Paolo Cavara

Paolo Cavara (4 July 1926 – 7 August 1982) was an Italian screenwriter and a film director. He is known to horror film fans for directing the 1971 giallo The Black Belly of the Tarantula and his 1962 cult classic Mondo Cane.

Biography

During the Fifties, he studied architecture in Florence University, then he produced documentaries for scientific trips, and emerged as a pioneer of the underwater cinematography (one of these shipments is the important 1951 voyage to Ceylon along with Franco Prosperi documented by local news, that anticipated Folco Quilici’s Sixth Continent experience). Then Cavara worked for a series of Italian National TV films led by Giorgio Moser. But he worked as assistant director too (Timbuctu and Naked Maya, a 1958 production by Henry Koster).

In 1962 Cavara conceived with Gualtiero Jacopetti and directed in its own first shockumentary of the history: Mondo Cane, while Prosperi was credited only for second direction. Cavara travelled in every part of the world, from Africa to Asia, Europe to Japan, putting his life continuing in dangerous. At last he met again Jacopetti in Las Vegas, and together suffered for an automobile accident where Belinda Lee lost her life. The film was presented in Cannes Festival.