Your film Nina:
Crazy Suicide Girl - in a few words, what is it about?
Nina:
Crazy Suicide Girl
is basically a genre-mix with of genres such as as Tarantino-style pulp,
Italian giallo and a little martial arts.
To
me, Nina:
Crazy Suicide Girl is the perfect hommage to grindhouse cinema
from the 1970's, with its giallo-style plot, samurai-sword carrying babe,
Satanists, sex and whatnot. To what extent did these movies of old
actually influence your film's style and story? And some of your
grindhouse favourites?
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Yes, as I told before it's inspired by films I've seen when I was
much younger, and some of these have influenced me consciously and
unconsciously. I'm a fan of Chang Cheh, and when I was a child I watched many
movies by him and one of my favorite was One-Armed Boxer ("With a
hand I'll smash you, with two legs I'll crash you" in Italian!!!). I
love Lucio Fulci [Lucio Fulci
bio - click here], and many people told me that in Nina:
Crazy Suicide Girl
there are many
influences of his way of making films - but if this is true, I did it
unintentionally. Tarantino is one of my favorite director cause he makes movies
that I'd like to make if I had a decent budget, he realizes my dreams. I
really love Japanese movies and I admire the great Takashi Miike, every film
of his amazes me, he has the ability to make great films in different
styles and genres. I have a lot of grindhouse favorites, but if I had to
choose: The
Beyond by Fulci, Cannibal Holocaust by Deodato,
The Exorcist, Dawn of the
Dead, Maniac by Lustig,
Audition by one of my
most favorite directors Takashi Miike, Evil Dead, and Peter Jackson's filmography.
Other sources of inspiration when
writing Nina:
Crazy Suicide Girl?
When I write a script I try to create a plot that is interesting to people.
I like write a story with subplots and with many endings: when you think that
the film is over, I add another way to end the film. I hope to surprise
the audience with this approach.
Nina:
Crazy Suicide Girl contains several outbursts of violence. What
can you tell us about the creation of your gore effects, and was there
ever a line you refused to cross? And in general, how important are blood
and guts to your kind of movies? Oh, and a few words about your special
effects man Maurizio Quarta, with whom you have collaborated quite a few
times during your career?
My gore effects were created by Maurizio Quarta, a friend of mine who
has collaborated with me since 1998. When I conceive a gore or a splatter scene
I present it to Maurizio, and then he tells me if it is possible to create,
or gives me advice about it. When I put a cruel scene in a movie, I do it
only if it's necessary, I don't make films around special effects. A special
effect is only a way to mark a certain moment in a film. Me
and Maurizio have made all my films together, from Profondamente (Deepmind)
in 1998, my first work, to Fiaba Nera (Dark Fairytale) in 2011.
A few words about your leading
lady Irene Giordano, with whom you have a long professional and, as I
understand, also personal relationship?
Irene is a genuine actress and her way to play a role in a movie is very
natural, essential, direct. She can play any role, and in Nina:
Crazy Suicide Girl she's
strong, cynic and much more pragmatic than males. And yes, we
have been living
together for 11 years now.
The ending of Nina:
Crazy Suicide Girl leaves the doors wide open for a sequel.
Anything planned in the foreseeable future?
I planned three sequels, actually, but then I had to give up the idea because
my producers
changed their minds. In the independent world, in Italy, it's very difficult
(impossibile) to make movies, you always depend on your own budget - but
you know, I'm not a producer, I'm a director and screenwriter. In the
future I want to make a dramatic film, a road movie between Milano and
Amsterdam but, as I said, without a producer I have to suspend the project.
At this moment I'm writing a novel Osaka monogatari (Tale of
Osaka), a romance set in Osaka in the 1960s and 70s, where a Yakuza
tells us
his story from when he was a child until when he became a Yakuza.
Nina:
Crazy Suicide Girl is itself a sequel to your short Crazy
Suicide Girls: Operation Bioterror. What can you tell us about that
movie?
Crazy
Suicide Girls: Operation Bioterror
is a manga-in-motion, really gory and full of splatter, and it tells the story
about two girls, Nina and Ai (a Japanese girl). They are like bounty
killers but they aren't positive characters. Their only purpose is to make
money, a lot of money. When terrorists steal their money, Nina and Ai, with
Yarj's help (Yarj does return in Nina:
Crazy Suicide Girl), track them down - but in the base of
criminals there's a biovirus that has transformed the terrorists into zombies. Let's go back to the beginnings of your career:
What got you into filmmaking in the first place, and did you receive any
formal education on the subject? The most important thing
in a movie for me is the script. When I write, every situation must have a
meaning, everything had to be logical - even in a horror movie where for
example zombies rise from their graves. I make movies without any school-like
training, for me the best school was movies themselves - and thus I went
and shot my first movie learning by doing not studying. Your directorial debut
was, I believe, the short The Drop from 1994 - what can you tell us
about that one, and what are your feelings when watching it today? The
Drop for me was a real shock: I realized that without equipment (no
editing, no lights, no actors...) I can create nothing good - and for 4 years
I lost my passion for moviemaking. Then, in 1998, with Maurizio and his
equipment, I came to life and I restarted my "career".
A
few words about your debut feature Abbazia Sec XII and its troubled
history?
Abbazia Sec XII
was my first feature film. It was a real tribute to Ossorio's Blind Dead-saga,
shot in two mounth with good gory effects and a good
story. The first part is the research of the place where many centuries
ago a bunch of evil monks were burnt and buried in the church. The second
part is a carnage without exception. At that time editing was made analogously, and the film was on tape. We added some
effects after the
editing - but I don't know why we lost all material, maybe we overrecorded... After ten years,
going through my old movie stuff, I have found an old tape of Abbazia Sec
XII, unedited. So, I transcoded it onto my PC and then I digitalized it. I called actors to double the voices, and
finally, Abbazia Sec XII
rises from the grave! In this film me and Maurizio are two
of the main actors. Your 300 minute Nightly Presences - you
just have to talk about that one for a bit? I wrote the Italian
version of Da Vinci Code in 2003, before that romance! The
story is set in Bergamo where Gaetano Donizetti was born and lived. The idea
was to make a miniseries where real historical characters meet characters
of my imagination. Even people who know the historical facts, the actual
historical characters, believed the fake history I included in the story. In
the 1970s
in Italy there were many miniseries like Nightly Presences, but now
there are only mediocre productions.
Laura's Breath |
Since Nina:
Crazy Suicide Girl, you have made two more movies, Laura's
Breath and Dark Fairytale. What can you tell us about those?
Laura
is a dramatic story about a young woman who falls into a coma after a carcrash. After
some days she comes back to life, and she goes to live in their country
homewith her
husband Guido and their friend Ewa. But here, Laura believes she becomes crazy and she
has horrible
nightmares and doesn't know if they are true or not. Maybe it's a plot to
drive her crazy by Guido and Ewa.
Laura's Breath is a complex movie where melancholy is the main
ingredient, and there's a
kind of sadness throughout the film that gets the viewer involved even after
the end titles.
Dark Fairytale |
Dark
Fairytale is, as the title suggests, an adult fairytale where a young man accidentally
kills a beautiful hitchicker and hides her body in the woods. But
a car is approaching, and Marco, the killer, runs into the forest to
escape. There, he loses his way, and in the night he sees four girls
dancing around a campfire as part of some ritual. Suddenly Marco is bitten by a
serpent and faints. The day after he wakes up in the house of the girls
who are so different from the night before. From here a new life starts
for Marco, a life with joy, love, peace. But not all is a bed of roses,
and it seems that the girls know much more about his
recent past than Marco thinks.
At
the end of the movie, as in all fairytale, there's a morality lesson. Oh,
yes, there are horror and blood too.
Any
other films of yours you want to talk about, any future projects? In
the future I take a break because I have been shooting without pause.
Now I'm writing a romance, a book, set in Ōsaka in the 50s about
memories of a yakuza. The title is Ōsaka monogatari (Tale of
Osaka). During
your career, you have returned to the horror genre time and again. A
favourite genre of yours, and why? I love horror movies
because until I was 12 I had never seen any movies of this kind - I was so
scared! But then, with two friends, we bought
Creepshow at the video rental and we watched it with our hands in front to our
eyes - but after few
minutes we were really excited, and so next time we bought Hellraiser... I
think that horror films may be the easiest way to make a movie because you
can focus on ways to scare the viewers and not so much on other important things like the plot or the actors. Growing
as a filmmaker, I learned to concentrate much more on the plot than special effect or blood itself. In my newest
productions I've created a story, a plot much more complex than in my
early works, and
now, when I look at a film, I want much more that blood and guts, I want a
good plot, real situations, good actors and a great ending! Directors who inspire
you?
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Feeling lucky? Want to search any of my partnershops yourself for more, better results? (commissions earned) |
The links below will take you just there!!!
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Mario Bava [Mario Bava bio -
click here], Lucio Fulci [Lucio
Fulci bio - click here], Riccardo Freda, Takashi Miike, Quentin Tarantino, Chang Cheh, Amando de Ossorio, Aristide
Massaccesi [Aristide Massaccesi
bio - click here], Enzo G. Castellari [Enzo G.
Castellari bio - click here] ... Your favourite movies? The
Deer Hunter by Cimino. ... and of
course, films you really deplore? I hate movies made only
to make cash ... and Vanzina's Italian "comedies" ... and Nanni Moretti
who makes films only to self-psychoanalyze his frustrations. The cinema is not
made for ourselves but for the people. Oh, and the new wave of romantic
vampires, terrible!! It's only fashion movies. Your website,
Facebook, whatever else? My website is
http://www.christianarioli.com.
I'm on Facebook as Christian Arioli, and if someone wants to mail me:
csg.nina@yahoo.com. Anything else you are dying to
mention and I have merely forgotten to ask? I hope you
enjoy my movies - and thanks! Thanks for
the interview!
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