Nicolas Barbano is a Danish critic, journalist, producer and sometimes
director specializing in genre films.
Born in 1963, he started writing articles and reviews for a local
newspaper at age 15, soon making a mark as Denmark's first film critic
specializing in science fiction, horror and fantasy cinema.
In 1994, while studying film and media at the University of Copenhagen
(graduating at BA level), he also started researching adult cinema,
then a poorly covered subject in serious film studies. He later served
as board member and curator at Museum Erotica in central Copenhagen.
Among his other fields of interest are animation, mythology and film
music.
He has served as a member of the FIPRESCI juries in Annecy and Ghent.
As a filmmaker, he has contributed to various projects in a number of
capacities, including actor, producer, writer, director, composer and
publicist.
He has written non-fiction books on science fiction, popular mythology
and adult cinema, and contributed to countless periodicals and
publications, including the National Danish Encyclopedia (Den Store
Danske Encyklopædi), a music encyclopedia (Gad's Musikleksikon) and a
film encyclopedia (Gyldendals Filmleksikon).
Nicolas Barbano was one of the main participants in the first wave of
Danish fanzine-publications, and has also contributed to the American
genre film publications Famous Monsters of Filmland, Little Shoppe of
Horrors and Video Watchdog.
He started and edited the magazine Tracking (1983-85), Denmark's first
magazine about films on video, where he wrote the first Danish article
on David Cronenberg (he was the only
Danish critic to review Cronenberg's
Rabid - Der brüllende Tod (1977) at the time of its release,
and later co-arranged a series of Cronenberg-films at the Danish Film
Museum).
Furthermore, Nicolas Barbano has written for Danish film magazines such
as Filmnyt, Inquirer, Kosmorama, Levende Billeder, Mifune and Ekko, and
for national newspapers such as Berlingske Tidende, B.T., Ekstra
Bladet, Det Fri Aktuelt and Politiken.
In 1996-2001 he was a regular freelance writer for the daily paper
Ekstra Bladet, contributing countless reviews, articles, interviews
etc. At Ekstra Bladet, he started and wrote a weekly video review
column (the first in a Danish newspaper), stirring up controversy by
also reviewing adult films, and later also a monthly column on film
music.
In 1989-93 he was writer (and sometimes co-director) for the
long-running children's TV-program
Troldspejlet (1989), where he
created specials on vampires, werewolves etc. (he also coined the
program's title, "Troldspejlet").
Additionally, he has conducted interviews etc. for TV-programs such as
Bogart (1985) and
Puls (1995), and in 2000 he showed up as
writer, director, producer and host of his own TV-series
Marilyn (2000), a wicked satire of
Ole Michelsen's popular film review
program Bogart (1985).
In 1996, Nicolas Barbano initiated and organized the film festival
Animani 96, which uniquely combined all types of animation, and
attracted several Oscar-winning filmmakers.
Among his short films are the occult thriller
Adam Hart i Sahara (1990)
and the ghost story Enken (1990),
both of which he produced and directed.
In 2001, in collaboration with
Lars von Trier's film studio Zentropa, he
founded the production company Innocent Pictures, where he produced the
educational DVD
Femi-X and Beyond (2004),
which he also wrote and directed, and the best-selling feature film
All About Anna (2005), an
erotic/romantic comedy which won a Scandinavian Adult Award as Best
Couples Film and was nominated for four AVN Awards, including Best
Foreign Feature. Before it closed in early 2011, Innocent Pictures also
owned the television station IPTV, broadcasting shows and films on
Kanal 23 (Kanal København).
On occasion, Nicolas Barbano has worked as studio cameraman on various
television shows, and as behind-the-scenes journalist, still
photographer and unit publicist on various short and feature film
projects.
Books written by Nicolas Barbano include 'Star Trek' (1990), 'Mysteriet
om varulven' (1991),
'Bogen om Frankenstein' (1993) and 'Verdens 25
hotteste pornostjerner' (2000).
He co-authored 'Stærk mand i Hollywood' (2007), the autobiography of Danish actor and stuntman Sven-Ole Thorsen.
Books translated by Nicolas Barbano include 'Special Effects in Film
and Television' (1998), 'Star Wars: Visual Dictionary' (1998) and 'Star
Wars: The Power of Myth' (2000). He has edited the short-story
collection 'Ulvens arv og andre noveller' (1984) and the non-fiction
book 'Mumier fra hele verden' (1994).
