Years active 1962-1982 Children Pietro Cavara Education University of Florence | Role Screenwriter Name Paolo Cavara | |
Born 4 July 1926 ( 1926-07-04 ) Bologna, Italy Occupation Screenwriter, film director Died August 7, 1982, Rome, Italy Movies A Dog's Life, Black Belly of the Tarantula, The Wild Eye, Plot of Fear, Women of the World Similar People Gualtiero Jacopetti, Stefano Sibaldi, Turi Ferro, Riz Ortolani, Enrico Oldoini | ||
Daniele Patucchi's music score from Paolo Cavara's "LOS AMIGOS" (1972) "Per salvarsi"
Paolo Cavara (4 July 1926 – 7 August 1982) was an Italian screenwriter and a film director. He is known to horror film fans for directing the 1971 giallo, The Black Belly of the Tarantula, and his 1962 cult classic, Mondo Cane.
Contents
- Daniele Patucchis music score from Paolo Cavaras LOS AMIGOS 1972 Per salvarsi
- Biography
- Selected filmography
- References
Biography
During the 1950s, he studied architecture at the University of Florence, after which he produced documentaries for scientific voyages of exploration, and emerged as a pioneer of underwater cinematography (one of these voyages was the important 1951 expedition to Ceylon along with Franco Prosperi documented by local news, that anticipated Folco Quilici’s Sixth Continent experience). Next, Cavara worked on a series of Italian National TV films led by Giorgio Moser. He also worked as an assistant director (Timbuctu and Naked Maya, a 1958 production by Henry Koster).
In 1962, Cavara conceived with Gualtiero Jacopetti and directed the first shockumentary in history: Mondo Cane, while Prosperi was credited as second director. Cavara traveled to every part of the world, from Africa to Asia, Europe to Japan, putting his life continually in danger. He eventually met Jacopetti again in Las Vegas, and they were together involved in the automobile accident where British starlet Belinda Lee lost her life. The film was presented at the Cannes Festival.
Following the success of the film, Jacopetti attempted to claim all the merits for himself, but left himself open to fierce media criticism. Although involved in the editing of the film, he had had little presence on set during actual filming.
The next year, La donna nel mondo (Women of the World) was put together using inferior materials from Mondo Cane. Mondo Cane launched Cavara as an author and director. From then on, he continued to make films, nevertheless that experience left a sign for future projects. Having left his former associates, he directed the forwarding Malamondo, an “antimondo” on European youth, and in 1967 The Wild Eye (with Alberto Moravia and Tonino Guerra screenwriters added), a definitive breakaway from the genre conducted with spectacular ability that anticipated reflections on cinema making cinema with ambiguous and conscious perspective. Wild eye won the Atlanta Festival and was entered into the 5th Moscow International Film Festival.
Cavara continued with the charming, inverted war-genre-formula drama, The Ravine with David McCallum as protagonist (a promise of ’69 Venice Festival), and in ‘71 Black Belly of the Tarantula, a cult thriller with a big cast, balanced between documentary scenes and an engaging performance by police inspector, Giancarlo Giannini.
Following many other European successes (comedies, Westerns, TV films), Cavara pursued film-making. A remarkable example is Plot of Fear, (his second thriller) with Michele Placido and Eli Wallach, where Cavara displayed in a new and radical shape traditional elements of gothic, police film and Italian giallo.
Not identified as a conventional director, Cavara focused attention, over his not very long professional career, on controversial subjects and film characters, his trademark being the skillful interplay between and sensibility for visual contrasts.
Cavara died in Rome in 1982.