Among the interviews that I could record during the 66th Venice Film Festival, the George A. Romero was one of those who waited more impatiently. I got to meet him once before, several years ago, but we had talked about the film, "The Dark Half," as no contemptible was far from having the thematic richness of any chapter of his forty years saga of the undead.
Despite his belated return to the theme, "The Land of the Dead", had not really shown up to the expectations generated by the extraordinary original trilogy ("Night of the Living Dead," "Zombie" and "The Day of the Dead "), the next" Diary of the Dead "was the reaction among the new crop concerned and enthusiastic. And this "Survival of the Dead" - plus a sequel to "Diary" that one-sixth installment of the series - it sounded particularly intriguing for being the first zombie movie to be accepted in the official selection of Venice.
Hosted by the festival audience with pleasure even though perhaps without excessive enthusiasm, "Survival" is far from a perfect film, and certainly not standing to undermine the positions of an ideal ranking first in the series ... but full of intriguing ideas and variations on that promise for the next film developments are particularly striking. Some of which Romero was able to talk to me in the few minutes of conversation that the timing of the exhibition allowed us to get slaughtered, beginning with a western cut even surprising.
The genres almost always have significant potential metaphorical, especially when they are encoded as the western and horror. How did you get the idea of \u200b\u200bmaking them collide and recombine in "Survival of the Dead"?
do not know, sometimes capture the ideas on the fly. By doing this movie, we had a lot of freedom - I had the chance to say "hey, let's give him a bit 'western flavor" and is not nobody got to say "no." I am always looking for something that can give my film a slightly different cut. It is true that genres should be used as metaphors but, unfortunately, very often they are not ... I always try to do it, to find some element undercurrent that helps me to focus on the theme of the film. Very often I see that other directors do not. As for the metaphorical possibilities of the Dead and western, I guess some connection there is, there ... and I have talked to the designer and editor ... but it is not that we have worked consciously aiming for that. We had great location and talking with the costume, I told her: "Come on westerns, we make these kinds of cowboys." At the end of this work is also fun ... and be able to say "let's do this or let's do something." Because these are independent films and I can do it without losing control. For better and sometimes worse! (Laughs)
Despite many exceptions, generally tends towards the western individualism, while his zombies have always had a revolutionary significance, expressing the change and transformation. In this film, the characters most associated with the western strive to preserve the status quo at any cost, despite an apocalyptic scenario flow.
is a sea change, but these old enemies are not able to forget their enmity and continue to shoot each other instead of shooting them. The basic theme of this film. But the link that you have done is very interesting. Actually I'm a bit 'to the revolutionary element of the road after the first four zombie films ... somehow I feel I have closed that chapter, be returned to the first Night of the Living Dead and started over. This time I am much more interested in creating a set of rules e. .. explain my kind of zombie ... and also take out a human theme, at the same time. This to me is a film about war, about people who do not even remember what he started the war but continue to shoot him. Just I thought that was the metaphor of the film more interesting. Since the days of "zombie", it is shown that, beyond the search for food, the living dead try to keep doing what they used to be dead to do it live. In this film, what you do is continue to shoot at us - it can be seen in the very last shot of the film. I found it interesting that the expression of the emptiness of most of human activity, here, focusing mainly on the uselessness of fighting each other.
is the theme of the film: people fighting each other until death and beyond. (Laughs) The theme is this. The characters go on an island, thinking that there will be more secure, and yet the island found that these two clans are constantly ... that are at war ever since. And do not stop.
Just now you mentioned the importance of having made this film independently, a bit 'as it had for the first series title. What has changed in forty years, in a film far from the control of large corporations?
in the sixties when I made "Night of the Living Dead", worked in complete independence, we were a group of young people who wanted to make a film that managed to pull up some money and they did . We had people around in a tie, any form of responsibility ... we promised to do a movie and someone gave us money. Now of course it's different, everything is more formal ... but in the last two films, "Diary of the Dead" and this "Survival", we had creative control over everything. So in that sense the experience is very similar. It was wonderful to be able to take a breath of fresh air ... when we did "Land of the Dead living "behind us and we had the Universal ... everything was great! And of course, eventually earned a considerable sum, but I always felt that my fans - I mean, my diehard fans - well, they said: "Ah, Romero has sold out to Hollywood ... Look, Dennis Hopper in the cast ... "I was being criticized for something that from my point of view was very good and fun ... And then, the way in which distributed the film ... I felt that should give a better distribution. These are some of the factors that played a role in the desire to return us back to make the film independently. The screenplay for "Diary" there since before we had to do "The earth "... and when We finished "The earth" we found some lenders are ready to go ahead and do it so we left. As regards the procedure ... then we had a different approach, we just go around asking for money. Today, of course, everything is more formal but as regards the act of making a film - apart from the fact that now I know more about how to move the goal - everything is quite the same as always. Sure, it's very liberating ... beautiful is not to be compelled to write a memo every time you want to change something. (Laughs) Towards the end of the film, after some players have struggled to teach the living dead to feed on human flesh, the zombies devour a horse. Apart from the fact that development seems to open the door to a further chapter, the news further down a dividing wall between the living dead, and normal human beings. By the time the zombies, in addition to continuing their original activities from dead, eat human flesh ... which is now the difference?
Well, this is a theme I'm working on since the days of "The Day of the Dead" I started working on ... in essence, there are more contact points than differences. So what I would do - what try to do with this film and the next, if there will be a neighbor, is to set some 'rules, some differences, and make zombie more human. The goal is to bring the audience to sympathize with the point where the living dead - in the same way I do. 
0 comments:
Post a Comment