Lamberto Bava

Lamberto Bava was born in Rome Italy and was the first of a third generation of Italian filmmakers His grandfather Eugenio Bava 18861966 was a cameraman and optics effects artist during the early days of Italian silent cinema His father Mario Bava 19141980 was a legendary cinematographer special effects designer and director Lamberto entered the cinema as his fathers personal assistant starting with Planet of the Vampires 1965 Bit by bit he gained experience from his father who made him the assistant director for most of the rest of his films He even cowrote the screenplay for Shock 1977 Marios last theatrical film where in poor health during the shoot Mario often feigned illness so Lamberto could direct a few scenes uncredited to gain further experience Both Lamberto and Mario directed the madeforTV drama I giochi del diavolo La Venere dIlle 1979 Both worked on the Dario Argento horror flick Inferno 1980 for which Mario designed some of the color set pieces including the underwater ballroom and created all the visual special effects while Lamberto worked as Argentos assistant director Late in 1979 Lamberto made his solo directorial debut with Macabre 1980 a tense dramahorror flick loosely based on a 1977 incident in New Orleans about a woman who keeps her lovers severed head in her freezer According to Lamberto the project started by chance when producer Pupi Avati approached him to direct as well as write the screenplay which took just six weeks to write and direct Macabre was released in Italy in February 1980 to mixed reviews but won him recognition by his father Mario Just two months later Mario Bava died and an era in Italian film making came to a close Macabre was not a boxoffice hit and as a result Lamberto went back to assistant directing He worked with Dario Argento again in 1982 with Tenebrae 1982 In 1983 Lamberto was offered the opportunity to direct another film titled A Blade in the Dark 1983 which was a violent mystery thriller shot in only three weeks on a tight budget and filmed almost entirely in a producer friends house Next he directed the actionflick Blastfighter 1984 which was filmed in the state of Georgia and immediately afterwards directed the Jaws 1975like thriller Devil Fish 1984 which was shot in Florida On both films Lamberto was purely a director for hire and had nothing to do with the script or production end He used the pseudonym of John Old Jr for this latter film which was a tribute to his father Mario who often used the pseudonym John M Old He enjoyed his best commercial success to date with Demons 1985 produced by Dario Argento cowritten by Dardano Sacchetti and filmed in West Berlin This films international success allowed him to cowrite produce and direct a sequel Demons 2 1986 Lamberto returned to giallo thrillers with Delirium 1987 In the late 1980s the Italian cinema turned moribund Lamberto like most of his colleagues turned to making films for Italian television He also directed a remake of his fathers Black Sunday 1960 which was titled La maschera del demonio 1990 Nowadays Lamberto Bava continues to divide his time between TV work and a few movies acknowledging his inspiration from his late father Mario