Grady Clarkson’s photograph of the shorelines near the ruins where he shot his scenes.
appear onscreen, or if something else, as Michael Aronin suggests, was smoldering between Fulci and Spagnuolo: “I do not know what happened in Yugoslavia [where AENIGMA was shot] or why Fulci was angry with Spagnuolo, but it was pretty com- mon knowledge among the crew that Fulci hated Spagnuolo. The way he shot the film was designed to hold the film—what there was of it!—hostage. No director promises his producer that he can shoot a script in four weeks unless he’s Roger Cor- man. Based on the fact that he was able to shoot the previous film in four weeks, [Spagnuolo] be- lieved Fulci, or maybe he pushed Fulci to commit to four weeks...” Aronin tried to warn the producer, but Spagnuolo decided to put his faith in Fulci. The pre-production period was short, with no time to find locations or a crew. The producer chose to shoot in Sicily, so Fulci could leave that aside. He had other worries: he knew he wouldn’t be able to rely upon the great technicians of his golden era, now retired, unaffordable or dead. Luigi Ciccarese was enrolled as the director of photography, a key position in Fulci’s way of work- ing: in his cinema, the visual atmosphere is the base of the viewer’s descent into darkness. Sergio Salvati, who had worked on nine movies with Fulci but left after THE HOUSE BY THE CEMETARY, had the sharpest visual style in post-Bava Italy. The colors he used: sea green, dark goldenrod yellow, autumn brown and his perfect use of out-of-focus
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areas in apparently clear-cut frames were insepa- rable from the Roman director’s main artistic suc- cesses. Ciccarese was not unknown to Fulci: he was the camera operator of Fulci’s most notori- ous fiasco, ZOMBI 3, a movie he left unfinished before Bruno Mattei and Claudio Fragasso, two no-talent producer’s henchmen, took it over. Ciccarese was also in Yugoslavia for AENIGMA, a movie with a blue, faded look that didn’t satisfy Fulci, as he told journalists in interviews. Sandro Grossi, a faithful crew member in the last years of Fulci’s career, would team up with Ciccarese and serve as his camera operator.
The totally unknown Giovanni Cristiani would be in charge of the music, and Otelo Colangeli of the editing. For his assistant director, Fulci chose his daughter Camilla, who was maybe the most impor- tant person towards the end of his career. Lucio had many hopes for Camilla: he believed she was about to become the first female horror movie director. She acquired solid experience on her father’s sets, and she offset his bad temper. As Michael Aronin observes: “His daughter was the conduit from direc- tor to actor and, for that matter, everyone else. There were American actors and Fulci didn’t speak English (he said) and although I and some of the others were bilingual, he chose to communicate through his daughter. I’m sure it was also very difficult for her. She was however molto simpatica and, given the circumstances, a pleasure.”
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