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Poll

Your Favorite Mario Bava Films Are...

Black Sunday
3 (7.5%)
Esther and the King
0 (0%)
The Wonders of Aladdin
0 (0%)
Hercules in the Haunted World
0 (0%)
Erik the Conqueror
0 (0%)
The Evil Eye
0 (0%)
Black Sabbath
4 (10%)
The Whip and the Body
0 (0%)
Blood and Black Lace
1 (2.5%)
The Road to Fort Alamo
0 (0%)
Planet of the Vampires
1 (2.5%)
Knives of the Avenger
0 (0%)
Kill, Baby... Kill!
2 (5%)
Dr. Goldfoot and the Girl Bomb
0 (0%)
Diabolik
2 (5%)
Five Dolls for an August Moon
0 (0%)
Hatchet for the Honeymoon
0 (0%)
Roy Colt and Winchester Jack
0 (0%)
A Bay of Blood
1 (2.5%)
Baron Blood
0 (0%)
Four Times That Night
0 (0%)
Lisa and the Devil
1 (2.5%)
Kidnapped
0 (0%)
Schock
0 (0%)
Never Seen A Mario Bava Film
23 (57.5%)
Don't Like Any I Have Seen
2 (5%)

Total Members Voted: 32

Author Topic: Bava, Mario  (Read 4028 times)

duder

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Re: Directors Best Poll - Mario Bava
« Reply #10 on: October 10, 2008, 03:12:04 PM »
...

chesterfilms

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Re: Directors Best Poll - Mario Bava
« Reply #11 on: October 16, 2008, 11:17:31 PM »
just watched Lisa and the Devil. had to change my vote. it's great.
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MartinTeller

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Re: Directors Best Poll - Mario Bava
« Reply #12 on: October 04, 2010, 01:17:20 PM »
1. Black Sunday
2. Kill Baby, Kill
3. Rabid Dogs
4. Black Sabbath
5. Blood and Black Lace
6. The Girl Who Knew Too Much

7. A Bay of Blood
8. Lisa and the Devil

worm@work

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Re: Directors Best Poll - Mario Bava
« Reply #13 on: July 07, 2012, 11:35:28 PM »
Black Sabbath | 1963

A compilation film comprised of three different horror stories.Even though the three stories are entirely separate and could be treated as such, they also work together as variations on a theme. The first and the last one both reminded me of Polanski's Repulsion in a way. Both essentially graph the gradual psychological collapse of a single woman trapped inside her own apartment. In both cases, the breakdown is initiated by a telephone call. But the middle segment feels related as well in that in all three segments, the source of fear/horror is from the familiar and invades one's safe space, one's home.

The first of the three is probably the most prosaic of the lot in that the threat ultimately turns out to be all too human and the twists are fairly predictable. But the visual atmospheric stuff still works pretty well with the constantly ringing red telephone taking on an increasingly ominous presence as the short progresses.

The second one is likely my favorite and probably the weirdest of the three. I love this variation on the traditional vampire idea. Rather than a need for living, they're driven in this case by a deep compulsion to be reunited with their loved ones and as a family. Love as selfishness and ownership manifested in this case by actual consumption of said loved ones. There's also possibly some incest type stuff that could be read into it.

The third segment is pretty much a revisiting of the first one as I mentioned earlier except here the threat does indeed turn out to be supernatural with the dead (possibly) coming back to exact revenge on the living.

Anyway, what really stands out in all of these segments is not so much the stories themselves, which are all fairly predictable but Bava's camerawork, set design and use of color. This is apparent right off the bat in the very first segment where through the use of several long takes, the apartment becomes a palpable source of danger. The variations in angles across all these takes highlight the various nooks and corners that could potentially be a source of threat. There is always something behind us or off to the side that we can't see and that coupled with the voice on the telephone describing her every move proves pretty terrifying. In the second segment, Bava fills the frames with deep blues and purples giving the entire sequence an otherworldly look that works really well in the context. Whereas in the first segment, the camerawork suggests the infinite spaces where terror could hide, the last one is shot in a way that reinforces the sense of entrapment and the limits of the space. The old woman has nowhere to hide.

Pretty good but I need to watch a proper feature by him to really have a proper opinion on him.
« Last Edit: February 15, 2018, 01:20:06 AM by 1SO »

1SO

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Bava, Mario
« Reply #14 on: November 14, 2013, 07:36:24 PM »
1. The Girl Who Knew Too Much
2. Black Sabbath
3. Kill, Baby... Kill!
4. Five Dolls for an August Moon
5. Hatchet for the Honeymoon
6. Black Sunday
7. Blood and Black Lace
8. Baron Blood
9. Lust of the Vampire
10. The Whip and the Body

11. Rabid Dogs
12. Shock
13. Lisa and the Devil
14. A Bay of Blood
15. Planet of the Vampires
16. Diabolik
« Last Edit: August 04, 2021, 12:13:20 PM by 1SO »

don s.

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Re: Bava, Mario
« Reply #15 on: March 28, 2018, 11:57:24 PM »
Attention Filmstruck subscribers: a whole slew of Bava films is set to bid arrivederci to the service after April 20.

I, for one, have added a half-dozen to my watchlist.
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