Ask Quentin Tarantino, Martin Scorsese or David Lynch whom their favorite "unsung" European director of yore is, and they'll tell you: Mario Bava.

Bava died in 1980 and left behind a string of films, mostly of the horror genre but some thrillers and dark comedies.

http://members.tripod.com/mariobava/

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Mario_Bava

I just watchd my first Bava film called IL TRE VOLTI DELLA PAURA (1963) (literally, the three faces of fear). (English title: BLACK SABBATH. And guess which rock group took their name from this movie?) It is one of those highly entertaining kinds of films which tell three different horror fables, linked together by a spooky-but-genial host-- in this case, Boris Karloff. (A movie like George A. Romero's CREEPSHOW owes everything to Bava..)

In Italy, many low-budget horror films are made, and they are usually called "giallo", or yellow, as the color of fear for Italians is yellow. At one time, horror novellas were printed on yellow paper apparently. Lucio Fulvi and Dario Argento are but two Italian disciples of Bava and the "giallo" style...

At first blush, it appears that IL TRE VOLTI is going to be schlocky, like many of those early-1970's British HAMMER vampire films. And if you've watched many Italian films, you can't help but notice that all the dialogue and sound effects are dubbed in--- none too carefully-- after the fact. Even your Fellinis and Bertoluccis are prone to doing this.

But Bava's wonderful eye, keen taste for vivid beautiful color, and high emotional pitch and moral integrity make this film a genuinely beautiful, memorable, inspiring film experience! I was so surprised. And utterly entertained from beginning to end. Gorgeous music throughout, too. The 60's fashions add a slight note of camp, too, but the director is "in on the joke", the way Roman Polanski was in, say, ROSEMARY'S BABY. So the dramatic fashions only heighten the mood.



The actors are British, French and Italian.. and they are SO gorgeous to look at. A high degree of eroticism perfuses every scene of these three tales. Nothing at all sexy ever happens, but the stories are pregnant with eroticism... It's the kind of eroticism I think women like, the gothic kind, which involves people, relationships, emotions, families.

I can't wait to see some more Bava!

Have any of you experience with his films?

I'm partial to Blood and Black Lace myself. But Barbara Steele is magnificent, even dubbed.