User:Flickyard/sandbox

Themes:

"Despite Massaccesi's extensive and excessive filmography, a number of key concerns dominate, regardless of the genre he worked in. These revolve around themes of morbid loving, voyeuristic perversion (and its frequent punishment), as well as the return of repressed infantile material into the modernised 'adult' world."

Directorial style
To Luigi Cozzi, who as screenwriter watched D'Amato on the set of Paradiso blu in 1979, D'Amato as director appeared as "cynical, practical and hurried" (Italian: "cinico, pratico e sbrigativo"), caring only about narrative and continuity, and that the actors made the right gestures and recited their most basic lines; everything else seemed superfluous to him.

Cinematography:

Thomas Weisser: On "Red Blood, Yellow Gold": "The director of photography is Francisco Marin, but his cameraman is Aristide (Joe D'Amato) Massaccesi. Maybe that's why it looks so good."

Thomas Weisser: On "Ben and Charlie": "Massaccesi's cinematography is one of the film's major strong points."

Roberto Curti: On "The Counselor": "Aristide Massaccesi's cinematography is especially noteworthy: "Aristide didn't talk nonsense, he knew how to do his job, and he was quick. It took him a couple of seconds to understand how to light a scene. And whenever he was in trouble with the lighting, he would take the camera in his own hands," as De Martino explained. "I'll always remember a scene in Counselor at Crime, the one before the reunion in the bar. I told Aristide: "Damn, I'd need a dolly on this one!," and he replied: "Don't worry, I'll do it..." "How are you gonna do that? It's a long scene!" Just don't worry ..." and he did it - and on the screen it looked just like a dolly." citing: Manlio Gomarasca, “Il cinema è quello che ci fa,” in “Fatti di cinema. Controcorrente 3,” Nocturno Dossier 51, October 2006, p. 14. (interview with Alberto De Martino)

Roberto Curti: On "Death Smiles on a Murderer": "Massaccesi (who also acted as d.o.p. and cameraman) manages to keep the story lively with an abundant use of wide-angle shots, which, paired with Berto Pisano's [...] score, suitably make [sic] up for the scarcity of means."

Jay Slater: On "Emanuelle and the Last Cannibals": "The hand-held cinematography is shaky and a handful of night scenes are badly lit [...]. As Massaccesi would shoot anything up to 50 shots in a single day, the quality of the film is understandably poor." On "Papaya": "badly shot copulation scenes" (ibid., 87) On "Beyond the Darkness": "occasional flash of artistic inspiration and well-framed photography" (page 91)

Violet Blue on D'Amato's late porn films: "his films exceeded the standards and even received great reviews, largely for the fantastic cinematography and excellent framing. [...] His adult features won several AVN awards."

Filmirage was an Italian film production company specialising in genre films. It was founded in the 1970s by Joe D'Amato and Donatella Donati, the daughter of Ermanno Donati.

Reception
In his discussion of Interzone, Daniel R. Budnik referred to "[t]he wonderful majesty of Filmirage and their weird way of making films [...]. The strange characterization, offbeat plotting, and weird-looking people." He also called for a book-length treatment on the company.