That´s the question this documentary inside a fake biopic asks. Does it delivers? well, maybe Fulci big fans will be no surprised, but for the casual horror fan, there are a lot of new stuff here about Fulci´s private life, and you can that translated into is most know work. The interviews are amazing and emotive, and the fake biopìc with the actor doing of Fulci outside the documentary gives a more original aproach to the movie.
7 Reviews
Fulci bio
BandSAboutMovies12 October 2020
Warning: Spoilers
For all we know of the movies of Lucio Fulci, how much do we really know about the man himself? What drove him to make films of such stunning cruelty? And what is meant in this film when they discuss that each film formed a mosaic made up of the tragedies of his life?
The conceit of this film is that an actor (Nicola Nocella) is getting ready to play the Godfather of Gore in a biographical movie, yet he must research the life of the man as well as his work. We never see the actual film that gets made, but is that even the point? We do get to learn plenty of stories of the director and attempt to get a richer image of who he was and how his life shaped and was shaped by his art.
Driven by new interviews with composer Fabio Frizzi, cinematographer Sergio Salvati, former actor and assistant Michele Soavi (an incredibly important artist in his own right) and Fulci's daughters Antonella and Camilla Fulci, we discover how many of the stories of Fulci's legendary hatred of actors and misanthropy are true. But a better image emerges as we learn of a man who hid his deepest emotions within his increasingly obtuse films. And we cannot forget that after a thirty year career, the main films that he's known for all emerged in a five year or less burst of body fluids.
Written and directed by Simone Scafidi (Eva Bruan), this is a movie that may not have much new for Fulci hardcores, but would form a nice starting point for neophytes to understand why these movies inspire such devotion. The interviews are the best part of the story, obviously, but if you have 2008's Paura: Lucio Fulci Remembered, you already have around four hours of folks talking about him.
There is one moment of absolute truth in here, as the actor is meditating on the fact that producers wouldn't even give Fulci a movie to make for the last five years of his life - other than his "rival" Argento, who was going to hire him to make The Wax Mask - and yet today, whatever movies he would have made would still be making money as limited edition reissues, bought by people like, well me. After all, I got this movie in a set with Demonia and Aenigma. I'm the kind of person who would buy a $50 version of Manhattan Baby. I am the exact audience for this.
That said, you can see how Camilla's condition - she was in a riding incident soon after her mother's death and further diseases weakened her (she has since died) - informs the reasons behind The New York Ripper's rampage, taking what would be a pornography of violence in a lesser artist's hands and more of a vacant stare at an unfeeling void, shot at the dead center of the end of the world.
While the actor framing device never really works, the interviews and idea shine. The whole blu ray is worth it just for the extras, which include interviews with the director and crew, longer cuts of the interviews from the filmm, home movie and camcorder footage of Fulci scouting locations and even working on set and audio recordings of the director working with Michael Romagnoli on his memoirs.
I really don't think that there can ever be a definitive Fulci biopic. Instead, we should look to his films - this effort makes quite the case for The Beyond, which I wholeheartedly agree is filled with messages - and wish that he had lived long enough to know that his name is spoken in the same hushed tones reserved for the greats.
The conceit of this film is that an actor (Nicola Nocella) is getting ready to play the Godfather of Gore in a biographical movie, yet he must research the life of the man as well as his work. We never see the actual film that gets made, but is that even the point? We do get to learn plenty of stories of the director and attempt to get a richer image of who he was and how his life shaped and was shaped by his art.
Driven by new interviews with composer Fabio Frizzi, cinematographer Sergio Salvati, former actor and assistant Michele Soavi (an incredibly important artist in his own right) and Fulci's daughters Antonella and Camilla Fulci, we discover how many of the stories of Fulci's legendary hatred of actors and misanthropy are true. But a better image emerges as we learn of a man who hid his deepest emotions within his increasingly obtuse films. And we cannot forget that after a thirty year career, the main films that he's known for all emerged in a five year or less burst of body fluids.
Written and directed by Simone Scafidi (Eva Bruan), this is a movie that may not have much new for Fulci hardcores, but would form a nice starting point for neophytes to understand why these movies inspire such devotion. The interviews are the best part of the story, obviously, but if you have 2008's Paura: Lucio Fulci Remembered, you already have around four hours of folks talking about him.
There is one moment of absolute truth in here, as the actor is meditating on the fact that producers wouldn't even give Fulci a movie to make for the last five years of his life - other than his "rival" Argento, who was going to hire him to make The Wax Mask - and yet today, whatever movies he would have made would still be making money as limited edition reissues, bought by people like, well me. After all, I got this movie in a set with Demonia and Aenigma. I'm the kind of person who would buy a $50 version of Manhattan Baby. I am the exact audience for this.
That said, you can see how Camilla's condition - she was in a riding incident soon after her mother's death and further diseases weakened her (she has since died) - informs the reasons behind The New York Ripper's rampage, taking what would be a pornography of violence in a lesser artist's hands and more of a vacant stare at an unfeeling void, shot at the dead center of the end of the world.
While the actor framing device never really works, the interviews and idea shine. The whole blu ray is worth it just for the extras, which include interviews with the director and crew, longer cuts of the interviews from the filmm, home movie and camcorder footage of Fulci scouting locations and even working on set and audio recordings of the director working with Michael Romagnoli on his memoirs.
I really don't think that there can ever be a definitive Fulci biopic. Instead, we should look to his films - this effort makes quite the case for The Beyond, which I wholeheartedly agree is filled with messages - and wish that he had lived long enough to know that his name is spoken in the same hushed tones reserved for the greats.
Different Take on a Documentary and Biography of a Legend
Reviews_of_the_Dead16 June 2023
This was a documentary that I watched while working since it was streaming on Shudder. I like to watch things like this late in my day since it is like listening to a podcast. I'll admit, this wasn't the best one to try to do this since it is in Italian and I don't speak the language, so I needed to pay more attention to the subtitles. That won't be held against this though.
What we get here is interesting. The title threw me off, but having completed this, it makes sense. This is set as Nicola Nocella is going to be playing Lucio Fulci in an upcoming biopic so he is interviewing people that know this director. He is trying to get as much insight as he can for the role. This includes his daughters Camilla and Antonella Fulci. Actors and behind the scenes people like Paolo Malco, Sergio Salvati, Fabio Frizzi and Michele Soavi are also interviewed. We get a good cross section, including people who are academics to help look at the career overall. It helped me as a fan of Fulci to learn that he struggled until getting into horror and then went back as the budgets for his movies dried up. It is a shame though with the talent that he had.
This is a well-made documentary as well. We moved through his early life and career. Getting into his horror career with things like Zombie and moving into more of his more violent gialli. I liked that posters and clips are spliced in here. It also does well in showing that tragedy in Fulci's life affecting the movies that he was making. I'd recommend this to fans of this director as it is an interesting look into his life.
My Rating: 7.5 out of 10.
What we get here is interesting. The title threw me off, but having completed this, it makes sense. This is set as Nicola Nocella is going to be playing Lucio Fulci in an upcoming biopic so he is interviewing people that know this director. He is trying to get as much insight as he can for the role. This includes his daughters Camilla and Antonella Fulci. Actors and behind the scenes people like Paolo Malco, Sergio Salvati, Fabio Frizzi and Michele Soavi are also interviewed. We get a good cross section, including people who are academics to help look at the career overall. It helped me as a fan of Fulci to learn that he struggled until getting into horror and then went back as the budgets for his movies dried up. It is a shame though with the talent that he had.
This is a well-made documentary as well. We moved through his early life and career. Getting into his horror career with things like Zombie and moving into more of his more violent gialli. I liked that posters and clips are spliced in here. It also does well in showing that tragedy in Fulci's life affecting the movies that he was making. I'd recommend this to fans of this director as it is an interesting look into his life.
My Rating: 7.5 out of 10.
Fulci For A Better Documentary
cuckookachoo3 February 2021
Being a longtime fan of Fulci, I was looking forward to a comprehensive documentary on his life and films. I didn't expect a narrator to insert himself into each scene with uninteresting reaction shots. The scene with him on the floor shirtless guzzling Jack Daniels looking at Fulci posters had me questioning my investment in watching the film and I checked out of it shortly after. Shame, a missed opportunity especially given the access to his daughter's perspective.
A strange one
Leofwine_draca21 January 2021
Warning: Spoilers
Quite an odd little documentary, this, about the godfather of gore himself, Lucio Fulci. It has the usual talking head interview footage, most notably with Fulci's daughter Camilla, and it goes into great detail about Fulci as a man, his life events and the character that led him to create the films that he created. Fans of his output will take great interest in the descriptions of making classics like THE BEYOND, but then there are random sequences in which a fat Italian guy likes to dress up as the director for a biopic; hence the title. I had no idea what these moments were about and thought they spoilt things a bit.
Cut the dramatisations and you have a great documentary.
lccasellato25 May 2022
There are some amazing interviews with insights into the life of one of Italy's most original directors. Unfortunately, it is edited with some embarrassing dramatisations of an actor who interprets an 'in-and-out-of-character' version of Fulci. We are even supposed to believe he is conducting the interviews when it is obvious that he was edited into them in a second moment.
It would be great to have a new cut of the film without these parts, maintaining only the interviews which are truly well directed.
It would be great to have a new cut of the film without these parts, maintaining only the interviews which are truly well directed.
A Fake in the Brain
Visioneer26 November 2020
Warning: Spoilers
As a fan of Lucio Fulci I would have loved this film more, but it didn't happen. I think the reason lies in its amusing futility and lack of timeliness (too early to re-evaluate Italian artisanal cinema?), as well as in an unfulfilled promise, an extended and unhidden lie. Let me explain: One of the greatest qualities of Fulci's cinema has been that of having kept promises and premises; even his most boorish films (I quote Demonia or perhaps Aenigma) have always had an almost magical consistency with the parathetic aspect (synopsis, posters, press kits, photos of the scene), so much so that in each of his films EXACTLY what was expected to be seen, everything and more.
I remember that I was madly infatuated with the idea of this film as soon as I read it, a couple of years ago, until I idealized its form and content, dreaming about it, imagining it. In my dreams it was a different film.
The most problematic aspect of this documentary lies in its being a Fake at all costs, in wanting to define itself as something it is not: it does not have the depth (in the sense of mise en abyme) described in the press-kit and in the official synopsis, it is not a bio-pic (unlike the slogan...), it is not what it promises to be - hell, even the lenticular cover of the Severin mente edition! - is a documentary that joins a thousand others already released (Aenigma: Lucio Fulci and the 80s, Paura: Lucio Fulci Remembered - Volume 1, Do you remember Lucio Fulci?, No longer responds, Tempus Fugit - An Inside Look at Director Lucio Fulci, La notte americana del Dr. Lucio Fulci...), with a meta-meta-meta frame in its own original way that serves as a pretext for the interviews.
Because it has to be said that Fulci, true, was ignored in life, but in the following years many books and documentaries have been dedicated to his work.
I was saying, I would have liked to love this film, maybe love it more. In fact, he still deserves affection, precisely as an act of love in turn.
An act of love towards certain cinema, and just as an act of love cannot be ignored. There is the documentation (increased in Blu-Ray by the strong presence of repertory materials accompanied by the comments of Michele Romagnoli - the scholar to whom we owe one of the two fundamental volumes on Fulci - the other is "Il Terrorista dei Generi" by Cacciatore and Albiero), there is the desire to present the director's "sentimental" background, there is a strong diplomacy of memory (so much so that we are amazed by the presence of the "loving" testimonies of Michele Soavi and Paolo Malco in the cut interviews of the extra content). There is the love of a daughter towards her father and the esteem of some collaborators.
On the technical side, the film is very well made, with a single note linked to the poor sound intelligibility of Camilla Fulci's testimony, due to an affectionate and very sweet use of her Romanesque. The subtitles (which cannot be deactivated!), very well adapted and made, in English, which perfectly summarize her thought, come to the aid.
I think it is, despite some flaws and criticalities listed, a film that should be part of any REAL fan and scholar of the director, next to the most badass books written about Fulci. The Italian edition of Blu-Ray, with identical contents, is coming out in September for the Midnight Factory.
I remember that I was madly infatuated with the idea of this film as soon as I read it, a couple of years ago, until I idealized its form and content, dreaming about it, imagining it. In my dreams it was a different film.
The most problematic aspect of this documentary lies in its being a Fake at all costs, in wanting to define itself as something it is not: it does not have the depth (in the sense of mise en abyme) described in the press-kit and in the official synopsis, it is not a bio-pic (unlike the slogan...), it is not what it promises to be - hell, even the lenticular cover of the Severin mente edition! - is a documentary that joins a thousand others already released (Aenigma: Lucio Fulci and the 80s, Paura: Lucio Fulci Remembered - Volume 1, Do you remember Lucio Fulci?, No longer responds, Tempus Fugit - An Inside Look at Director Lucio Fulci, La notte americana del Dr. Lucio Fulci...), with a meta-meta-meta frame in its own original way that serves as a pretext for the interviews.
Because it has to be said that Fulci, true, was ignored in life, but in the following years many books and documentaries have been dedicated to his work.
I was saying, I would have liked to love this film, maybe love it more. In fact, he still deserves affection, precisely as an act of love in turn.
An act of love towards certain cinema, and just as an act of love cannot be ignored. There is the documentation (increased in Blu-Ray by the strong presence of repertory materials accompanied by the comments of Michele Romagnoli - the scholar to whom we owe one of the two fundamental volumes on Fulci - the other is "Il Terrorista dei Generi" by Cacciatore and Albiero), there is the desire to present the director's "sentimental" background, there is a strong diplomacy of memory (so much so that we are amazed by the presence of the "loving" testimonies of Michele Soavi and Paolo Malco in the cut interviews of the extra content). There is the love of a daughter towards her father and the esteem of some collaborators.
On the technical side, the film is very well made, with a single note linked to the poor sound intelligibility of Camilla Fulci's testimony, due to an affectionate and very sweet use of her Romanesque. The subtitles (which cannot be deactivated!), very well adapted and made, in English, which perfectly summarize her thought, come to the aid.
I think it is, despite some flaws and criticalities listed, a film that should be part of any REAL fan and scholar of the director, next to the most badass books written about Fulci. The Italian edition of Blu-Ray, with identical contents, is coming out in September for the Midnight Factory.
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