Piero Vivarelli was an Italian B-movie filmmaker, a “genre” director who dabbled in several genres, most famous (at home) for his musicarello pop and rock movies of the 60s.

If you’ve never heard of Rita Pavone, Tony Renis, Mina and other early ’60s Italian pop icons, you might never have heard of the genre, and you’ve probably never heard of Vivarelli, who also served as a music consultant for others’ films and was one of the composers of the landmark Italian rock tune “24.000 baci.”

But in addition to his bubbly, corny pop musicals, he made the notorious “The Black Decameron,” “Satanik” and “Il dio serpente.” And he scripted a certain Franco Nero ’60s Western titled “Django.” So if the loopy pop and exploitation titles didn’t tip you off, there’s your “Why he matters.” Quentin Tarantino is a fan.

Co-writers/directors Fabrizio Laurenti and Niccolò Vivarelli (one of Vivarelli’s sons) make a half-decent case that Vivarelli is worth knowing about beyond the borders of his homeland. The energy of the pop music scenes from his earliest films, the lurid sensuality of his later works, his dabbling in fascism and communism — he befriended Castro — overseeing several mostly-forgotten international productions in Cuba and elsewhere, add to his cachet.

His personal life — marriages and unending womanizing, a patriarchal fixation on Black women in particular, neglected kids — one who OD’d, another of whom of whom admits “My Dad wasn’t so much a Dad as a ‘character'” — gives the impression that Vivarelli was practically a parody of an Italian film director “of his time,” the ’60s and ’70s.

But Vivarelli is fondly remembered by critics and peers, filmmakers who followed in his wake and ex-wives for being very much an Italian man and movie maker of his “moment” — bubbly Teddy Boys and “rock chicks” in “Howler of the Dock,” “Rita, the American Girl,” zipping about on Vespas, stopping to sing and dance and shock their elders.

Film Movement or somebody selling them the rights to this cut seven minutes from the original release. I’m guessing it was mainly more nude scenes, or an actual interview with Tarantino, that were deleted.

Rating: unrated, nudity, profanity

Cast: Piero Vivarelli, Rita Pavone, Beryl Cunningham, Franco Nero, Emir Kusturica, Umberto Lenzi, Lars Bloch, Olivier Père and Quentin Tarantino

Credits: Scripted and directed by Fabrizio Laurenti and Niccolò Vivarelli. A Film Movement+ release.

Running time: 1:23