DarkVeins focuses on Francesco Basso, a writer and publicist journalist from Arma Taggia, and his work, Lucio Fulci - The Origins of Horror. This book differs from others produced on the famous Roman director over the years because of the profound analysis carried out by the author. In fact, Basso's long reflection embraces the entire Fulcian filmography, including all the genres he was always able to live up to. This promising writer's admiration for Lucio Fulci has enabled him to identify and trace in great detail a horror-like thread that snakes through all the great director's titles.
But now let's take a closer look at who this young author is.
A: Who is Francesco Basso?
B: Thank you very much for the interview. I am 28 years old, I am from Arma di Taggia and I graduated last December 2012 in Humanities Dams with a thesis on Lucio Fulci. I am a freelance journalist and collaborate with the San Remo monthly magazine 'L'Eco della Riviera.
A: What prompted you to do your dissertation on Lucio Fulci?
B: While writing the thesis my first thought was not the thesis but the book. I wrote it just thinking about its publication, I wanted to publish it at all costs. A thesis just on Fulci because he is a great of cinema, he tackled all genres and he always did it in his own style. I met my editor Gordiano Lupi of Il Foglio Letterario at the Imperia Book Fair in June 2012, I told him about my thesis, which I was only a few pages into at the time. He was very excited about a future publication, which it was.
A: You published your dissertation under the title Lucio Fulci - The Origins of Horror. What makes this book different from other texts about the Roman director?
B: This book is different because it gives an entirely new key to Lucio Fulci's work. I analyze the pre-horror films ranging from '66 (Tempo di Massacro) until '79 (Sella d'Argento) and I look for the horror origins of Fulci's poetics in these films, lacing them with films such as Zombi 2 and L'Aldilà that are traceable, according to my version, to films such as Zanna Bianca and Beatrice Cenci.
A: Who would you target and recommend your work to?
B: To those who love Fulci, to all horror lovers and those who do not know enough about this extraordinary director or want to have another key to his work.
A: How would you define this work of yours?
B: I would define my work as very personal and heartfelt. Heartfelt because Fulci is a director that I love and who marked me deeply. I really gave myself and I am very happy about that.
A: Fulci has been called a "complete filmmaker" or, as he called himself, a "genre terrorist." What do you think the different film genres he explored have in common?
B: Provocatively in the book I go against the definition 'Genre Terrorist,' because actually Fulci did not pursue genres, but is himself a genre. He is the bomb that explodes the genre and reconstructs it in his own image. If we take for example the westerns he made, well, what do they have in common with each other? Nothing. Many critics examine Fulci according to genres, like he made westerns, and then we talk about the Fulci Western, he made thrillers and then we talk about the Fulci thriller. Nothing could be more inaccurate. Fulci is linked to every film, regardless of genre, every one of his films is very recognizable and has connections to seemingly unsuspected films. But I am revealing too much, so if you are curious, be sure to read on.
A: If Lucio Fulci were alive and you had a chance to ask him a question, what would it be?
B: In addition to asking him what he thought of the book I would tell him that he is great!!! and ask him if I could make a movie with him. I really would have liked to meet him....
A: Which of his films would you have liked to sign the screenplay for?
B: It's not rhetorical, but I would have liked to sign them all.
A: What are Fulci's best and worst films?
B: My favorite is The Four of the Apocalypse, which is extraordinary. I also like The Afterlife, The Honorable Likes Women, Beatrice Cenci, You Can't Tame a Donald Duck, and many others. I think the most violent and the most shocking are The New York Ripper and That Mansion Next to the Cemetery. The worst for me basically none. I didn't particularly like The House of Clocks, but not because it was poorly shot, but because the characters were all bad: without even one good guy, I can't empathize (that's not always the case).
A: What is the genre that most represents him?
B: He in my opinion from '66 until his whole career, only one genre will characterize him more than anything else: horror. Horror will dominate, there is horror in the two Zanna Bianca as in Dracula in Brianza and in La pretora. So Fulci is Horror, which does not mean it is exclusively gore but anything but. The nuances of horror are many and Fulci touches on them all by reworking them ef acing a genre of its own. It is Fulci's own genre.
A: Do you, too, think that the "Poet of the Macabre" death trilogy is a valuable and unparalleled example of horror cinema?
B: Yes. Unparalleled, exhaustive and unrepeatable. Pure poetry and in a horror key, Fulci was really an innovator and an aesthete. A visual artist who in my opinion anticipated the digital. He used sequence plans of fear, without shots. Just see in Fear in the City of the Living Dead, the drill that pierces Giovanni Lombardo Radice. The scene is seamless, the effects are handcrafted, and there is a lot of showmanship. With digital today it is easy to reproduce scenes without cuts, he was able to do it without digital and with great skill and so much realism.
A: Make a brief comment on: Fear in the City of the Living Dead, ...And you will live in terror! The afterlife, That mansion next to the cemetery.
B: Fear is very splatter, the scene of the vomited intestines is memorable, the Lovecraft-esque atmosphere is also very beautiful, where the fog the shadows take over. The afterlife is beautiful, Emily is great and the whole script, the cursed book, the gates of hell, are fantastic and spectacular elements. That mansion is the scariest of the three, the most claustrophobic and the most pessimistic
A: Fulci aside, who would you save among the directors of old Italian horror?
B: Definitely Mario Bava, Dario Argento, Pupi Avati, Sergio Martino, Ruggero Deodato, Umberto Lenzi, Enzo G. Castellari and more...
A: What do you think of the Italian horror literary scene? What do you see as the best levers?
B: On the literary level, I hope sooner or later to 'emerge' in the sense that I have done some short horror novels that I hope to publish soon. They are surreal horror. In Italy Tiziano Sclavi has given a lot to horror literature, both with his books and with his memorable and fantastic Dylan Dog stories. Marco Vallarino is a fine author who, in addition to publishing, has written a horror text adventure, Darkiss! The Vampire's Kiss.
Nowadays an Italian author who approaches horror, in itself is great because in my opinion it is with horror that you can say something and you can also change something.
A: What about current horror filmmaking? Who do you think are the best filmmakers of today?
B: I like Federico Zampaglione very much. Tulpa is wonderful and the suspense he manages to instill is outstanding, in fact in my opinion it was superior even to the violence that was there.
Lorenzo Bianchini, Francesco Mirabelli and Roberto Albanesi and more.
A: Do you usually take part in literary horror contests banned by websites?
B: Yes, sometimes yes. I like themed stories, they allow me to create new stories and put myself out there. I have also tried fantasy contests but I can express myself more with horror.
A: How did your collaboration with Gordiano Lupi come about?
B: I met Gordiano at the Imperia Book Fair while I was working on my thesis. I already knew him from his Lucio Fulci paper Filming Death, so I was very happy to meet him. He immediately showed interest in my thesis and I am very happy to have published with him, he is giving me a way to make myself known, attend conferences, meet new people. Great Gordian! I thank him very much indeed.
A: Which books published by Edizioni Il foglio are your favorite?
B: To be fair, each series is very nice and well edited, my genre is horror but I have to note that all the series are really great. The film books, essays, short stories, novels are all well done and the writers are very good.
A: You are the author of several short novels. Is it possible to mention any of them?
B: As publications I published for Skan Magazine: Failed Exorcism and Amor and Psyche. Executioner for Parole per Strada Rovereto. For the music magazine Where is the Club I have published Blood Orchid, Cannibal Sound and Murder Love. At the moment I have not yet published any short novels but I have a science fiction one in the works, which is Disenchantment. A parallel world where robots impersonate famous actors and wrestle each other. Then I wrote the Lepidrurno, Pornopopera and The New Yorker Torture. I hope one not too distant tomorrow to actually publish them all. My dream is to be read, read and read.
A: Tell us about your future plans and dreams.
B: My dream is to publish my creations and live off of that. Right now I am writing a script for a tribute to Mario Bava, a film that remembers and pays homage to him. The directors I am working with are Marco and Riccardo Di Gerlando and Simone Caridi.
A: You sent a video presentation for the literary TV program Masterpiece. How did it go?
B: I really believe in writing and its potential. My dream is to leave an imprint in history, just as I say in the introduction video. They didn't reject me because they didn't think the short novel, which was the Lepidrurno, was valid, but they rejected me because only those who have never published can participate in the program.
You never know but I think I would not have been taken a priori, three times I sent Lepidrurno to the La giara d'ora Rai contest but it was never taken. It has to be said that getting a screenplay out of it is very unlikely since there are people ripping and destroying themselves, however I would say it is a worthy piece of writing, at least I like it.
A: What do you think about this interview?
B: I have to thank you because the questions were really great and I hope I lived up to them, I really enjoyed answering them and talking about what I like.
Thank you very much again!!!
A: Leave a message for friends of Darkveins!
B: To the friends of Darkveins I say hang in there, you will see that horror will soon redeem itself and that for Italy will return that golden era that so many other countries envied and still envy us.
Thank you all and I hope you will enjoy my book!
I await your judgments...
See you soon and a dear and horror greeting to all of you!
Francis
A: Thank you Francis!
