The Italian director Ruggero Deodato died on Thursday, December 29, 2022. He was known for his provocative and violent style in his feature films. He shocked a generation with Cannibal Holocaust, released in 1980.
He is one of the great names of the cinema that have left us. After the actor of The Crown, Stephen Greif, who died on Monday, December 26, 2022, it is Ruggero Deodato, Italian filmmaker who bowed out on Thursday, December 29, 2022, at the age of 83 years. The news of his death was revealed in the Italian newspaper Il Post. Throughout his career, Rugerro Deodato tried several cinematographic styles, after some roles as an actor.
However, it is in the field of horror films that he made his mark with two of his works. He was nicknamed “Mr. Cannibal”. It is with The Last Cannibal released in 1977 and Cannibal Holocaust (1980) that he made the most talk about him. Our colleagues from Il Post tell us: “Cannibal Holocaust told the story of the expedition of a group of anthropologists in the Brazilian Amazon to document the habits of a population that practiced cannibalism. This work was, for its time, very violent and bloody. In fact, it shocked the public and remained in the memories.
Rugerro Deodato quickly established himself as a provocative, as some of the scenes in his film are considered unbearable (rape, decapitation, emasculation). “It is also for this reason that it has become very well known internationally and a cult object for many enthusiasts. The way Deodato chose to represent violence has also become a reference for great directors who came later, including Quentin Tarantino”. They add: “Cannibal Holocaust is conceived as a fake documentary and for this reason, Deodato is also considered one of the creators of the ‘fake documentary’ genre. For the purposes of filming, six animals were actually killed in cruel conditions. For this, he was convicted of torture of animals.
In the sixties, in order to give himself an American style and, thus, to export, more easily, his first two productions (Fenomenal e il tesoro di Tutankamen and Gungala la pantera nuda), he took an English pseudonym: Roger Rockfeller. A pseudonym that he soon left. Ruggero Deodato had a son, Saverio, and a daughter, Beatrice.
