Ruggero Deodato
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Ruggero Deodato (born May 7, 1939 in Potenza) is an Italian film director, actor and screen writer, best known for directing horror films.
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[edit] Biography
Deodato grew up in the neighborhood where Rome's film studios are located and so as a summer job he got to hang around. It was there that he learned how to direct under Roberto Rossellini and Sergio Corbucci; he helped out on Corbucci's The Son of Spartacus and Django as an assistant director. Later on in the '60s, he directed around ten comedy, musical, and thriller films, before leaving cinema to do TV commercials. In 1976 he returned to the big screen with his ultra-violent police flick Live like a Cop, Die like a Man. In 1977 he directed what many consider to be his masterpiece, (along with Cannibal Holocaust), a jungle adventure called il Ultimo Mondo Cannibale or Last Cannibal World (aka "Jungle Holocaust") starring famed British actress Me Me Lai with which he restarted the cannibal film/ mondo genre. Late in 1979 he returned to the cannibal subgenre with his Cannibal Holocaust. Deodato caused massive controversy in Italy and the United Kingdom following the release of Cannibal Holocaust, which was wrongly claimed by some to be a genuine snuff film. Deodato was forced to reveal the secrets behind the film's special effects and to parade the lead actors before an Italian court in order to prove that they were still alive. Deodato's film license was then revoked and he would not get it back until three years later, which then allowed him to release his long forgotten 1978 thriller La casa sperduta nel parco/ "House on the Edge of the Park", which was the most censored of the video nasties in the United Kingdom for its graphic violence. His "Cut And Run" is regarded as a very good jungle adventure/ thriller, loaded with extreme violence and the welcome appearance of Michael Berryman as a crazed, machete-wielding jungle man. In the '80s he made some action films and also made some slasher/horror films, such as "Phantom of Death", "Dial Help" and "Body Count". Not long after, he signed a deal with Cannon film to direct a big budget spiderman movie adaption but he lost out when Cannon films closed down its operations. In the '90s he made TV movies and dramas to great success. He also recently made a cameo appearance in Hostel: Part II as a cannibal feasting on his victim’s leg. Ruggero has made about two dozen films, as well as various TV series, his films covering many different genres, he has made many action films, a western, a barbarian film and even a family film called Mom, I can do it. He is one of the more well known directors in Italy today.
[edit] Selected Filmography
- The Washing Machine (1993)
- Dial Help (1988)
- The Phantom of Death (1988) aka "Off Balance", starring Michael York, Giovanni Lombardo Radice and Donald Pleasance.
- The Barbarians and Company (1987)
- Body Count (Camping del Terrore, 1987)
- Cut And Run (Inferno in Diretta, 1985) starring Michael Berryman
- Raiders of Atlantis (1983) aka "The Atlantis Interceptors"
- Cannibal Holocaust (1980)
- The Concorde Affaire '79 (1979)
- Ultimo Mondo Cannibale/ The Last Cannibal World (Jungle Holocaust, 1977)
- Live Like a Cop, Die Like a Man (1976)
- Waves of Lust (1975) starring Al Cliver
- Hercules, Prisoner of Evil (1964) co-directed with Antonio Margheriti
