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I really envy Massaccesi,
aka Joe D'Amato.

RED INFERNO
JOE D'AMATO ON THE ROAD OF EXCESS

At the Cinémathéque Francaise,
we showed Joe D'Amato's films

during a special event
dedicated to him

in 2006, I think.

We ran restored copies of
BLACK SEX and ANTHROPOPHAGUS.

Joe D'Amato's films
are the product of an era

when viewers
wanted to see on screen

what had been forbidden
for years.

It's sort of a project,

presented to an audience,
an overall picture of things.

That's what eroticism is: seeing things
that were hidden for years.

You see naked bodies, and skin,
which is very important

and essential in Joe D'Amato's films.

The skin of Laura Gemser,
we almost have the desire to touch it,

and she is often naked
for most of the film.

Basically, the element of skin,
the epidermis, is essential.

But what is under the skin,
is equally important,

and this is gore.

It captures our gaze
and takes it beyond the skin.

Taking it beneath the skin,
so to speak.

In essence, under the surface.

In my opinion,
this is what defines D'Amato's films:

his capacity to create a link,
in a rather logical way,

between the erotic and horror.

- Can I smoke?
- Sure.

I come from a family
that lived and breathed cinema.

Even nowadays, people say,
"Wow, you come from a cinematic family!"

But it's normal for me,

because my grandpa had
a storehouse

with tons of cinema equipment:

cameras, those huge old spotlights,

film reels, and film cans.

My father obviously worked in the biz,
and so did his brothers.

Uncle Nando and Uncle Mario,
also worked in cinema.

For me, ever since I was a child,
the world of cinema was a given.

In this photo, my dad was really young
and worked with De Sica.

I got involved in the biz
when I was very young

because my father worked in cinema
as a technical director.

After school in the afternoons,
I did some odd jobs,

just to learn, more than anything.

Then one day, they asked me
to assist the cameraman,

to be the camera assistant
for Mole Richardson.

After that, I worked
as cameraman, camera assistant,

camera operator,
cinematographer, director,

distributor, and
producer, right up to today.

Our mother was 100% present,
because our father was never around.

Except for holidays like Christmas

and August 15th,
he was never home.

For him, cinema was...

I won't say it was more important,

but it was very important.
That's why he was rarely home.

The first thing that strikes you
about Joe D'Amato's career

is the sheer number of films he made,
almost 200 total.

This in itself is an interesting fact.

A director who makes that many films
must be interesting.

Consider Jess Franco,
or even Woody Allen,

who made a film a year,
if not more.

It takes interesting people
to make more than one film a year,

and Joe D'Amato at times
made 5 or 6 a year.

Cinema becomes your life.
For you, filming is like breathing.

Aristide Massaccesi was a sought-out
cinematographer in those days

because not only was he skilled,
he was fast, too.

Aristide was brilliant,
but he got less than he deserved.

He did it all,

even hand-held camera operator.
We did lots of crazy things.

Skilled, quick,
much like Tonino Delli Colli.

He was superior.

Once he had himself tied

to a speeding stagecoach

so that he could film
the wheels and horse hooves.

I said, "You're nuts.
If anything happens, you're dead!"

My father was a very good
cinematographer,

and my mom always scolded
him for not sticking to it.

She said that if he'd continued,

he would have become much more famous.

But sticking with
one thing is boring.

It wasn't his nature;
he needed to keep changing.

And so becoming a director,

I think, was part of his constant search

for something new.

I made my first movie just for fun.

It was TRINITY IN EL DORADO.

I used stock footage
for that movie, but in Italy

it wasn't held in high regard,
to be honest.

But I think it was rather avant-garde.

We created a horse that looked like
a motorcycle with headlights

and handlebars as reins,
but the movie was a flop in Italy.

During the Western era,
400 movies a year were made in Italy.

Aristide was very sought-after,
so in order to please everyone,

we made one film by day, one by night.

Different actors,
same settings,

and different stories.

We only slept 4 hours
and worked 20 hours a day!

We earned a lot.

Back then, Boccaccio-esque
movies were big,

like THE DECAMERON,

and so we jumped on
that bandwagon, too.

Aristide came to me with an idea
for a movie of that genre

and asked me to work with him.
I wasn't sure if it would work,

but he said it would be a blockbuster.

AN EROTICALLY AMUSING MOVIE

AMUSING, ENTERTAINING

BOCCACCIO-ESQUE

IT WILL MAKE YOU
LAUGH, LAUGH, LAUGH

The movie was
MORE SEXY CANTERBURY TALES.

Pasolini had made his trilogy:

THE CANTERBURY TALES,
THE DECAMERON, and

ARABIAN NIGHTS.
We lumped them all together

with MORE SEXY CANTERBURY TALES.

Like many prolific and
active directors in circles

where the screenwriter
and artistic derivation

were not important,
he used many pseudonyms.

Some of his aliases were
David Hills, Kevin Mancuso, and others.

But it's worth asking ourselves why

he felt the need to have
SO many pseudonyms.

I think there are two reasons.

First, he made so many films
it would've seemed scarcely believable.

Also because clearly
he wanted to trick the audience

into thinking they were seeing a film
by an American or Anglo-Saxon.

That's why he used
so many Anglo-Saxon pseudonyms

like David Hills, or Steven Benson,
the alias he used

for some of his early '80s films.

The use of pseudonyms
is very typical of Joe D'Amato.

It was the era of Brian De Palma,

and directors like Scorsese,
all Italian-Americans.

Back then, Donatella Donati's father,

who was the head of Coralta Film,

was looking for a name that sounded

Italian-American.

One day, he saw a calendar
that said "D'Amato Press"

and he decided Joe D'Amato
would be an intriguing name.

That's where Joe D'Amato came from.

When my father
talked about himself,

he called himself
a "craftsman,"

but he knew he was talented.

He was a great craftsman
in the best sense of the word.

If someone can make me
a beautifully-made chair,

I bow down to him.

That's what Massaccesi was like:
he could do everything.

I recall when my dad was interviewed
on TV with Tinto Brass.

Tinto Brass was wearing a suit, and
Dad was wearing a black turtleneck.

Labels didn't exist. He didn't feel
he had to prove himself.

"This is me,
I know what I'm worth."

He was very friendly,
smart, and bright.

His problem, and mine,

was we didn't always have the equipment,

the crew, or the actors we wanted

because they cost too much.

He realized that to make
a high-grossing, decent movie,

all it took was
a skeleton crew and a decent story

that didn't call for
too many scenes.

That's how he could make
a movie that could be sold.

So he started to collaborate
with producers

who made these types of movies,
but then at a certain point

he veered toward erotic movies.

Here with editor Vincenzo Tomasi,
we have Joe D'Amato, the director.

Let's ask Joe:
What is this movie made of?

Many things,
including a swarm of gorgeous girls.

They can explain better than me.

Hello, I'm Laura Gemser,
your Black Emanuelle.

I'm here again to show you
a shocking movie.

BLACK EMANUELLE came out

and I went to see it with Aristide.

It was well-made,
and there was this girl

who was incredibly
beautiful, full of charm,

with an intense sensual energy.

We quickly got on a flight
from Rome to Bruges

and searched the whole hotel
until we found her.

- I was expecting a man.
- I'm a woman. Disappointed?

No, not at all.

We told her we wanted
to make a movie with her.

She told us she had made that movie

but had no intention
of making any other sexy movies.

No problem.

No problem.

Right then and there, before leaving,
we drew up a contract

for three movies with her.

About a week later
we got a call from Amati,

who distributed
BLACK EMANUELLE.

He'd spoken to Laura Gemser

and wanted to use her again,
but heard she was under contract with us.

We confirmed this and asked
what the movie in question was.

He said, "Another Emanuelle movie."

Folks, your dear Laura
will always be an incurable optimist.

Raise your glasses and shout out...

"Hooray for life!”

And that's how
the Black Emanuelle series began.

EMANUELLE AND THE LAST CANNIBALS

LAURA GEMSER
the real Black Emanuelle

Confused? Why?

It's no surprise!

The protest has even made its way
into nightclubs, so no more fakes.

Truth above all.
Performances...

Performances need to be
alternative and realistic.

Joe D'Amato's eroticism
is violent.

If we compare
Black Emanuelle

with French Emmanuelle,
we can spot the differences.

French Emmanuelle
portrays a woman in search of pleasure

which she finds in Thailand,

but it's rather hedonistic;
it sings the praises of hedonism.

In Black Emanuelle,
the sex is violent and threatening.

Sexual violence is a motif.
There are rape scenes,

as well as white-slave trade,
prostitution.

D'Amato loves to shock,
and his pursuit of shock

is translated into this mixture
of sex and violence.

We knew about these snuff movies
they made on 8mm

with real torture scenes
and even real murders,

and so we wanted
to recreate that atmosphere

to shock the audience.

But the whole crew,
about 40 people,

were sued by one of the actresses
whose breast was cut off.

Not for real, of course.

The make-up artist Giannetto de Rossi
made a breast that looked real.

She pressed charges against
the whole crew

because the scene was so realistic
that it traumatized her.

She wanted to be compensated.

Because of that
we all ended up in court.

The charges were

negligence,
gross indecency,

and another serious one I can't recall.

They called me to court

for this

and I said,

"Did you check
if she still has her breast?

Yes? Then why'd you summon me?"

When Aristide filmed,
he had no limits.

He filmed whatever came to mind,
the way he wanted,

with rather hard scenes,

because he believed in
those kinds of movies.

When I'd look at the dailies,

I'd point out that the movie
would never get past censorship.

In the early '70s, the grip of censorship
was weakening everywhere.

The success of Bertolucci's
LAST TANGO IN PARIS

raised the limits on how eroticism
was portrayed on screen,

even though exploitation movies
already introduced some erotic nuances.

D'Amato dives into this world
and starts making,

one after another, erotic films,
which at first were soft core,

then they slowly became more hardcore.

In any case, his main trait
became erotic cinema,

as this genre exploded in the '70s.

It was the era
of birth control,

sexual freedom,

protests, occupied
universities, hippies.

There was a wave
of sexual liberation

that penetrated every social sphere.

Actually, it started with a little breeze,
to quote Rossini,

even amongst the middle classes,

because they could go see
an erotic, titillating movie

and feel liberated and involved

in a global movement
that wanted to wipe out taboos.

My father was taken to court
many times in the '70s.

They were only erotic movies,
but society was still too prudish.

Abortion still wasn't legal.

My father's eroticism was lovely
and rather clean.

He managed to accentuate sensuality,

which is important
in those kinds of erotic movies,

the sensuality of the actress
or of the scene.

These erotic films were marketable
in France and other countries.

They wanted more intense scenes

or even hardcore scenes,
for their movie theaters.

Back then, they were only shown
in theaters, not on TV.

It was a commercial demand in some
countries to better sell the movie,

so we had to add scenes
without Laura Gemser.

Like in EMANUELLE IN AMERICA
with Marina Frajese,

who was making this kind
of movie for the first time.

Nowadays,

striptease isn't enough.

When artists want to fulfill themselves,

meaning to exert their violence
on an audience,

they need more sophisticated ways
to use the oldest lever:

sex.

In Italian cinema
of the '70s,

a thriving genre

was the so-called
"erotic-comedy." But then slowly,

our local distributors
started asking for more,

saying people wanted to see more.

We decided to make
four movies in Haiti.

They set off on this adventure
and made four movies:

PORNO ESOTIC LOVE, PORNO HOLOCAUST,
HARD SENSATION,

and EROTIC NIGHTS OF THE LIVING DEAD.

These movies were funded by BNL bank.

Those were sexy movies,

but when Aristide came back,
he'd filmed some hard scenes.

Getting a bank to fund a sexy film
is tricky, forget about a hardcore film.

There was no hope at all,
so the idea was to make sexy films.

But when he came back he said,

"I did some other things,
and this is the vision I have."

After the screening, I said,
"Okay, that's the vision you have,

but what'll I do with this stuff?
What'll I show the bank?"

He had invited me to Santo Domingo
to make a series of films.

We shot various films at once.
We'd shoot one film's scenes,

get changed, and then I'd go
from good guy to bad guy.

We shot different scenes
using the same settings, of course.

Back then,
I was a casino addict,

and I blew all of
my per diem and my entire pay

during the first week.

Since I had no money
and Aristide wouldn't give me an advance,

I managed to persuade him
to shoot his own film.

He had the actors and location.

If he came up with another story,

he could come away with
his own film.

He just needed
to provide the film stock.

I told him I would write
the story for him.

We agreed on a sum, and in three days,
I wrote BLACK SEX,

which made a lot of money.

The first porn movie made

by Italians for the Italian
market was BLACK SEX

featuring Mark Shannon.

I'm Manlio Cersosimo, aka Mark Shannon.
We're about to watch BLACK SEX.

The tombeur de femmes
was Manlio Cersosimo.

He loved making these films.
He put his heart and soul into them.

In those scenes,
he gave the best of himself.

People liked this movie,
and it's one of my favorites.

It's the one I felt
most connected to,

the one in which
I expressed myself best.

By chance, it was a hit
because it had Italian actors.

After that, Aristide and I
started a side business,

and we produced some
movies together, inventing

Italian style porn: "spaghetti porn.”

I don't recall how I met Joe D'Amato.

In my mind, I have
a picture of him in his office:

a smiling, warm person

who was laid-back
on set,

making movies in four days, or a week,

one after another.

I asked about the porn movies he made,
but he said that wasn't a genre for me.

But I was intrigued by that world
and I told him I was interested.

I liked anything new.

Back then, body art was a new trend.

I've always been a fan
of contemporary art.

With body art, people got naked
and put brains on boobs or dicks

in these super-intellectual
art galleries.

So I had associated porn
with the world of body art.

He told me it had nothing to do with that
and suggested I go see.

So, laughing, he took me on set
and I saw a couple in bed,

doing what they had to do,
and he asked what I thought about it.

When I told him
it had no real effect on me,

he suggested
I shoot the next movie for him

because he was tired
of seeing actresses do those things.

I took his word for it,

and three days later
I was shooting his movie.

Here I am, perfectly on time.
Were you eagerly awaiting me?

I was eager, too, my loves.
Here I am, all yours.

As always.
Come closer, don't be shy.

Come with me. It'll be wonderful.

Relax, I'll lead you
to the realm of oblivion,

the realm of boundless impulses
of pleasure.

The defining feature

of erotic cinema and porn
is that it is built around

the frustration
of viewers,

sitting alone in the theater,
contemplating

actions, things, pleasures,
which for the moment are impossible

or very distant.

The best example of this
is EMANUELLE AND FRANCOISE,

where one of the male characters
is chained up by a woman

and is forced to observe sexual acts

such as lesbian sex, orgies,
swingers, until he goes mad.

This portrayal of frustration
perfectly sums up

Joe D'Amato's films.

When Italian porn first appeared,

judges were banning all the movies,
both foreign and Italian,

and accused us
of criminal association

aimed at pornography.

I was sentenced to two months
imprisonment for each movie,

but I always managed to get off
thanks to probation.

Probation goes up to 24 months.

You're under arrest. Come with us.

Since I was sentenced for 10 movies,
two months per movie,

I'd reached a total of 20 months.

If I had been sentenced
for two more movies,

I would've reached 24 months
and would've been jailed,

so I stopped making porn.

No! No!

Joe D'Amato decided to try his hand
at a late '70s trend

that boomed with the works of
Lucio Fulci, Romero, and so on:

gore.

We suddenly witness, so to speak,
an explosion of blood.

We see slaughtering, gutting,
disemboweling on screen.

Everything is exposed
in a rapture of violence.

Once, my father organized
a private screening.

It was for ABSURD,
and I passed out during the movie

because the scene where he sticks
her head in a hot oven

gave me so much anxiety
that I fainted.

But he never worried about
shocking his kids.

If anything, he was happy
about the effect it generated.

BEYOND THE DARKNESS
was a great film,

a mix of romanticism
and gore.

A truly sick film,
in perfect D'Amato style.

Everyone thinks I shot real autopsies.

There was no need to,
because the film is entirely fake.

We bought a ton of entrails
from a local butcher and used them.

For the scenes with skin being cut,
we used pigskin.

We placed it on top
and then sliced it with a scalpel,

which created a very realistic effect.

Then we filled it with entrails:

livers, hearts, intestines.

And the actor would keep pulling
this stuff out. The end.

In 1980, my father created
Filmirage production company

on Viale delle Milizie in Rome,
and began producing films

that were made thanks
to pre-sales abroad.

The first was ANTHROPOPHAGUS.

COMING SOON

There's the scene with the fetus,
where Montefiori pulls out

this embryo and eats it.

Everyone had crazy ideas about it,
but it was just a rabbit

we bought at the local butcher
and we made to look like a fetus.

Montefiori was just eating
a dead rabbit.

At Rome's Metropolitan theater, there were
only four people at the first screening.

Two people sat up front quietly,
but then they started fidgeting.

They were watching the film,
but when they saw the scene

with the rabbit being pulled out
of the womb,

they left in disgust.

I can't recall what they said,
but they left.

The movie only lasted two days
in the theater.

Well, considering what it was...

The film didn't do well in Italy;
it was slammed by critics.

Like all my films, actually,
not a single one was appreciated.

But it was a hit abroad

and people still talk about it.

Being a clever opportunist,
Joe D'Amato followed trends,

especially the trends that came about

with the end of Italian genre films.

So he made films
along the lines of MAD MAX

and ESCAPE FROM NEW YORK,

John Carpenter's
American box office hit.

He also made films similar to
CONAN THE BARBARIAN,

namely the "Ator" series. They were
made for the international market

which greatly appreciated
Joe D'Amato's work.

This genre,

because others made
these sorts of films, too,

perfectly embodied
the downfall

of Italian genre films.

The undoing of a type of cinema

where everything happened,
but all that is left is ruins now.

We can say it's ancient cinema,
that belongs to a previous era.

And so what is almost moving
in these films

is observing that Italian genre cinema

has filmed its own downfall,
its own ruin,

by telling stories
about post-apocalyptic motorcyclists

in movies like BRONX FINAL BATTLE,

which is better known
by the title ENDGAME.

ENDGAME came from
INTERCEPTOR aka MAD MAX.

All of the American and Australian
box office hits

were adapted by Filmirage.

ENDGAME was a blockbuster
shot in three weeks.

An intense production.
Lots of extras, lots of make-up,

special effects, explosives,
MAD MAX-style vehicles.

It wasn't an easy film.

The best part was doing things
that people said were impossible.

We'd look at them and say,
"It's doable."

It was raining, and I'd gone
to bed late the night before.

I was still asleep at noon, and
the phone in my room rang.

It was an old Bakelite phone.

It was Aristide calling to ask me
to direct a movie.

"What?"
"Yes, come to my office."

I got up, and like a zombie,
I managed to get to his office,

and there he asked me to direct
a horror movie, a genre I liked.

That's how STAGE FRIGHT came about.
It was just a 35-page treatment,

but I could already picture it.

I liked Michele's film,
STAGE FRIGHT, right away.

It was made with a modest,
but not too small budget,

because Aristide
adored Michele

and gave him more money
than he gave himself.

Apart from what people think
about B movies

or C, D, Z movies,
porn, soft-porn, or whatever,

Aristide appreciated young talents

and loved working with young people.

Partly because he could pay them less,

but he would only work
with truly talented people.

He gave young people
like me opportunities,

but he was always
present.

He watched and knew

right away if you were
capable or not.

The organogram of Filmirage
was like this:

Aristide was the heart of it all,

the production side
was handled by Donatella Donati,

his business partner
and associate.

She was a true cinema expert,
because her father

was a famous movie producer.

He had his camera operators,
a small group of people

that he took around with him.
They all had various roles.

He was producer,

director, and cinematographer.

He was a jack-of-all-trades.

I consider him the Italian
Roger Corman.

He had created, bit by bit,
a sort of factory

for creative minds.

He was commissioned

by American or Italian producers
who focused on foreign markets,

and there was a period of time
when these films were popular.

They were once a big slice
of the American market.

At the American Film Market,
films like STRIKE COMMANDO

sold really well.

Guess how he pre-sold movies?
With the poster.

If your poster was made by Casaro,
who was number one back then,

the film sold.

He said all it took was drawing
two bastard American faces.

So all the films started off
with the same potential

but, in the end,
some came out better than others.

My relationship with Aristide,
Donatella, and Filmirage

entailed us giving them
a minimum guarantee

for foreign sales,

otherwise we would've become partners.

We made about ten films

in the United States
with Aristide and Donatella.

He tried to go to
the USA with a truck

containing some wood
planks and lights

and had his first experience there.

And so he realized
that if he filmed in rural America,

the parts where unions didn't exist,

he could create something
like a low budget American film.

So he decided that was the right path

to sell these films
on the international market.

The film that
rewarded us most,

and which was not bad at all,

was WITCHCRAFT,

made for American home video.

It features Linda Blair,

who, after THE EXORCIST,

made her horror comeback
alongside a decent cast.

It was directed by Fabrizio Laurenti,

who was hired at the last minute.
It was his first film.

Di Girolamo,
our foreign sales agent

who'd already made
the deal,

had developed
his own method

to gauge if a film would work or not.

He'd thoroughly studied this

and was absolutely convinced
and proud of it.

Every script that the two of them
worked on together,

with Aristide producing
and him distributing and selling,

had to pass the "up and down test,"
as Aristide called it.

It's not a euphemism for masturbation,
even if Aristide said it was.

Essentially, every scene in the script
was given a score.

Opening credits, 3 points.

A throat-slitting scene, 7 points
because there's blood.

Sentimental dialogue, 3 points.

If you connected all the points,
the line went up and down.

The film's quality went up, down,
then it stopped.

If it went too far down,
that meant there was an issue.

Aristide, who was head
of the factory, said,

"Don't worry about that.
Just go shoot it. The story is fine."

Our American distributor
had asked us

to cast higher-level actors.

It was an impressive cast,
with David Hasselhoff and Linda Blair,

so the film cost quite a bit more.

The film was rather rewarding

in terms of return
and in terms of earnings,

but the difference was substantial.

With lower budget films,

we could earn more,

but with the other films,
we broke even and made less.

So Aristide and I
decided to take some time off,

and we stopped for a few months.

That had never happened before.

For Aristide, three months
of not working was a lifetime.

Then he found another company

that partially funded
his films,

while he put in the rest
of the money.

Unfortunately, this
put him in dire straits.

At this point, they couldn't
pre-sell films anymore.

The money came
from BNL bank,

which demanded guarantees.

So, bit by bit,
due to his passion for cinema,

my father used our homes
as collateral.

Instead of thinking about his family
and keeping a roof over our heads,

he decided to gamble it all.

Most likely,
he wasn't behind this,

because Donatella Donati
was in charge of the finances.

He kept making movie after movie.

But it seems he made one too many
without the proper backing.

The market had changed.

It was no longer the era
of WITCHCRAFT, so to speak.

When Filmirage went belly up
and the banks started demanding money,

it was a mortal blow for my father.

We needed cash, a lot of it,
because Dad had several employees

and he wanted to pay their wages.

He had editors, secretaries, etc.

So he did what he could to earn
while spending as little as possible.

He started doing
what he never wanted to do again.

He felt that he'd evolved

and never wanted to do porn again,

but it was the only genre
that allowed him to make a profit,

quickly, in cash,
while spending very little.

Then they come in here
and get naked.

Aristide Massaccesi hated porn.

He only made these
movies to make money

which he then spent
to produce non-porn movies.

He produced
Michele Soavi's first movie, a thriller.

It drained all his money,
and when he finished shooting,

he came back to me,
saying he was broke.

I said, "You put in your work,
film stock, and the cameras,

and we'll do a movie
with Rocco Siffredi."

THE EROTIC ADVENTURES OF MARCO POLO
was the first major porn film

that was a period piece,
and we made it together.

That changed everything. We realized
it could be a huge business,

and in no time, we became
the masters of these productions.

Fuck, I forgot.

All of us who make hardcore porn
focus on the asshole.

There's no other way

to define what we do.

We focus on the asshole
and whatever goes in it or comes out.

Softcore? That's for churchgoers.
We should send it to

the monks, the Benedictines.

When genre films
stopped doing well in theaters,

D'Amato continued
to indulge

his need to film as if it was
as vital as his need to breathe,

making a vast number of
porn films for home video.

Porn films were making their way
from movie theaters

to video, for home enjoyment,
thanks to videotapes.

So Joe D'Amato followed this route.

In this era,
the perception of porn

was in between one repressive phase
and another.

At first, pornographic cinema
was repressed, condemned.

Then it reached a euphoric phase
and was seen as an element

that was part
of contemporary pop culture.

For me, porn was like
a sexual revolution.

I felt the same as Schicchi;
we did it with passion.

I wasn't ashamed, but Aristide
did it for money and was ashamed.

He always pointed out
that he mainly worked on other films.

At first, erotic films had value.
They had a storyline,

a script, lighting.

His last porn movies
were hell for him, red-light hell.

I think his decision
to start doing hardcore porn

was a mistake.
In fact, he paid the price,

because then he was
pigeonholed for that.

He had some very
interesting ideas for TV,

but was turned down instantly
because he made porn.

I make hardcore porn
for a practical reason:

for income, to pull myself
out of the deep shit I was in.

I only do them for monetary reasons.

I don't like making them.

I told him that
he should've stuck to producing only.

He had great interpersonal skills.
He was likeable and trustworthy.

He didn't want to become influential;
he didn't believe in that.

He couldn't stand people
who were rich and influential.

I admit I'm a bit pompous.

I realize I can be like that.

I pompously wanted

to make things
that don't work out well in the end.

I pompously think I know everything,

even if I don't know shit
most of the time.

He gained people's love.
Everyone loved him.

I have one regret:
I was supposed to go see him,

but as often happens,
I put it off and shouldn't have.

I was rather busy
working on INCANTESIMO

and barely had time to breathe,

but sometimes,
we have to make the time.

Now I regret not having seen him
a few more times.

Mainly to delight in his laughter,

because if there's one thing
I recall with great emotion.

Sorry.

On the day of my father's funeral,

something disappointed me a bit.

Schicchi was there with his wife,
a porn actress,

and people were pointing at her,

as if to accentuate the fact
that he made porn movies.

Many of his friends should have come,
but they didn't.

Many people turned their backs on him.
Friends he trusted

turned their backs on him.

HOT D'OR AWARD CEREMONY

Goodbye to one of the last directors

who still shot on 35mm.

He left behind his masterpieces
and a void in his field.

A few images to remember
Mr. Joe D'Amato.

The headlines were:

"The king of porn has died!"

But that's not what he was.

He would've never accepted
or wanted something like that.

Aristide isn't the king of porn,
but the king of the masters of cinema.

I've never met anyone
with the knowledge he had,

not even those famous directors,
who I won't name.

For me, he's the greatest master
of life and cinema.

Porn movies don't exist.

After the death of my father,
I opened his briefcase

and there was a note he wrote:
"In the end, I'll show them who I am."

I think after Filmirage closed down,

going back to hardcore
and those characters he no longer liked

somehow killed him inside a bit.

He no longer considered himself
an artist, a master, a craftsman,

even if he still had that flame inside
that spoke the truth.

Why do you think there are so many
Joe D'Amato fans in the world?

I ask myself the same thing.
I have no idea!

I have no idea.

Do you consider yourself
a better director or cinematographer?

Cinematographer.

As a director, do you feel
you're a master of eroticism or horror?

As a director, I consider myself

a professional

craftsman.

Are you cynical about yourself?

No.

I am...

Your greatest asset?

Modesty, maybe.

Your greatest flaw?

Modesty.

Subtitles:
Laser S. Film s.r.I. - Rome