Lamberto Bava

There's movies that were made a couple years ago that I've not seen yet.

Uh, but yeah, the, there wa- there was no actual sequel to this one because Mario Bava was like, "I'm out," [laughs] and so-

Right, right, right

... [laughs] uh, Chels, have you seen this before? Were you aware of this film?

They don't need me to defend them on the podcast.

[laughs] De Laurentiis then decided that perhaps the film would work more as a companion piece to his upcoming film, Barbarella, and with the backing of Paramount Pictures and French production company Mariane Productions, s- restarted the film.

De Laurentiis was i- also introduced to Mario Bava, whose directorial efforts were the talk of cinephiles, but also proved that he could make box office when his Dr. Goldfoot sequel, which we will say no more about-

Hmm

I mean, book-wise, there should be some movement on a project called Unsung Heroes within the near future.

And I'm currently very, very deep at work on a completely revised version of my Mario Bava book, as well as a book on Lamberto Bava.

So when they'll come out, I do not know, but they are being very seriously worked on.

yeah oh and uh the ghost is announced yeah only you can't release of the ghost

Um, nine- '90s, uh, giallo, which when I reviewed it for Stereo Leaves, I actually quite liked, I liked it quite a lot.

So it's a very unsung movie, so I think it'll be a fun one to cover, and especially kind of slightly in the vein of Lamberto Bava's Midnight Killer and those kind of movies from, um, the late '80s and the '90s.

But, uh, yeah, so we're gonna have a '70s and a '90s giallo double bill coming up, uh, next time.

Fun.

Okay.

And I watched one of my favorite things that I discovered during that time was a movie called Demons, directed by Lamberto Bava, Mario Bava's son.

Yes.

It's such an incredibly fun movie.

Anyway, cut to 2026.

I finally watched Demons 2.

And I'm happy to report, not only is it also directed, sequel is directed by Lamberto Bava, the same director.

I'm going to say something controversial, people.

Um, I just think that The Sweet Body of Deborah still hasn't been recognized as the influence on the genre that, that I think it was, and it's a film that hasn't had a UK or a US release, so hopefully we can nudge somebody towards releasing a copy of it, because I think it deserves to be seen.

Yeah, because we've had the Lamberto Bava box set from Severin-

Mm

... which included Orgasmo, So Sweet, So Perverse, Quiet Place to Kill, and Knife of Ice, and then they did that, what was it, 2021 release of, um, The Fourth Victim.

Opera is probably the last kind of real classic one, but the streak of that, I mean, Phenomenon is in there, and you mentioned Inferno and Tenebrae.

Those are... fantastic and he also instead of just as well as directing movies was also producing above other people like uh not mario bava but overseeing lamberto bava making demons and demons too yes yes

I mean, I'll give Flowers at least as far as, like, the Stendhal syndrome in 1996, which is an interesting, if not entirely successful movie.

It's kind of where he starts really over-relying on his daughter, Asia Argento, who's a very problematic figure now, so take that as you will.

She is attacked by a leather-gloved killer, who whispers that she is a dirty little thief, before forcing pages of Tenebrae in her mouth, and then slashing her throat with a razor.

The hands here, of course, are provided by Argento himself, and the scene was filmed by Lamberto Bava, who continued the assistant director role he had begun with Inferno.

Of this sequence, Argento has said, quote, The first crime is significant.

The girl is killed while being forced to swallow the pages of the book named after the film.

It was a very difficult scene to shoot.

I couldn't make myself put the pages in her mouth because it hurt and I felt bad and I didn't want to hurt her.

So the scene was directed by Lamberto Bava, who was very ruthless.

You know then that the references to my own cinema within the films are not a tribute to myself.

it was on major, major sale.

And yeah, it's a Lamberto Bava film, and I enjoy his filmography, so I thought I'd check that out.

But I picked up a couple of Hong Kong films that were put on like 60% off sale one day.

So I picked up Lifeline, which is a Johnny Toe firefighter action drama.