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Italian Science Fiction Movies At the end of the 1970s and into the early 80s, Italian horror enjoyed something of a renaissance on the back of the booming home video market. The new medium offered a new lease of life for 70s shockers from the likes of Ruggero Deodato and Dario Argento, introduced fans to the joys of 60s classics from Mario Bava, Antonio Margheriti and Riccardo Freda and was the perfect home for the gory splatter-fests of Lucio Fulci, Umberto Lenzi and Bruno Mattei. Less well documented were Italy's science fiction offerings. Although Italy was making science fiction films as early as 1910 (Un matrimonio interplanetario) broadly speaking there have been three distinct waves of activity so far. The first was initiated in the late 1950s when Paolo Heusch made La morte viene dallo spazio (1958), a belated response to the science fiction dramas that were popular in the States throughout the decade. It was quickly followed by Riccardo Freda and Mario Bava's Caltiki - il mostro immortale (1959) which took the British The Quatermass Xperiment (1955) and X the Unknown (1956) as its models. Two years later, one of the earliest Italian specialists in screen science fiction, Antonio Margheriti, stepped into the frame with his space opera Space Men (1960). The film was an adequate attempt to bring to life the pulpier end of science fiction - something that Hollywood had largely steered clear of in the 50s, preferring instead anti-Communist allegories - and it initiated a series of film, mostly from Margheriti, that continued in the same vein. With special effects on a par with the contemporary Godzilla films from Toho (when seen out of context, the effects sequences are remarkably similar), gaudy set design and improbable costumes, I criminali della galassia (1965), I diafanoidi vengono da Marte (1966), Il pianeta errante (1966), La morte viene dal pianeta Aytin (1967) and others brought low rent genre thrills to the screen in way that wouldn't be seen again until George Lucas came up with Star Wars in 1977. The apogee of this first wave of Italian screen science fiction was reached with Mario Bava's excellent Terrore nello spazio (1965), the classic tale of stranded astronauts beset by disembodied aliens that so heavily influenced Ridley Scott's subsequent Alien (1979). Bava's film went far beyond what Margheriti was doing, with its outstanding use of colour, bravura camerawork and economical use of limited, cramped sets. In the latter half of the 60s, the genre seemed to fall out of favour in Italy, despite the successes of high profile films like 2001: A Space Odyssey (1968) and Planet of the Apes (1968). There were interesting oddities along the way, including Elio Petri's Robert Sheckley adaptation La decima vittima (1965) and the over-rated 1968 French co-production, Barbarella (1968). The genre returned big time in 1977 in the wake of Star Wars, mainly at the inept hands of the dreaded Alfonso Brescia (aka Al Bradley). Brescia's high camp space operas are a lot less interesting than the 60s efforts, flaunting their cheapness in production design that seems to have been slapped together from whatever was lying around the studio at the time, costumes that are frequently laughable, robots made from cardboard boxes and other threadbare delights. Rather better, though still extremely silly, were Aldo Lado's L'umanoide (1979) and Luigi Cozzi's deranged Starcrash (1979), with Caroline Munro in a space bikini and the campest robot this side of C3PO. By this time, the Italian film industry had become almost entirely reactive, simply leaping aboard every bandwagon it could find rather than innovate. The Star Wars films were ripe for plagiarising but the effects sequences were costly and almost impossible to reproduce effectively. So when George Miller's Mad Max 2 (1981) and John Carpenter's Escape From New York (1981) proved to be massive global hits, producers were quick to realise that all they needed to ape their success were some left over biker leathers, a few old motorcycles, a muscle-bound leading man and a quarry. Thus the Italian post-apocalyptic movie was born. In terms of sheer numbers, this was one of the most successful of the Italian attempts to copy American product, with over a dozen cheapie knock offs appearing between 1982 and 1984. It attracted a range of directors, from no-hopers through to cult favourites like Sergio Martino, Enzo G. Castellari and Lucio Fulci. The post-apocalypse movies petered out as the Italian film industry
crumbled in the mid to late 80s, directors and producers abandoning
theatrical releases in favour of more lucrative cable TV work. There
were a few scattered offerings, most of them by the likes of Bruno
Mattei or Alberto de Martino, though Gabriele Salvatores' Nirvana
(1996) seemed to promise much but was sadly a disappointment. FILMOGRAPHY ...4 ...3 ...2 ...1 ...morte (1967) 17,
ovvero l'incredibile e triste storia del cinico Rudy Caino
(1992) 1990:
I guerrieri del Bronx (1982) 2+5: Missione
Hydra (1965) 2019
- Dopo la caduta di New York (1983) A 077, sfida ai killers (1966) Abre los ojos
(1997) Alien 2 sulla
Terra (1980) Alien degli
abissi (1989) Alphaville, une étrange
aventure de Lemmy Caution (1965) 2020:
Gladiatori del Texas (1982) Barbarella
(1968) Battaglie
negli spazi stellari (1977) La bestia nello
spazio (1978) Caltiki
- il mostro immortale (1959) La casa (1976) Che
fanno i nostri supermen tra le vergini della giungla? (1970) Chicken Park (1994) Chissà
perché... capitano tutte a me (1980) Ciao maschio
(1978) Le ciel sur la
tête (1965) Colpi di luce
(1985) Come
rubammo la bomba atomica (1967) Come rubare la corona d'Inghilterra (1967) Il conquistatore di Atlantide (1965) Contamination
(1980) Conviene
far bene l'amore (1975) I criminali
della galassia (1965) La decima vittima
(1965) Un delitto
poco comune (1988) I diafanoidi
vengono da Marte (1966) I diavoli
dello spazio (1965) Il disco volante
(1964) DNA formula
letale (1990) Docteur M.
(1990) Endgame
- Bronx lotta finale (1983) Epsilon
(1997) Eva, la
Venere selvaggia (1968) I fantastici
tre supermen (1967) Fenomenal
e il tesoro di Tutankamen (1968) Die
Folterkammer des Dr Fu Man Chu (1969) Fuga dal Bronx
(1984) Il gigante
di Metropolis (1961) Giochi
erotici nella 3a galassia (1981) Il giustiziere
del Bronx (1989) Il
giustiziere della terra perduta (1983) La guerra dei
robot (1978) I guerrieri
dell'anno 2072 (1984) Hibernatus
(1969) Hipnosis
(1963) Holocaust 2000
(1977) L'homme
au cerveau greffé (1971) Im Stahlnetz
des Dr Mabuse (1961) Immortel (ad vitam) (2004) L'inafferrabile invincibile Mr Invisibile (1973) Incontri
molto ravvicinati del quarto tipo (1978) Incontro
con gli umanoidi (1980) Inseguito (2002) Interzone (1987) La
isla misteriosa y el capitán Nemo (1973) L'isola
degli uomini pesce (1979) Little Numba (2002) Luci lontane
(1987) Maciste
contro Ercole nella valle dei guai (1961) Mani di pietra
(1986) The Mark (2003) I marziani
hanno dodici mani (1964) Matchless (1966) Un matrimonio interplanetario (1910) Miami Golem
(1985) Momo (1986) Los monstruos
del terror (1970) La
morte viene dal pianeta Aytin (1967) La morte
viene dallo spazio (1958) Il
mostro è in tavola barone Frankenstein (1973) N.P. il segreto
(1971) Navigatori
dello spazio (1993) Nirvana (1997) No
profanar el sueño de los muertos (1974) I nuovi barbari
(1983) Occhi dalle
stelle (1978) OK Connery
(1967) Omicron (1963) Operación
Goldman (1966) Panic (1976) Il
pianeta degli uomini spenti (1962) Il pianeta errante
(1966) I pianeti
contro di noi (1961) Piranha Paura
(1981) La poupée
(1962) I predatori
di Atlantide (1983) Primal Rage
(1988) Proibito baciare (2000) La puttana dello spazio (1998) Rabbia
(1984) La ragazza di
latta (1970) Il raggio infernale
(1967) Rats - Notte
di terrore (1984) Robowar
- Robot da guerra (1988) Il ronzio delle mosche (2003) Rush (1983) Uno
sceriffo extraterrestre - poco extra e molto terrestre
(1979) Seddok,
l'erede di Satana (1960) Il seme dell'uomo
(1969) Sette
uomini d'oro nello spazio (1978) Shining Sex
(1975) Space Men
(1960) Space Off (2002) Spie
vengono dal semifreddo (1966) Starcrash
(1979) Gli
sterminatori dell'anno 3000 (1983) Terrore nello
spazio (1965) Die
Todesstrahlen des Dr Mabuse (1964) Il triangolo
delle Bermude (1978) L'ultimo guerriero
(1983) L'ultimo
uomo della Terra (1964) L'umanoide
(1979) L'uomo puma
(1980) Il visitatore
(1979) Yor,
the Hunter from the Future (1983)
A come Andromeda (1972) L'isola del tesoro
(1987) I legionari dello spazio (1966) La traccia verde (1975)
Last Updated: 15 October, 2008
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