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List of contents
1. Between Expendability and Connoisseurship - Situating Bava
2. Artisan or Auteur - Bava and Authorship
3. Navigating filoni- From Sword and Sandal to il gotico italiano
4. Giallo all’italiana - Bava and the ‘Italian style’ Thriller
5. The poetics of ‘Serie B’ Cinema - Bava and Film Style
6. ‘Grande stronzate’? - Reception and Reputation
8. Conclusion
Bibliography
Index
About the author
Leon Hunt is the author of British Low Culture: From Safari Suits to Sexploitation (1998), Kung Fu Cult Masters: From Bruce Lee to Crouching Tiger (2003), The League of Gentlemen (2008), Cult British TV Comedy: From Reeves and Mortimer to Psychoville (2013) and Danger: Diabolik (2018) and co-editor of East Asian Cinemas: Exploring Transnational Connections on Film (2008) and Screening the Undead (2014).
Summary
How do we approach a figure like Mario Bava, a once obscure figure promoted to cult status? This book takes a new look at Italy’s ‘maestro of horror’ but also uses his films to address a broader set of concerns. What issues do his films raise for film authorship, given that several of them were released in different versions and his contributions to others were not always credited? How might he be understood in relation to genre, one of which he is sometimes credited with having pioneered?
This volume addresses these questions through a thorough analysis of Bava's shifting reputation as a stylist and genre pioneer and also discusses the formal and narrative properties of a filmography marked by an emphasis on spectacle and atmosphere over narrative coherence and the ways in which his lauded cinematic style intersects with different production contexts. Featuring new analysis of cult classics like Kill, Baby … Kill (1966) and Five Dolls for an August Moon (1970), Mario Bava: The Artisan as Italian Horror Auteur sheds light on a body of films that were designed to be ephemeral but continue to fascinate us today.
Additional text
Leon Hunt’s Mario Bava: The Artisan as Italian Horror Auteur masterfully asks and answers perennially important questions in relation to the study of the auteur and film: how can we approach a filmmaker like Bava whose achievements are often compromised by their production circumstances, and what issues do his films raise with regards to cultural value?
