Interview with Raffaele Picchio, director of Morituris, the villainous Italian independent horror film steeped in different kinds of violence and atrocities that leaves no room for hope. But now let's take a closer look at who this interesting debut director is who has dedicated his first work to Evil.
A: Who is Raphael Picchio?
B: A sociopath who instead of going out, playing and socializing devoured movie after movie. One fine day he decided to follow a life path that would somehow lead him to do what he wanted to do. And let's just say he's still working on it. He hates fakes, hypocrites, and those who take themselves too seriously. He appreciates humble people and in general everyone who really struggles not to die here in Disneyland.
A: How did the love of filmmaking originate in you?
B: Well, frankly I couldn't identify the exact moment when this passion was born. Neither of my parents are in the middle of anything involving TV or movies even though my father is an omnivorous fan of everything anyway. Maybe it was the moment when I discovered that there was the possibility of telling fantastic stories not only with Legos but also with human beings. However, if I had to tell you films that broke through my brain when I was a kid beyond the myriad viewings made at the Fantafestival where I used to force my poor Christ father to accompany me because I was too small, without a shadow of a doubt I would say Akira and Cabal. The first I still consider one of the greatest works in the history of cinema. The second a very good film by a great writer. But as a kid all those monsters and that killer with that mask was stuff that sent me crazy. And then the Godzilla & co...
A: You are the director of Morituris, a horror film that was denied clearance and thus theatrical distribution because it was considered an "essay of gratuitous perversity and sadism." How did you experience the censorship of your work in your country? Did you expect it?
B: Censorship really no. We were all of course ready to take vm18 and face someone who would surely misunderstand the film, but the blocking I never would have imagined. Also because like many I thought it was more possible to implement visa denial to an audiovisual work. Yet here it is. It's yet another demonstration that we are a hypocritical country that loves to take shots at the defenseless and then make the rhetoric that about youth and jobs. To do such a thing to a film of a harmless genre and of its own intended for a (unfortunately) very small segment of the audience makes no sense. It is a country of masters of conscience, the country of Christian-Catholic hypocrisy and political correctness. In the end beyond an economic damage (it would have been a small chance to see some money back) their action was of no use, since the film was distributed worldwide and those who want to can still see it as they wish. However, the censorship board is made up of film critics, animal rights activists, priests, moige members and others who, if they unanimously found my film unconscionable, that can only make me happy.
A: Unlike in Italy, Morituris has been distributed on DVD abroad. Another deluxe German unabridged version will be available in February, will there ever be an Italian distribution?
B: Visa denial prevents the circulation (and profit) of the film in theaters and the sale of them on satellite TV. After time the ever-well-deserving Sinister has moved and will release it on DVD on February 18 here as well. Meanwhile, in Finland, Denmark, Norway, Sweden, Japan, France and Germany (which has cut the film by 18 minutes and will precisely now release it in a deluxe unabridged edition) you can find the films on the shelves of the best video stores, psychiatric hospitals, orphanages and blasphemy parlors.
A: The film has been singled out for perpetrating extreme violence on the female figure, for showing the use of a mouse (without harming her health) in sexual matters, and for not depicting a conventional type of justice usual instead in rape&revenge. Doesn't that sound like a heavy and extremely excessive complaint? Do you think the problem lies in the unartistic mind of your detractors or in your willingness to provoke?
B: We were making an independent film, a product sweated and suffered by us. We had a clear idea in our heads of how to make it and what to make it about, determined not to get our hands dirty with anything. This is where our "willingness to provoke" stops. Instead, the rest is chatter and subjective (and in my opinion extremely superficial) views of the film. The accusations of misogyny rained down everywhere and in every country are quite ridiculous, so much so that speaking often after screenings it happens that it is a film understood more by women than by men (who stop at the "I want to see gladiators killing everyone" speech). We wanted to make an exploitation film and we played along with Gianluigi on all our expectations as fans, trying to play continuously with the viewer's expectations. You will notice that in the dramatic part, which is also the most contested, there is no gore, hard or gratuitous detail. It is all told through the eyes of the actors. In the blatant horror part, on the other hand, it becomes more conspicuously "splatter," and even the characters begin to behave like those in the slashers of the 1980s. It was intended to make a bad, dirty, and unpleasant film. We didn't want the slasher that throws the ball into the humor corner. Evidently we are no longer used to this....
A: Why the figure of the gladiator in your film?
B: We have a wonderful mythology of folk tales and incredible places, our past is immortal and still in the world today it is represented and quoted. We are the only ones who instead go and imitate murders in Texas and we snub all that. The film was born in the moment when Tiziano Martella and I (who is also the costume designer of the gladiators) entered a small museum of Roman antiquities, at the sight of these frightening helmets placed in a row one after the other we said to each other, "Think what a slasher in which however the "monster" is a gladiator." Then the rest came by itself. We wanted to do something deeply Italian, and so the mythology behind the film is that of the ancient Roman empire and the gladiator uprising, while the contemporary part is a blatant retelling of the Circeo massacre. And the entire film, in dialogue and character tics, is entirely filled with references to this "Italian-ness." Elements, of course, that have little positive or to brag about.
A: Why did you choose to blend rape&revenge with slasher and atmospheric horror that winks at the cinema of yesteryear?
B: It was intended to be an exploitation film and thus to bring back those forbidden and anarchic pleasures that the extreme bangs of the genre allowed. The gladiators return when acts are performed in those places that recall past echoes of the violence committed. The speech Malcolm makes at the beginning is the whole point of the film. Neither Gianluigi nor I ever intended to do the usual octogenarian slasherino even though the basic structure of the second part to that would have led and so it was thought to also flesh out what was the first part of the film and above all as I told you before, play with the audience's expectations.
Do we tell you it's "a slasher with gladiators?" Well that's true, but that's not the real twist. Besides, both Gianluigi and I are fans of the genre and frankly it came almost natural to us to evolve the project in these directions. However, placing a shock twist before the middle of the film by playing with the audience's expectations is a due homage to a genius named Joseph Stefano who wrote something called Psycho for a certain Hitchcock...
A: Speaking of rape&revenge... usually films belonging to this subgenre revolve around the victim/heroine, a transformation that is lacking in your film. Could you clarify to enlighten once and for all those who have found only "gratuitous sadism" in it?
B: It is a rape without the "revenge," but still we have character evolutions. The character of the dark-haired girl, played by Valentina D'Andrea and whom we loosely refer to as the "heroine" of the story, is a character who matures after experiencing absolute evil upon herself. There is a transfer that goes from the friend who sacrifices herself for the escape and to her: more timid and innocent than the other but the only one who will show a strong reaction to all this absurdity she is experiencing. Then it is obvious, as the tagline says, "evil wins." It unfortunately applies to her as well. Morituris is a film about evil, the pure infinite evil that when it explodes invests everyone, victims and perpetrators. Something uncontrollable, indestructible, frightening, and yet very pure.
A: Are the use of crosses as a means of torture related only to the figure of gladiators, or in a sense do they also represent a religious provocation?
B: The idea of restoring the symbol of the cross as an instrument of torture and extreme punishment as it was conceived, purged of any mystical concept, is beautiful. And the only short-circuit with mysticism lies in the fact that the girl who will have to deal with it represents Christ a bit: after the rape we see her in a scene built on Michelangelo's La Pieta; then we see her sacrificing herself for humanity (the friend who attempts to escape and "matures") and finally invoking as Jesus Christ the last cry that she says, however, in Romanian, "Father why have you abandoned me!" It is a symbolism, also because in the world of Morituris (and in what I see every day with my own eyes), there is no god.
A: The presence of gladiators and everything revolving around them is reminiscent of De Ossorio's The Tombs of the Blind Resurrected and also some Fulcian films such as That Villa Next to the Cemetery. Were you inspired by the cinema of the 1970s and 1980s in making your film?
B: Well yes, it has a little bit of everything in it really. I am a big fan of Ossorio's films and mainly the imagery of the gladiator-returned Morituris comes purely from those films there. However being an absolute debut film for everyone, we tried to move on territories that we knew well anyway and so here it is that besides Fulci it is possible to find Aldo Lado, Craven, Zarchi, Bava together with explicit literary influences (Ellis with American Psycho, Miguel Angel Martin with Psychopathia Sexualis) and musical influences (drone, industrial and black metal in contrast to the prog of the films they wanted to pay homage to). However, I was anxious that the film should not seem like a patchwork of sequences taken and twisted, but that it should stimulate those unmistakable sensations and flavors that the films of these authors still manage to give 30-40 years later.
A: If you had a chance to thank one person for what came out of Morituris, who would it be?
B: Oh my God one person? Let's see: I should imagine splitting in space molecules and atoms of very important people and for whom I would give my life such as Gianluigi Perrone, Tiziano Martella, Vincenzo Manzo, Pierpaolo Santagostino, my parents, a part of the people you read in the credits and all my cultural and artistic influences coming to create a single being with the only task of spreading madness, death and distution in the world... well here if the sum of all this became a single being capable of all this, then I feel like thanking Nyarlathotep.
A: Can you tell us briefly about your tastes in film and music?
B: I am very schizophrenic and never like to speak in "genres." The fusion of everything, the freedom to move as one likes and dislikes, and especially the ability to arouse emotions (violent, sweet, accommodating, nihilistic, or whatever) draws interest in me. And that is why I space from the Marx Brothers to Von Trier, from Monty Python to Aldrich, from Tsukamoto to Castellari, etc... So with music. Lately, post-rock stuff like Shels, Explosion in the Sky, God is an Astronaut and This will destroy you alternate in my playlists along with Dissection's immortal Storm of the Lights Bane, Altar of Plagues' White Tomb, Krallice's first record, interspersed with Alkaline Trio, Rise Against and the soundtrack to the comedy film Walk Hard. I have nothing clear unfortunately, take me down.
A: We could, almost with certainty, declare that you have bypassed with this work, the entire Italian independent scene. What do you think of the many genre filmmakers in our country who cannot find worthy distribution?
B: In what sense bypassed? I don't see this as a competition. Every film, even the most miserable in results is made with sacrifice and blood spilled. I enjoy making films and I hope I can grow by continually learning from the thousands of mistakes you make on your own skin. Morituris is a starter not a finish line. And in general all my "indie" colleagues should see it that way. One decides to do such a thing knowing what one is up against and the closest image that may come to mind is that of Don Quixote against windmills. However, in recent years it must be said that there has been some movement though: Ristori's and Boni's films are being distributed all over the world with fair sales successes, Domiziano Cristopharo's extreme films have distributions in the U.S., Bianchini's latest beautiful film received a special mention at Fantasia (the Cannes of horror) and is grinding out awards all over the world, as well as many other Italian realities are finding foreign channels thanks to festivals and small distributions that are more market-conscious than what is happening here. In recent years, there are realities even here in the belpaese of death, such as independent distribution, Sinister Film and many small young producers and artists who are getting going and continuously keeping this kind of zombie that is Italian genre cinema alive. The truth is that, as we have historically always done, as much of the public as that of the press and the big festivals with international visibility continually spits and snubs all of this and well that goes, leaves you ghettoized in the small garden of fans without any possibility of growth to get out of this enclosure. Until we start having the balls to open our eyes wide and see what beautiful and ugly exists beyond all this fog that has ended up recoiling everyone, it will hardly change things productively. Then of course, on top of all this, it must be said that mythomaniac characters, buffoons and ass-kissers are the order of the day, and as we know here those who are slimiest get ahead, not those who are most valuable. But here we get into an even bigger and more complex topic than the "simple" one of cinema.
A: After a debut with a bang now horror fans are curious about where Raffaele Picchio can go next. Can you reveal to us any of your immediate or future film-related projects?
B: After Morituris (of which, by the way, the work never ends with distributions, festivals, etc...) which was my absolute debut (as Callahan would say "The asshole who goes the extra mile") I didn't stop and started shooting for sets as an assistant director for works of very young and promising new authors, helped out in production on a few jobs and generally didn't stop for a second to keep learning and understanding how this world works. I shot for the Abc's of Death contest a short film that you can view for free on Vimeo called M is for Mouth (and which obviously didn't win shit, you can admire it here: http://vimeo.com/77458145 ) and there is more work in the pot between medium and other shorts that are in the home stretch for early this year.
However, the second film is there, it exists, and both Gianluigi and I are looking forward to making it. But we have to be patient and still learn important things as well as study well productively how to move. I can only say that it will be, after dealing with the concept of "evil" with Morituris, a new analysis on another universal concept that makes this world go round, if possible even more violent, painful, evil, destructive and unjust: love.
A: What do you think about this interview?
B: Which was interesting and since I'm a competitive logorrhoid I can't help but be pleased to answer what you want. I hope more than anything I have satisfied the curiosity of those interested.
A: Leave a message to the DarkVeins community!
B: As Crowley said, "Do what you want" and become what you are. Evil prevails.
A: Thank you Raphael!
