New Book Release

Riccardo Freda: The Life and Works of a Born Filmmaker

Author: Roberto Curti

Publisher: McFarland

Language: English

Pages: 376

ISBN-13: 978-1476669700

ISBN-10: 1476669708

In an eclectic career spanning four decades, Italian director Riccardo Freda (1909-1999) produced films of remarkable technical skill and powerful visual style, including the swashbuckler Black Eagle (1946), an adaptation of Les Miserables (1947), the peplum Theodora, Slave Empress (1954) and a number of cult-favorite Gothic and horror films such as I Vampiri (1957), The Horrible Dr. Hichcock (1962) and The Ghost (1963). Freda was first championed in the 1960s by French critics who labeled him "the European Raoul Walsh," and enjoyed growing critical esteem over the years. This book covers his life and career for the first time in English, with detailed analyses of his films and exclusive interviews with his collaborators and family.

About the author:

Roberto Curti (born in Parma, Italy, 1971) is freelance writer and film historian specialized in Italian and European genre cinema, and has published a number of books in Italy, Spain and the United States, including "Italian Crime Filmography 1968-1980", "Italian Gothic Horror Films, 1957-1969" and the upcoming "Tonino Valerii: The Films".

He is a contributor to "Il Mereghetti. Dizionario dei film" (Italy’s bestselling film dictionary, edited by film historian Paolo Mereghetti, currently on its tenth edition) and editor of the monthly magazine “Blow Up. Rock e altre contaminazioni”.

He has been a regular contributor to the cult magazine “Nocturno Cinema“ and has taken part in a number of International publications on Italian and European genre cinema, as well as monographic volumes dedicated to various filmmakers (Dario Argento, Mario Bava, Walerian Borowczyk, Jesús Franco, Lucio Fulci, Carlo Lizzani, Guy Maddin, Paolo Sorrentino, Roger Vadim, Agustí Villaronga… ), in Italian, Spanish and English language. He lives in Cortona, Italy.