Bruno Mattei

Bruno Mattei (30 July 1931 – 21 May 2007) was an Italian filmmaker and film editor who directed exploitation films in many genres, including women in prison, nunsploitation, zombie, mondo, cannibal, and Nazisploitation films. Mattei's films often followed popular genre trends of the era. Mattei continued work as a director primarily in the Philippines until his death in 2007, just before he was to enter production on his fifth Zombie film.

Biography Bruno Mattei was born on 30 July 1931 in Rome, Italy. Mattei grew up around films as his father owned a film editing studio. He studied at the Centro Sperimentale Centrale, the national film school, and graduated in 1951. Mattei initially worked as a screenwriter and claimed to have worked on over 100 films as an editor, a claim that film historian Louis Paul stated was "difficult to verify". Some of the earliest films Mattei worked on included Lulu and Tua per la vita. Early film work started in 1956 on Giovanni dalle Bande Nere, after which Mattei worked on several peplum and Eurospy films.

His first film as a director was Armida, il Dramma di Una Sposa (1970), after which he directed Cuginetta...Amore Mio!, a sexploitation film starring Rita De Simone. Then followed his Nazi-themed exploitation films such as SS Girls (1977) and KZ9 Lager di Sterminio, some mondo documentary films starring Laura Gemser, Le Notti Porno nel Mondo and Emanuelle le Porno Notti del Mondo N. 2, and nunsploitation films such as The True Story of the Nun of Monza and The Other Hell.

Mattei continued working in various other exploitation-themed genres in the 1980s such as zombie films, sex films, peplums, and Vietnam War-themed productions. In 1982, Mattei filmed two "women in prison" films, Women's Prison Massacre and Violence in a Women's Prison. The liner notes for the Women's Prison Massacre DVD release state, "Mattei, using the moniker Gilbert Roussel, shot Women's Prison Massacre back-to-back with his Violence in a Women's Prison. It has basically the same cast, but both films are completely different."

In 1980, Mattei began collaborating with screenwriter Claudio Fragasso, beginning with The True Story of the Nun of Monza (1980) and ending with a comedy called Three For One (1990). The two worked closely together for that ten-year period (collaborating on 15 films), with Fragasso occasionally assuming the role of second unit director.

Mattei was initially attached to direct an adaptation of Hercules from a screenplay by Ricardo Ghione. Principal photography was scheduled to begin May 1982 in Rome, Italy while The Hollywood Reporter naming Fragasso as screenwriter, and Ennio Morricone as music composer and conductor.

Sound mixer

Sound editor

Assistant film editor

1965

1970

1975 uncredited co-director

1977

1977

1978

1980

1980

1980

1980

1981

1981

1982

1982

1983

1983

1984

1984 co-director |

1986

1987

1987

1987

1988

Made for television

1989 As co-producer

1989 co-directed with Claudio Fragasso

1989

1994

1995

2004

2006

2007