Bruno Mattei

Bruno Mattei
Born Bruno Mattei
(1931-07-30)30 July 1931
Rome, Italy
Died 21 May 2007(2007-05-21) (aged 75)[1] (brain tumor)
Ostia City, Rome, Italy
Other names Vincent Dawn, Pierre Le Blanc, Stefan Oblowsky, Gilbert Roussel, David Hunt, William Snyder, Jordan B. Matthews, Martin Miller, Jimmy Matheus, Michael Cardoso, Herik Montgomery, Frank Klox, David Graham
Years active 1962–2007

Bruno Mattei (30 July 1931 – 21 May 2007) was an Italian film director, screenwriter and editor[2] who gained a cult following for low-budget exploitation films in many genres, from women in prison (WIP) and nunsploitation to zombie and cannibal films; most of his films were meant to shock or sicken, and featured large doses of sex and gore. He used pseudonyms, including Vincent Dawn (chosen as a nod to George Romero's Dawn of the Dead), Pierre LeBlanc, Gilbert Roussel and Michael Cardoso[3] among others.

Biography

Born in 1931, Mattei got his start in Italian cinema by working in his film editor father's studio in 1951, editing more than 100 films between the mid-1960s and the early 1970s (a job he said he enjoyed even more than directing). In 1974, he earned his first directorial credit, directing 20 minutes of additional hardcore footage for Les Brulantes (the French version of Jesus Franco's 1969 film 99 Women). He had earlier edited Jesus Franco's Count Dracula (1969), and in 1975, he wrote the screenplay for the Joe D'Amato film Emanuelle's Revenge (aka Demon Rage) and edited Joe D'Amato's 1976 Eva Nera (Black Cobra Woman).

Mattei became a full-time director in 1977 when he made several erotic Nazi death camp films, which he followed up with a porno documentary called Sexy Night Report, and a 1980 nunsploitation film, The True Story of the Nun of Monza. It was here in 1980 that Mattei's fruitful collaboration with screenwriter Claudio Fragasso began, and the two would work together for the next ten years, a span of time generally considered to be Mattei's greatest period of productivity.

Following The Nun of Monza, Mattei directed two of his most infamous horror shockers, The Other Hell and Hell of the Living Dead, catapulting him to fame in the Euro-horror film genre. After directing two Caligula-inspired rip-offs and two Emanuelle women-in-prison films starring Laura Gemser, he made the delirious Rats: Night of Terror (a low budget science fiction film of which he was always very proud), and the ultra-gory Zombie 3 (which he completed for director Lucio Fulci in the Philippines, after Fulci took ill).[4] Mattei was also an assistant director on Lamberto Bava's film Monster Shark (1984).

Mattei had a small coterie of Italian genre actors he enjoyed working with, and he used them again and again in his 1980's films....reliable actors such as Franca Stoppi, Carlo de Mejo, Franco Garofalo, Luciano Pigozzi, Margit Evelyn Newton, Gabriele Tinti, Ivan Rassimov, William Berger, Werner Pochath, Laura Gemser, Lorraine De Selle, Zora Kerova....all of whom lent his films a look of professionalism despite the appallingly low budgets he was forced to work with.

Mattei didn't turn out much work in the 1990s, although during this period he did make the direct to video film Cruel Jaws, a rip-off of Steven Spielberg's Jaws, originally planned to be a made-for-television movie. (After 1992, Fragasso left the Italian horror film market to move into Italian television production, which may account for Mattei's slowed output in the 1990s.)

Later, from 2002 to 2007, Mattei returned to filmmaking at age 70, this time working only for the direct to video market, most of these films being written & produced by a new collaborator, Giovanni Paolucci. In that five-year period, Mattei directed several erotic thrillers and slasher films before returning once more to the Philippines, where he shot two more cannibal films, one last women-in-prison film and two final zombie movies. Mattei died in May 2007, just days after his last two films were theatrically released, so he was literally working on projects right up to the end.

He directed at least 50 low budget films in all, many of which he co-wrote and edited. His work has attracted a significant cult following. Hollywood film critics regard him as a hack, but Mattei worked with many well-known cult filmmakers like Jesus Franco, Joe D'Amato, Lucio Fulci, Lamberto Bava, and Claudio Fragasso. He also got to direct stars like Lou Ferrigno, Reb Brown, Bo Svenson, Dan Vadis, Tony Musante, Sybil Danning, Donald Pleasence, and Richard Harris. On an interview segment contained on Anchor Bay's DVD release for Hell of the Living Dead, Mattei claimed that he would like to reshoot all of his films, as he finds them "ugly". He never made a secret out of the fact that every film he ever made was done simply for the money.. Yet his filmography contains a lot of very entertaining (if not jaw-dropping) films..

Death

In early 2007, Mattei's health began to decline rapidly after he was diagnosed with a brain tumor. Despite his doctor's warnings, he went through with a surgical operation to have the tumor removed in May of that year (just days after the release of his last movie Zombies: The Beginning). After the surgery, he fell into a coma from complications and died a few days later on 21 May 2007, at age 75.

Selected filmography as director

Note* Mattei died on May 21, 2007, very possibly the same week his last two zombie films were theatrically released, so none of his films were released posthumously.

References

  1. ↑ "E' morto Bruno Mattei" (Italian)
  2. ↑ "The New York Times". The New York Times.
  3. ↑ "Bruno Mattei as Michael Cardoso in Desideri (1990)". Michael Cardoso.
  4. ↑ J.C. Maçek III (2012-06-15). "The Zombification Family Tree: Legacy of the Living Dead". PopMatters.

External links

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