't dream of. Fulci believed more in what he was doing.
They were both true professionals, they knew the pitfalls...
Aristide was more... Roman.
Your last horror film, "Frankenstein 2000", also had distribution problems...
That got caught up in the mess I referred to that happened back then.
What's your opinion of the movie?
It's good... - But the special effects weren't as convincing as in earlier ones.
Why do you think that was?
Financial reasons. When money's lacking even special effects suffer.
I also think it's an excess of ambition or presumption.
You have this presumption that makes you try things that don't turn out well.
I think I know it all sometimes when I don't really understand shit.
In keeping with the horror theme, we've spoken about 2 films,
"Killing Birds" and "Deep Blood". What can you say about them?
The first one's credited to Claudio Lattanzi. - Yes.
But you were really the director. - Yes, I was really the one who made it.
Even the other one, that's signed by Rafael La Palma, I made.
That was done in order not to over-use my name.
I'd just done a film with Laurenti, so we decided to put me down as
simply the producer and not have me as producer and director.
I would have signed them if I'd been paid like I was with Laurenti
or Michele Soavi... And then I'd been hired to work with those two,
who are in fact real people... And they didn't work out, so I had to do them...
What about the lastest soft-core movies, "Top Girl", "Provokation"
and "Fatal Seduction"?
They came about in order to vary the porn offerings, and since I was
in Los Angeles, and there was a huge apparatus to use...
I think "Fatal Seduction" is more ambitious than the other two...
Yes. - There's a quote out of "Anthropophagus"...- Yes.
"Fatal Seduction" is a thriller, sort of, better made...
The story's also better... It's entirely set in a house, a delineated space...
The suspense is greater that way than with a film made on larger sets...
One defect in "Fatal Seduction", I think, is that the sex scenes are
shot as if they were edited porn scenes, which weighs the film down.
Yes. That's my fault. It's become a habit of mine.
Because... It's just my fault. All my fault...
Have critics re-evaluated Joe D'Amato films, after the initial bad reception,
"Emanuelle", for example?
I don't think so. In Italy we're very... what's the word presumptuous.
The presumption of someone who's panned a film would never admit,
you couldn't do anything to get him to change that initial opinion, not even now.
Maybe some young person who comes along...
But I think any re-evaluation now is due to nostalgia...
The movies I made ten or fifteen years ago, the fact that they're now considered
good, especially in other countries, is due to nostalgia.
We don't make them anymore. So my films, Fulci's films or Freda's...
Our kind is becoming extinct.
And yet not all the directors of that time are as renowned as you are now...
That's because I made so many films, Manlio!
I don't think it's due only to that. Do you think you're cynical about your career?
No, I think...
What do you think is your greatest asset? - My modesty, I think.
And your greatest defect? - Modesty! Downloaded @ www.rarelust.com