General Questions You once said that you make these sort of films because you want 'to be loved'. Do you finally feel that emotion from the hundreds of devoted fans you now have around the world? I think I do. But it is not the only purpose for which I make these sort of films. That is one of the reasons. I once explained that I don't make movies just for commercial reasons. Anyway, I think I have reached that emotion. What do you have planned for the future and what can you tell us about the new film? I'm still elaborating it, I cannot say anything. For instance, I should have shot it in Venice, but it is not certain, for logistical reasons. This winter I was in Venice with my screenwriter Ferrini. There are some scenes that we wrote, that we imagined staged in Venice. But some of these, the most important and difficult ones, cannot be shot in Venice. For example, in and around the city there is a very low speed limit for the boats, and there are other things… It is difficult, I am almost rethinking about shooting the film in Venice. The city council itself builds a big wall against us, because there are lots of tourists, from April till November. It is difficult to shoot, amongst all the people: it is impossible to block anything, not the channels, not the little "calli", nothing. Moreover a lot of scenes, almost three quarters of the film, take place at night, outdoors. But in Venice, at that time at night, you cannot make any noise. It is like shooting in a friend's house while he lives there: when he eats you have to stand still, when he sleeps you have to be silent… It is becoming more and more difficult. The story is fixed, so are the characters, but it is not sure I will shoot it in Venice. If you could choose one director to design the afterlife, who would this person be? I don't know, I have no idea. Maybe Bergman, who deeply knows the spiritual problems. I should think about it. It's been stated many times that you often use parts of yourself for the protagonists of movies, but are any of your other screen creations based on someone in reality? Daria Nicolodi, Mario Bava, Edgar Allen Poe... for example? Sometimes it happens, of course in a transposed way, they are not exactly the characters, with their lives… Someone inspired me: for instance, the film "Phenomena" is inspired by my daughter Fiore. I was thinking a lot of her while I was writing, also because of her age. Daria Nicolodi never inspired me for any film. Many times I am inspired by myself, by parts of my own story. Who is your all time favourite band, and why? There are the fabulous bands of the seventies, Led Zeppelin, Pink Floyd, they really moved me when their first songs came out. After that I got fond of Sid Vicious and the punk scene. You used to be a film critic. How do you rate the current state of artistic and mainstream cinema? I can say I have seen interesting films recently, but I haven't been really deeply moved by them. Because at this time the cinema, especially the mainstream, has been absorbed by great American, French and British companies. These big companies make a homogeneous cinema, every film is the same. Every kind of film is commercial, even the sentimental, drama, action or the social ones: they are just money makers. The cinema looks so commercial and easy; after thirty minutes everything is the same, everything has already been seen, the story, the characters, there isn't anything fucking new. The only interesting thing is the cinema outside of the main circuit. The Indian, African, Macedonian, Iranian cinema. This so called "minor cinema" is very interesting. How do you feel about the DVD treatment of your latest films in the US? This would include how you feel about Troma's handling of "Stendhal" and of course Artisan's Pan & Scan "Sleepless" (and also the VHS being cut). I haven't been informed of these treatments; I usually get to know them from my friends. I am very perplexed. I don't have the Troma DVD, but I am sorry to know that. And I met twice the head of Troma and he didn't say anything to me. I thought it would have been edited without any cut. It is incredible. I'd wish my audience advised me of these cuts on all of my films, so to have the possibility of doing something, some demonstrative actions, like denouncing them to the police, to the court of law for tampering with the artwork. It is like you have a painting and then you cut it. If you don't like it, you simply don't buy it. It is indecent. Moreover, I'd really wish that the public that knows me, when there are rumours of the Americans that want to buy a film of mine to produce a remake, bypassing my permission, just start a mail-bombing campaign saying not to do that, until they give up! If you could make a Lovecraft tale into a film, which would it be and why? Would you do this if the opportunity presented itself? Do you feel that the feat of translating Lovecraft to film can be done properly? Many years ago producer Dino de Laurentiis asked me to work on a movie taken from Lovecraft. I worked with an American writer. I wanted to inspire to the myth of Ctuhlu and I studied it for almost a year. Then I realised it was too difficult, and de Laurentiis didn't like the work, it looked too abstract to him. Indeed, Lovecraft is not so realistic, especially the myth of Cthulu. Do you intend to shoot a film that you once considered concerning the perspectives of a lizard? What is your fascination with lizards? They appear in many of your films. I like very much the reptiles, but it is not true that I considered this kind of film! If the money and will existed, what sort of films would you like to do that you haven't already? Westerns, Sci-Fi, Romance... Someone in the States offered me a western, but I didn't like it and I didn't accept. I was right, because I didn't like the movie, which was made by another director. The movie was an all-girls western, called "Bad Girls". I've always wanted to make a Sci-Fi film, but I don't want to make a minimalist science fiction movie, all staged in one ambient. Unfortunately, there isn't enough money for a big spectacular Sci-Fi film. Would you make another film in the US? No, not in the next few years. In a perfect world would you like to have the mass appeal of Spielberg and Lucas, or are you happy with a smaller audience? I don't want mass appeal. Although Spielberg and Lucas' films are very respectable, I would be constrained to front that kind of life, that world, the parties, the companies, the producers. Three quarters of the discussions they have about films are about money, they talk a lot of money. But I do respect both of them. Moreover I worked with a machine created by Lucas. I've been one of the first, maybe the first to edit a film, "Trauma", with his editing machine called "Edit Droid", a laser editor, very interesting, even if the machine was quite big. I edited the film in Lucas' building in Los Angeles, I have known his team and their way of work. So, I have a big respect, but each one to his own way. What was the last film you saw, that really scared you? I don't remember, to be sincere. It was some time ago, not so long, but honestly I don't remember it. How do you feel about nudity, how do you like to use it in your films? I use nude scenes when they are useful, but I am not embarrassed in shooting them, not even when they involved my daughter Asia. Would you ever consider collaborating with Stephen King or adapting one of his works for a film? (Granted, most of his major works have been adapted, with mixed results...). The thing has been proposed to me many times. The first time King himself and his agent proposed that I make a film from "Salem's Lot". At that time I was thinking about one of my movies, so the thing ended up there. After that, de Laurentiis, after the aborted project of Lovecraft, proposed that I make a film from "The Stand". I worked a lot on that book, three months, but it is a huge book, in fact they made a serial from that. Then King was to make an episode of the film that would have become "Two Evil Eyes": he wanted to transpose on film "The Tell-Tale Heart", according to him it is the best horror story ever written. Given your love of/incredible use of color in your films, would you ever consider filming a movie in black and white just to experiment? No, absolutely not. What is the worst nightmare you have ever had and would you consider making a film of it? I've had a lot of nightmares by which I've been inspired, and I've let them drip into my films, but there's not a really terrible nightmare. Which of your film score's is your favourite? I like the film with a very compact score, all composed by the same composer, who gives his personality to the whole film. But I'm interested too in films composed as a jigsaw, one track made by one composer, another one made by another. These crosses are very interesting. For example in "Opera" there is "melodrama" music, there is heavy metal, there is music by Brian Eno, Simonetti, Bill Wyman… A big fusion of different music: it was an interesting "patchwork" score. Why is it that you never used -- barring Donald Pleasance -- iconographic "horror" actors like Cushing, Lee, Price, etc…? I don't know, maybe because I was making other movies, or I've thought their personality was too strong. They would have confused the audience, leading them in a direction that was not mine, they were too identified in the genre. If we were to blame someone -which is not a very nice thing to do- for the decadence of the Italian horror genre -which is not a bad thing because it means a rebirth can be expected- who should we point at? -fearful producers? -lazy screenwriters? -plain bored boring cultural commissioners from the media? -audiences spoiled by the glossy appeal of non-violent, fake chills fuelled, latest so-called horrors? Partly it is due to the audiences, spoiled by these horrors in the last fifteen or twenty years. Moreover many authors became lazy and their inspiration stopped. We can look at Carpenter, or Romero, or Raimi. Wes Craven makes "Scream" for adolescents, and he is the one who made "The Serpent and the Rainbow" and many other interesting films. He has let them go. Others simply stopped, like Tobe Hooper. If you could travel back in time and resurrect two actors (one male, one female) to star in your films who would they be? I am not so fond of actors… Sometimes my daughter Asia points at me saying that I am indifferent, but I am not. When someone asks me "Would you like to make a movie with that actor?", "Yes", I say, "but not particularly, if it is another, it's the same". I think the film is more important than the actor, the actor enters into the project… For example, today I like very much Johnny Depp, I like the expressiveness he has in his films. I'd like to… not to resurrect him, as he is very alive (laughs). But he costs too much. If minds could be represented like cinema, whose brain would you like to spend a night in? I'd like to spend a night in the brain of people of the past… The great surrealist writers or painters… Luis Bunuel, Salvador Dalì… Or when Andy Warhol used to walk in New York with his friends. I'd like to be in that period more than in this one, today. What do you want to achieve before you shift off this mortal coil, whether filmic or not? Well, before stopping making movies I'd wish to decide to stop, and begin to travel around the world, leaving behind all these things, my country, Italy, so full of complications, with this political situation so embarrassing… Yes, that's what I want to do: stop and travel, meeting people and talking to them, visiting places I've never been to, although I have already travelled a lot, it is my passion. I have already done that, but just between two films: I want to have the chance to stay for long periods in other countries. Many comics have a secret for great comedy, do you have a recipe or basis for great horror? The most beautiful thriller and horror films were made by adult directors for an adult audience. Adolescents and kids did see these films, but they were not made for children. So to make a good film you have to commit seriously to the work itself, without thinking of the existence of an adolescent public, without giving them all the little blinks and links to their age, the school, etc... If you had to paint your house all one-colour, which colour would that be and why? You see, here it is clear; beige. You see there aren't paintings on the walls. There are just those two prints of Hogarth, a gift for the success of "La sindrome di Stendhal". If you were given a considerably large amount of money for one area of the film, which would that be? Cinematography, musical score, location, acting talent? As I said before, I'd like to have Johnny Depp, so to have him in one of my films. The Films Four Flies What is your attitude towards Four Flies nowadays...! Were you a different filmmaker in these days? I was different, not so much, but different. It is a mythical film for me too, it is a long time since I saw it, I don't have it. The copies are a sort of bootleg, with a horrible soundtrack. I'd want Paramount to make a good DVD out of it! Profondo Rosso What is that mechanical butler boy thing that springs out of the closet in Profondo Rosso? Was it an original made for the film and what does it mean? The killer upsets the man by sending him this mechanical puppet. The puppet was made by Carlo Rambaldi, and it was very well done, for the time it was extraordinary! The puppet could walk, it had an extension behind him, it was controlled by a little tube in which there were the wires to control him, the steps, the movements of the head… Suspiria There is much debate about whether your reflection, that appears briefly in the taxi in SUSPIRIA, is intentional or not. Yes, it was. Do you think that Suzy Banyon could be a white witch, and that her power developed at the end of the film? Yes, but unconsciously. She does not know she is a white witch, but she has a great strength that drives back everything. Indeed, when she meets the professor it is the moment in which she begins to realise. She can fight because of her strength. Inferno What does Mater Lachrymarum say to Marc in Rome, when he is listening to Verdi in the lecture theatre? She speaks sentences in an unknown language. She does not speak to him normally, of course, and she fascinates him saying these words from a distance, making him almost falling asleep. What was your reason for casting Leigh McCloskey? Did you get the performance you wanted from him? I had chosen another actor, but he resigned at the very last moment. So I had to go back to the States to find another one. I found him just before shooting. What was the significance of the hanging woman? The city is in chaos, it is an image of death. Phenomena Are there many differences between the finished film and the actual script? Not so many, almost none. Are you a big fan of Romantic art and poetry, as the scene were Jennifer climbs the staircase seems reminiscent of Keat's 'Eve of St Agnes' and the Mountain scenes bring to mind many paintings from the romantic movement. The Romantic art was very popular in the Swiss houses of the period, with these savage landscapes… What about those Phenomena 2 rumours, will you ask Jennifer Connelly to do it if you are ever going to do it? What were your plans for it? I have never thought of it, and I'll never give my permission! (laughs) Opera Is the ending of Opera a direct homage to Sound Of Music? Now I tell you a very bizarre thing. I was looking for the locations for the finale of "Opera". A friend of mine, Nicola Pecorini, now an affirmed cinematographer - then he was my second unit chief and my steadycam operator - knew Switzerland well, his father being a Swiss journalist. He said to me that in Canton Ticino (the Italian part of the country) there were beautiful mountains. We went together there, finding beautiful places. I remember it was a hard period of shooting: I lost a lot of money, because, for a very strange reason, at the moment we began to shoot it started raining, and it kept raining for a week. Anyway, we were looking for a place in the mountains, when suddenly Ronnie Taylor, the cinematographer, said to me that he was sure we were in the same place in which they shot "The Sound of Music". It was a place kept secret by the production, so everybody involved in the film had to keep silent about it. So it was a mythical place when the film came out. I don't remember it, as I was a child and I was not very interested in that kind of film. After that the doubt grew in me, I looked for the cassette of "The Sound of Music", I watched it and I realised they were the same places. So, by chance, I did find that place! What happens to Betty? Betty thinks that everything that happened to her is like a dream, it is not true, she is a kind, sweet person. The murderer, as he is carried away, says to her "You are like your mother", and she says "It is not true". It has been almost a dream, a hallucination. She is a sweet and tender person. Everything she saw is almost a nightmare. Sleepless Have you become bemused by the modern world like Ulysses in Sleepless? No, he is just a character. It is like having resurrected Sherlock Holmes, whom I have admired so much since I was a boy. I quoted him more than once in "Tenebre". To me it was like having Sherlock Holmes in this world, with fax, DNA… He, instead, follows the old method: induction, deduction, talking, paying attention to the contradictions in the sentences and so on. It is an homage to him, to Holmes. There is a contrast between him and the cold modern policeman. It is not stated who is the best of the two, the film does not say that, we don't know that. Moretti dies before solving the case, and the other one says "Maybe Moretti would have solved it too".

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