Exploitation, Hardcore and Softcore Film Makers

[Joszka]

US filmmaker Radley Metzger (1929 / 2017). IMDB. Wiki.
"Film International" vol.1 n°1, April 75.
Gallery

[Joszka]

Antonio Margheriti on "Bizarre Sinema! Horror all'italiana, 1957-1979", Glittering Images editions, 96.
Texts are in english, italian & french.
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[KissArmy]

Watched Fascism on a Thread last night. An interesting but a-bit-too-long documentary on the rise of Nazi exploitation movies in the 1970s. It does a good job of telling you how these movies arose, and it has a fun interview with "Ilsa" Dyanne Thorne.

The documentary is dragged down, though, by extended, poorly English-captioned interviews with Italian directors of famous Nazi exploitation movies. Directors who try waaaaaaaaaay too hard to convince us they were artists, not grindhouse creeps.

But if you grew up around drive-ins and cheap cinema houses in the 1970s, you'll like Fascism on a Thread. It'll bring back memories.

[Joszka]

Massimo Pupillo, italian director (1929-1999), IMDB
"Bizarre Sinema! Horror all'italiana, 1957-1979", Glittering Images editions, 96.
Gallery

[Feelvintage]

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Pqe6lZ5bHRM
Bis Not Dead - Interview carrière Gérard Kikoïne (career interview, duration 57;29)

Bis Not Dead Asso *

Original French, English subtitles & other languages available in 3 steps: click on gear button (settings/parameters), select subtitles and then "auto-translate" feature appears

Released March 3, 2021

This summer, we met Gérard Kikoïne, where during a long interview, we had the chance to look back on his long and rich career.

In a few points, let's quickly review his work before approaching the interview:

He takes over from his father as sound and image editor, he was able to edit among others films by Jess Franco as well as the first X films of Claude Mulot, Alain Payet and Didier-Philippe Gérard.

Meanwhile, he went behind the camera with his first erotic film "L'amour à la bouche" in 1974. From 1977 he turned to adult cinema with classics like "Partie Fine" and "Dans la chaleur de St-Tropez". With about twenty films on the clock, he gives importance to scenarios as well as aesthetics.
He has established himself as one of the best directors of the golden age of French X, bringing together no less than four million spectators in theaters. He has directed stars such as Brigitte Lahaie, Marilyn Jess, Alban Ceray and Catherine Ringer.

He then moved on to "traditional" and international cinema where he had the chance to direct stars such as Anthony Perkins, John Carradine or Oliver Reed in horror and adventure films.

A rich, eclectic and atypical career when it comes to French genre cinema.

0:15 : Can you tell us about your beginnings in dubbing?
8:14 : Your first steps in realization.
17:42 : The atmosphere on the set of your love films.
23:25 : The casting of romance films.
27:30 : The success of the X in French cinemas.
29:35 : The end of the golden age of X.
32:13 : A belated recognition of the X.
40:10 : Your influences?
44:53 : Harry Alan Towers and your beginnings in "traditional" cinema?
51:25 : Your experience with French TV?
52:57 : Your meeting and the direction of these stars?

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https://fr.wikipedia.org/wiki/Cin%C3%A9ma_bis
Cinéma bis

Cinéma bis refers to films made using already proven recipes, but shot with reduced resources and intended for popular audiences. Bis cinema generally refers to a genre cinema that covers the whole of the B series and the Z series, but also the exploitation cinema and more generally the films formerly intended for the circuit of neighborhood cinemas or drive in.

https://www.imdb.com/name/nm0048158/
Gérard Kikoïne - IMDb

Originally Posted by beutelwolf

Gérard Kikoïne 2nd

[Joszka]

Renato Polselli, italian director, (1922-2006), IMDB
"Bizarre Sinema! Horror all'italiana, 1957-1979", Glittering Images editions, 96.
Gallery

[Feelvintage]

https://en.unifrance.org/directories...daniel-lesoeur
Daniel Lesoeur - Unifrance

Activities: Chief Executive Officer, Actor, Director, Executive Producer, Assistant Director, Producer, Screenwriter, Co-producer, Production Manager

Secteur: Cinema

https://www.imdb.com/name/nm0504243/
Daniel Lesoeur - IMDb

son of Marius Lesoeur ((1910-2003): IMDb

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=6ITvky2f5uY
Bis Not Dead - Interview Daniel Lesœur, directeur général et producteur chez Eurociné

Interview Daniel Lesœur, Managing Director and Producer at Eurociné

Bis Not Dead Asso - duration 58m 35 *

Released Jan 10, 2023

Eurociné made the heyday of European Bis cinema. Among the first to produce westerns in Europe and during its long existence, Eurociné has touched all genres of cinema Bis, Nazisploitation, erotic, zombies, war films, etc...

From his creation to the most legendary collaborations (Jess Franco, Christopher Lee, Mark Hamill, Andrea Bianchi...) of the famous French production company, Daniel Lesœur tells us about his long experience at the head of Eurociné.

00:00 - 07:02 : The genesis of Eurociné
07:02 - 15:58 : Jess Franco and his favorite actors
15:58 - 22:32 : The other actors of the Eurociné family
22:32 - 23:55 : Nazisploitation and filming locations
23:55 - 31:41 : The other directors of the Eurociné stable + Daniel White
31:41 - 34:20 : Lake of the Living Dead
34:20 - 49:25 : International stars at Eurociné
49:25 - 51:55 : The decline and end of Eurociné
51:55 - 54:50 : The documentary on Eurociné by Christophe Bier
54:50 - 58:10 : The legacy of Eurociné + the outro

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Original French, English subtitles & other languages available in 3 steps: click on gear button (settings/parameters), select subtitles and then "auto-translate" feature appears

Transcription function also available

[Joszka]

Gérard Kikoïne on "Star Ciné Vidéo" n°2, September 83.
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[Joszka]

Werner Hedman in "Star Ciné Vidéo" n°3, October 83.
Gallery

[Feelvintage]

https://www.imdb.com/name/nm0001090/bio/
Joe D'Amato - Biography - IMDb

Overview

Born: December 15, 1936 · Rome, Lazio, Italy

Died: January 23, 1999 · Rome, Lazio, Italy (heart attack)

Nicknames : The Evil Ed Wood - Dario Donati (amoung others)


Mini Bio

Joe D'Amato was born Aristide Massaccesi on December 15, 1936, in Rome, Italy. At age 14 he began working for his father, a chief electrician and later the founder of the company A.C.M. By going to school in the daytime, Massaccesi worked afternoons part-time as a stagehand and stage cameraman around various film sets. After attending grade school, from 1953-57, Massaccesi worked for his father. Mole Richardson, another motion picture company, was looking for someone to work as an assistant cameraman and Massaccesi jumped at the opportunity. Starting in 1969 he worked as director of photography as well as assistant director for a number of films until 1974. His first directing work was in 1972's low-budget Stay Away from Trinity... When He Comes to Eldorado (1972), co-directed by Diego Spataro, under the pseudonym Dick Spitfire, but it was a commercial failure. Later that same year Massaccesi directed a western (under the name of Oskar Faradine). He then used his assistant's name, Romano Gastaldi, for his next film, Fra' Tazio da Velletri (1973), as well as a few others.

Massaccesi was reluctant to use his real name early in his directing career, since he was still known mainly as a director of photography and didn't want his directing jobs to jeopardize his cinematography career. He used his real name for screenplay and cinematography roles, but worked under many aliases (such as Michael Wotruba) to disguise the authorship of some films in order not to mix up the different genres of comedy, western, drama, thrillers and others. He used so many phony names that he may well have more pseudonyms credited to him than any other director in the world.

Massaccesi entered the horror genre with Death Smiles on a Murderer (1973) under his real name, which inspired him to make other gothic horror films. Under a new pseudonym, Joe D'Amato, he directed soft-core, erotic films starring Laura Gemser, such as Emanuelle and Francoise (1975), Emanuelle and the Last Cannibals (1977), Emanuelle in America (1977), Erotic Nights of the Living Dead (1980) and others. He also directed such action films as Tough to Kill (1979).

Massaccesi, now referring to himself as Joe D'Amato, entered the "gore" genere films with Beyond the Darkness (1979), which remains his most successful horror film, shot in four weeks on a low budget entirely at a villa near Bressanone and which had an excellent music soundtrack by the rock group Goblin. His next horror film, but less successful than the previous one, was The Grim Reaper (1980), directed as "Peter Newton". The film starred Tisa Farrow, sister of Mia Farrow and the star of Zombie (1979), another gore genre flick.

During the 1980s and 1990s D'Amato directed over 100 hardcore porn sex films for the Italian video market, although under his many pseudonyms he continued to direct and produce other films. One of them was StageFright (1987) directed by Michele Soavi on which, under his real name, Massaccesi served as producer. He then directed two "Ator the Invincible" films. He directed the violent, hardcore Caligula: The Untold Story (1982), using the name "David Hills", a commercial exploitation (some might say "rip-off") of the successful film by Tinto Brass.

D'Amato's other films during the 1980s were Paradiso Blu (1980) and violent adventure films such as Deep Blood (1989), which were filmed in Florida, and Ghosthouse (1988). Some of D'Amato's greatest successes abroad were L'alcova (1985) and Pomeriggio caldo (1989), as well as the horror-thriller Hitcher in the Dark (1989) (aka "Hitcher in the Dark").

His long film career came to an abrupt end when, in January 1999, he suffered an unexpected and fatal heart attack at his home in Rome. He was 62. Joe D'Amato had made his mark on Italian cinema as a talented director, scriptwriter, producer and cinematographer with scores of films and more than a dozen aliases to his credit.

- IMDb Mini Biography By: matt-282

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https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=YCKA2cQ9Cnk
The Wild and Bizarre World of Joe D'Amato

Toasters - duration: 42m 31s

Original English, in your language, translation (w/ gear button, subtitles and then "auto-translate) & transcription (click on more) available

10 mai 2022 [May 10, 2022]

When we think of great Italian directors, names such as Fellini, Antonioni and De Sica pop up. But what about those that didn’t get the fame they expected. But what about the directors who did the complete opposite? When we think of those we think of the legendary Mario Bava, Lucio Fulci and Dario Argento. But, there was one out of all of these that really stood out to me and took me into a rabbit hole that didn’t stop.

This is the project i have been working on for quite a while now! I hope you have enjoyed it, it means alot to me!

Timestamps:
0:00 - Intro
1:39 - Joe Title Sequence
2:06 - Early Work
4:10 - Early Films
6:41 - Emanuelle
12:36 - George Eastman
14:37 - Death Smiles on a Murderer
15:50 - Anthropophagus / Anthropophagous
24:38 - Beyond the Darkness / Buio Omega
25:49 - Switching It Up
26:25 - Joe D'Amato, Who Was He?
28:36 - The 80's Period
29:40 - Ator, The Fighting Eagle
33:00 - Porno Holocaust and Mad Max Ripoffs
35:07 - The Early 90's
35:55 - Death
39:37 - Epilogue
42:07 - Outro

Music credits (.../...)

HUGE thanks to Tributo a JOE D'AMATO (.../...)

Interview footage from:

Joe D’Amato Totally Uncut - The Erotic Experience 1999
Joe D’Amato Totally Uncut: The Horror Experience 2001
Omega Rising: Remembering Joe D’Amato 2017

(.../...)

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Originally Posted by beutelwolf

Joe D'Amato (Aristide Massaccesi) 2nd 3rd 4th