R.I.P. Luigi Scattini

Luigi Scattini
Luigi Scattini

Director Luigi Scattini has apparently died.

Scattini, a law graduate, was born on May 17, 1927, in Turin.  He began his career as a journalist, working for papers and popular magazines like Gente and Oggi, before moving into cinema as a documentary film maker, for which he soon began building a considerable reputation.  His 1962 film, La via del carbone, was nominated for best documentary at the Oscars and La Vergine di Caacupé e Puerto Sastre was shown at Venice in 1963.

He then took the logical step of moving into the Mondo field with 1963s Sexy Magico, and returned to the territory with Svezia, Inferno e Paradiso (1968),  Angeli bianchi, Angeli neri (1969) and Questo sporco mondo meraviglioso (1970).

In between these, he also directed several feature films, starting with the Buster Keaton / Franco & Ciccio vehicle Due marines e un generale (66).  Although he didn’t constrain himself to any particular genre, his films could be said to be linked by a sense of exoticism, whether this was the globetrotting espionage of Duello nel mondo (aka Ring Around the World, 66) or the Caribbean erotica of Il corpo (The Body, 74) and La notte dell’alta marea (77).  Even his sleazy 1977 film Blue Nude, which follows the adventures of an Italian gigolo in New York, finds a certain exotica in its sleazy settings.

Since the eighties, once his directorial career was effectively over, he forged a new and succesful career acting as a dubbing director for foreign films being shown in Italy.

I have to confess, I haven’t actually seen any of Scattini’s films, even his Eurospy ones, but the general view seems to be that he was pretty good at what he did.  I may dig out something of his later as a tribute.

About Matt Blake 890 Articles
The WildEye is a blog dedicated to the wild world of Italian cinema (and, ok, sometimes I digress into discussing films from other countries as well). Peplums, comedies, dramas, spaghetti westerns... they're all covered here.

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  1. Two worthwhile websites | Cagey Films

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