Lucio Fulci, born in Rome in 1927, remains as controversial in death as
he was in life. A gifted craftsman with a sharp tongue and a wicked
sense of dark humor, Fulci achieved some measure of notoriety for his
gore epics of the late 1970s and early 1980s, but respect was long in
coming.
Abandoning his early career as a med student, Fulci entered the film
industry as a screenwriter and assistant director, working alongside
such directors as Steno and Riccardo Freda. Granted his debut feature
in 1959, with a seldom seen comedy called
Jeder Dieb braucht ein Alibi (1959) (The Thieves), Fulci
quickly established himself as a prolific craftsman adept at musicals,
comedies and westerns.
In 1968, Fulci made his first mystery thriller,
Nackt über Leichen (1969), and its
success was sufficient to garner the backing for his pet project
Die Nackte und der Kardinal (1969). Based on a
true story, the film details the trial of a young woman accused of
murdering her sexually abusive father amid fear and superstition in
16th Century Italy. A scathing commentary on church and state, the film
was the first to give voice to its director's passionate hatred of the
Catholic Church. Predictably, the film was misunderstood, and Fulci's
career was thrown into jeopardy. Deciding it would be best to leave his
political feelings on the back burner, Fulci pressed on with a series
of slickly commercial ventures.
In 1971 and 1972, Fulci re-established himself in the thriller arena,
directing two excellent giallos: the haunting
Una lucertola con la pelle di donna (1971)
and the disturbing
Quäle nie ein Kind zum Scherz (1972).
The former, with its vivid hallucinations involving murderous hippies
and vivisected canines, and the latter, with its psychotic religious
zealots and brutal child killings, were -- to say the least --
controversial. In particular,
Quäle nie ein Kind zum Scherz (1972),
despite a huge box-office success, painted too graphic a portrait of
perverted Catholicism, and Fulci's career was derailed... some would
say, permanently.
Blacklisted (albeit briefly) and despised in his homeland, Fulci at
least found work in television and with the adventure genre with two
financially successful Jack London 'White Fang' adventure movies in 1973 and 1974 which were Zanna Bianca, and Il ritorno di Zanna Bianca. Also during
the mid and late 1970s, Fulci also directed two 'Spaghetti Westerns';
Prärie des Todes (1975)
and Silbersattel (1978),
(Silver Saddle) and another 'giallo';
Die sieben schwarzen Noten (1977), as
well as a few sex-comedies which include the political spoof
Der lange Schwarze mit dem Silberblick (1972)
(aka: The Eroticist), and the vampire spoof
Il cav. Costante Nicosia demoniaco, ovvero: Dracula in Brianza (1975)
(aka: Young Dracula), and the violent Mafia crime-drama
Das Syndikat des Grauens (1980).
In 1979, Fulci's film making career hit another high point with him
breaking into the international market with
Woodoo - Die Schreckensinsel der Zombies (1979), an in-name-only sequel to
George A. Romero's
Zombie (1978), which
had been released in Italy as 'Zombi'. With its flamboyant imagery,
graphic gore and moody atmospherics, the film established Fulci as a
gore director par excellence. It was a role he accepted, but with some
reservations.
Over the next three years, Fulci plied his trade with finesse and
flair, rivaling even the popularity of his "opponent"
Dario Argento, with such sanguine classics
as
Ein Zombie hing am Glockenseil (1980) and
Die Geisterstadt der Zombies (1981).
Frequently derided as sheer sensationalism, these films, as well as the
reviled
Der New York Ripper (1982)
are actually intelligently crafted, with sound commentaries on
everything from American life to religion. High on vivid imagery and
pure cinematic style, Fulci's films from this period of the early 1980s
represent some of his most popular work in America and abroad, even if
they do pale in comparison to his 1972 masterpiece and personal
favorite
Quäle nie ein Kind zum Scherz (1972)
(an impossible act to follow, as it happens).
In the mid-1980s, at the peak of his most prolific period, Fulci became
beset with personal problems and worsening health. Much of his work
from the mid-1980s onward is disappointing, to say the least, but
flashes of his brilliance can be seen in works like
Murder Rock (1984)
and
The Devil's Honey (1986).
Nightmare Concert (1990),
one of Fulci's last works, remains one of his most original. Though
strapped by budgetary restraints and marred by mediocre photography,
the film is wickedly subversive and comical. With Fulci playing the
lead role (as more or less himself, no less -- a harried horror
director who fears that his obsession with sex and violence is a sign
of mental disease), Fulci also proves to be an endearing and competent
actor (he also has cameos in many of his films, frequently as a
detective or doctor figure).
By the 1990s, Fulci went on a hiatus with film making for further health
and personal reasons as the Italian cinema market went into a further
decline. While in pre-production for the
Dario Argento-produced
Wax Mask (1997),
Lucio Fulci passed away at his home on March 13, 1996 at the age of 68.
A serious diabetic most of his adult life, he inexplicably forgot to
take his insulin before retiring to bed; some consider his death a
suicide, others consider it an accident, but his many fans all consider
it to be a tragedy. Whether one considers him to be a hack or a genius,
there's no denying that he was unique.
