Romano Scavolini about the artist

ROMANO SCAVOLINI

Writer, Director & Producer

In the European film industry, he ranks as one of its most talented exponent At first considered a child prodigy, he has in his twenties and thirties to develop into a cult figure based on his works which successfully blended poetry and powerful drama. Once the "enfant terrible" of Italian Cinema, he has now re-emerged in the USA and matured into a writer, director and producer of popular films which have the intensity and immediacy necessary to achieve commercial success. His professional experience is extensive: writer/director of twelve full length feature, six of which he produced himself, and writer, director/ producer of over fifty shorts and documentaries for film and TV.

His expertise in all facet of film making allows him to carefully budget projects which can be released on a very modest financial scale without calling on expensive stars, producers etc. who all too often inflate production budgets without providing commensurate sales leverage. Born in Italy in 1940, he left at the age of eighteen for Germany. While working there as a "stevedore" he wrote, directed, acted and produced his first film : "The ravaged one". A self taught film maker, he presented the film to the Center of Cinematography in Rome where it was universally acclaimed. For the next seven years, he worked his way into film industry, taking on a wide variety of jobs to broaden his experience, and then joined the army. In 1964 he shot his next feature "The quiet fever" which won numerous prizes worldwide as a powerful political essay on human violence. He was then asked to become free lance director for RAI TV (the Italian state TV network) and, from 1964 to 1966 directed ten shorts and TV specials. In 1966 he made his first truly professional full length feature "Blind Fly", a controversial pictorial analysis of aimless violence brought on by the central character's lack of motivation and purpose in life. The film made the rounds of major international festivals and promoted him to the ranks of "cult" film maker. Two years later, he wrote and directed "The Dress Rehearsal" a highly structured "joycean" fantasy exploring the multi faceted aspects of the cinema. During this period, he continued to make numerous shorts and documentaries on such diverse subject as anthropology and developments in medical science. Between 1968 and 1970 he made four major fiction films, and finally he left for vietnam to cover the war as a free lance photographer. On his return to Italy, he spent two years as director of photography and worked with Gideon Backman on a "special" on Federico Fellini. Then he started his own production company (Lido Cinematografica) and wrote, directed and produced a number of films on a broad range of subject such as "Spirits of Death" (psychodrama), "Your Honor" (a fiction treatment of a true Mafia story), "Heart" (an adaptation of four children's stories from the classic Italian novel 'Cuore', performed by an entire cast of children). Between 1973 and 1976 he traveled extensively, especially in Central and Latin America working as a journalist, writing screenplays and producing a number of documentaries on local subjects.

In 1976 he settled in the USA where he continued to research and prepare several projects while lecturing on film techniques at New York and Columbia Universities. He also ran number of university workshops. In 1980 Romano wrote and directed "The Savage Hunt" and finally in 1981 he wrote and directed the most powerful and fearful film of all time: NIGHTMARE. "NIGHTMARE" opened in 170 theaters in New York and immediately came first on Variety's New York weekend showcase. It was seventh amongst the top fifty grossing films during its first week of screening. Variety estimate that "NIGHTMARE" grossed more than $ 4 million in only 28 cities in 20 days equating to an estimated $ 10 million gross nationwide. NIGHTMARE was a $ 400,000 production of Goldmine Production starring Baird Stafford, C.J. Cooke, Mik Gribben, Sharon Smith, Kathleen Fergusson. Special Effects directed by Tom Savini. Jack Eric Williams did the Music Score. It soon became a worldwide success, a cult movie and...."...a fearful film" ( Daily Star) - "90 minuets of total terror..." (Variety) - " The dream you can't escape alive...!". NIGHTMARE has been hailed as the American Cult Terror Film of 1882. It begins with a very bloody nightmare that triggers George Tatum's journey into madness and an axe-swinging insanity that doesn't stop for 90 minutes...." - "A terrifying look inside the mind of a possessed psychopathic killer. Contains sexual situations and scenes of explicit horror not suitable for everybody...." "Not for the faint-hearted, NIGHTMARE is a very terrifying film that explores the violent, twisted workings of the mind of an uncontrollable psychopathic murderer....". "Maybe the goriest, bloodiest thriller-chillier yet with a homicidal maniac doubling with gruesome acts..."Among the goose-pimple classic-horrors like "Friday the 13th" - "Down of the Dead" and "Texas Chainsaw Massacre" (Archer Winsten, N.Y. Post) - "The most gory and horrifying movie ever made" (Bill Carlton, Daily News) - "Graphically convincing depiction of murders and, mayhem combine with numerous sexual situations to make this film a thriller you won't want to watch just before bedtime." (N.Y. Times) Then he wrote, directed and produced DOGTAGS, a plot based on his experience as freelance photographer in VietNam ten years before, starring: Clive Wood, Baird Stafford, Robert Haufrecht, James Gaines, Mike Monty. Director of Photography Jhon Mc Callum. The Original Score by Jhon Scott. The movie was Filmed in Panavision Wide Screen with Dolby Stereo Sound. World Premiere was at Singapore Int. Film Festival.

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