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Matthew Saliba
Director, Actor, Writer
Director of:
She Was Asking For It,
Vampyros Lesbos (2008), Pandora's Paradox |
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So, for those unaware
of your work, what are you about?
Well, for the past 5 years I've been slowly building a
name for myself as a filmmaker specializing in films
which combine elements of sado-eroticism (which is to
say the erotic representation of sadomasochistic imagery
as opposed to the vulgar and pornographic fashion in
which it's unfortunately presented in most films) and
horror. I've made four short films to date: Vampyros
Lesbos (2008), She Was Asking for It (2007), Pandora's
Paradox (2004) and The Manipulator and the Subservient
(2003), all of which have screened the world over from
the Netherlands to the nether regions of the Nevada
desert winning festival prizes and praise from critics
and audiences alike. I'm very interested in subversive
art, gender studies, sexual appropriation,
sadomasochism, fetishism, surrealism and theatre of the
absurd and these interests are very much reflected in my
work in addition to very eclectic plots ranging from
elderly women giving birth to giant toes to young men
getting raped by cherry-red dildos!
So how's the launch been
for "Vampyros Lesbos"?
Oh it's been incredible! We just had our World Premiere
at the National Film Board here in Montreal and it was
easily one of the greatest nights of my life! The NFB
Cinema can hold up to 140 people and we very nearly sold
the place out! There had to be at least 100 people in
attendance and everyone LOVED the film! The reception
was unbelievable! When you consider all of this was for
a short film, a short film told in still images, no
less, it's pretty incredible actually. |
I mean, there's feature films that
don't draw these kinds of numbers. It was fantastic! Since then, my
phone's been off the hook, and by phone, I mean e-mail inbox, since
nobody communicates on the phone anymore (laughs), flooded with
requests for screeners, interviews, you name it! I've been so busy
sending the film to festivals and magazines around the world that I
can now officially write, "For cultural use only, no commercial
value" in 4 different languages!
So, you're a Jess Franco fan?
Well, to tell you the truth, I've only just started getting into
Jess Franco's work. I'm a HUGE Euro-Cult fan and I adore the work of
Mario Bava, Dario Argento, Lucio Fulci, Sergio Martino, Umberto
Lenzi, Ruggero Deodato, Michele Soavi and so on but Jess Franco (and
Jean Rollin) are the two names who've always managed to slip through
the cracks during my insane bouts of DVD splurging. But I'm making
up for it now!
From what you've seen, what are
some of your favorites from Franco?
Well, the ones that have caught my attention thus far are Vampyros
Lesbos (natch), Venus in Furs, The Diabolical Dr. Z (which is
absolutely exquisite!) and just for that surreal scene where Howard
Vernon plays the piano while Jess Franco repeatedly and inexplicably
bangs his head on the floor, A Virgin Among the Living Dead.
What drew you to Franco's work,
originally?
Well, being a Euro-Trash aficionado it's only natural that I'd
eventually discover the man whose sheer quantity of work encompasses
the vast majority of the genre. There are two things that really
strike me about Jess Franco. One, he's definitely an "idea-man."
There are so many brilliant ideas in films such as Vampyros Lesbos
(the whole gender/locale/motif inversion of Bram Stoker's Dracula
for example) that despite his technical failings as a filmmaker,
raises his work to a level which demands critical examination. Two,
there's a certain "D.I.Y. aesthetic" to his work that being an
independent, self-financing filmmaker I can totally relate to. I
mean, I love Hollywood blockbusters like Star Wars, but without the
kind of money and resources it would take to make a film like that,
I can never aspire to make anything close to that. In fact, my
attempt at making a film like Star Wars would make Turkish Star Wars
seem like Star Wars by comparison (laughs)! But when I watch a film
like Vampyros Lesbos I see something that's very much within my
means as a filmmaker. Not only that, I also see a film with a visual
and conceptual aesthetic that I'm more interested in making anyway
and for all intents and purposes would continue to make even if I
had the kind of money to make Star Wars.
Are you a fan of exploitation and its variations?
Absolutely! In fact, if it ends in "'ploitation" chances are I have
at least 5 examples of each sub-genre in my collection! I really
believe exploitation films are the most honest and sincere form of
art there is. I find there's this tendency to associate certain
pretensions around what is and isn't considered "artistic" which is
why it may sound odd to refer to a film like The Erotic Nights of
the Living Dead as "art." But at the end of the day, art is
fundamentally about establishing a connection with an audience
through your work and evoking some kind of emotional response from
them and I find exploitation films are a lot more successful at this
than many so-called "Art Films."
I have to ask: Where in
the hell did you find Kitty Daly? I know she was supposed to
be a lesbian vampire, but shit I was entranced!
(Laughs) Can't say I blame you there, she's freaking hot!!!
I met her through Isabelle Stephen (the ill-fated star of "Vampyros
Lesbos"). When our original choice for the role of Countess
Nadine dropped out of the project, I began frantically
searching for someone new and Isabelle recommended her to
me. It's funny, when I first saw a picture of Kitty, I
didn't think she'd be right for the role. Countess Nadine is
a character who exudes a blend of exoticism and dominance
and our original choice fit that to a tee, whereas Kitty
didn't strike me as being "tough enough" for the part. But
thankfully the old adage that you can't judge a book by its
cover proved to be true as upon meeting Kitty in person, it
was obvious that she MORE than fit the role and I'm very
happy we went with her as she did an AMAZING job! |
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Kitty
Daly as Countess Nadine |
You seem to have a very
anti-Franco sentiment where the women get their kicks in just as
much as men do, is that purposeful?
Well, it's certainly not maliciously so. In the context of the
story, it's a necessary, albeit horrific element which only serves
to enhance the tragic ending. Unlike She Was Asking for It, the
audience isn't supposed to revel in the revenge aspect of this
story. You're supposed to feel empathy for Linda. Here's a woman who
is ultimately being punished for discovering herself sexually, not
unlike countless individuals in everyday life who are shunned,
reproached, made to feel ashamed and sometimes even ostracized from
family and friends entirely, all because they strive for a sense of
individuality that doesn't conform with society's norms.
A remake of "Vampyros Lesbos" is very ambitious, were you nervous
approaching the cult classic for a revamp?
Not really because I honestly didn't see this as a remake per se. My
intention with this film was to tell a very personal story which was
inspired by the subtext of the original film using Jess Franco's
characters. The sexual politics in the original film have always
fascinated me.
Fundamentally, Franco's film is about
Linda, a woman in a very bland, vanilla, sexually frustrating
relationship who encounters another woman, Countess Nadine, whose
blend of mystique and forbidden eroticism sparks a sexual awakening
in Linda which Omar, her husband, sees as a threat to his
masculinity and moreover to heterosexuality in general. So he
embarks upon a quest to "save" Linda, which in this case, involves
killing Nadine and thereby eliminating the idea that a woman can be
sexually pleasured by anyone other than a man, and bringing Linda
home, which is to say back to the norm, to heterosexuality. This was
something that really hit home. Not that I ever had a girlfriend who
was seduced by a lesbian vampire, mind you, (laughs) but the idea of
someone being made to feel that their sexuality was wrong and needed
"correcting" was something I could really relate to. It should come
as no surprise to anyone who's seen my films that I'm into S&M and
Fetishism. It's taken me a long time to be able to say something
like that in public without fear of rejection or ridicule. I hate to
play the whole, "I grew up in a conservative household" card but...
I grew up in a conservative household where the idea of anything
outside of missionary sex was considered morally reprehensible and
extremely shameful.
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Moreover, most of my
friends felt the same way insofar as S&M and Fetishes
were seen as weird and not normal. So for the longest
time I was very much alone in my
sadomasochistic/fetishistic explorations: keeping it
secret, enjoying the hell of it yet feeling ashamed for
liking it, certainly never telling anyone about it. I
used my early films as excuses to indulge in said
activities and whenever someone would comment on that
I'd laugh it off. But eventually it got to a point where
I realized I was committing the worst possible sin of
all, denying myself of who I am. So I came out of the
closet, so to speak and the reaction was as expected:
there were some who supported me and many others who
just stopped talking to me. It hurt me very much losing
friends I'd known for years, until it dawned on me that
if a friendship could end simply because of what I
choose to do in the privacy of my own bedroom, it
probably wasn't worth keeping anyway so fuck 'em! |
Anyway, all this to
say, watching Franco's film brought back memories of all of this
and I was inspired to make a film about my own situation. Now
you can probably argue that I could've just as well made an
entirely different film and called it anything but Vampyros
Lesbos, but to me that would be missing the point. I wanted to
say thank you to Jess Franco for creating a film that really
spoke to me and the best possible way I could do that was to pay
homage to his vision with a film of my own.
Did you originally receive a lot
of scorn when you decided to remake it?
(Laughs) Well, one person sent me a MySpace message telling me that
a remake, "even an amateur one" of Vampyros Lesbos was a bad idea
and that the original is a classic that shouldn't be touched with a
ten-foot pole. Besides that there hasn't really been any scorn
inasmuch as there's been some concern among the Franco faithful as
to what a Vampyros Lesbos remake might entail. But I'm happy to say
that I recently received my best review yet. It was written by Eric
Heze over at Club des Monstres. I happen to know Eric is a die-hard
Jess Franco fan and he was very impressed with my take on Vampyros
Lesbos and went as far as to recommend the DVD to everyone! So there
you go! A seal of approval from one member of the Franco faithful! I
really believe that when people watch the film, they'll quickly
realize that it wasn't made with the malicious attempt to usurp the
original at all. If anything, it was made to compliment Franco's
film and would make a wonderful double-bill with it. Hint, hint!
(Laughs)
How has the reaction been to it, thus far? I personally loved it.
Well, thank you very much! Yeah, the reception to it has been
unbelievable! It's been getting rave reviews left and right! We knew
we had a strong film on our hands but nothing could prepare us for
how the audience at the premiere reacted! Like I said, it was one of
the best nights of my life and certainly my most fulfilling moment
as a filmmaker. I only hope the film festival circuit is just as
receptive to the film as audiences have been so far.
I really liked how "She Was Asking
For It" turned the tables on the revenge thriller. Did it receive
any controversy because of that?
Surprisingly not! If anything, people have complimented the film for
the same reasons you just did. The idea behind She Was Asking for It
was to illustrate the double standards we have for men and women
when it comes to sex and violence. I find it very interesting that a
woman can get raped and then go on to murder the man or men who
raped her while we cheer her on because it's being done in the name
of revenge, yet if the roles were reversed we'd consider it
misogynist. That's a discrepancy I was very interested in exploring.
It's the same principle, yet because of the negative connotation
associated with man-on-woman violence, we find ourselves reluctant
to support a man using violent means to inflict his vengenace upon
his female oppressors. I'd never seen that done in a film before and
thought it would make for an excellent experiment in audience
reaction.
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What was the general
reaction to "She Was Asking For It" and the stance on
role reversal?
I have a great story about the best reaction the film's
gotten so far. We were at the Wreck-Beach International
Film Festival, just north of Toronto. Wreck-Beach holds
all of its screenings outdoors at night under the stars
making for a wonderful "drive-in-style experience" only
without the cars and the awkward attempts to have sex in
them. However, in true "drive-in" fashion there's this
tendency for people to talk to each other during
screenings, which can get very annoying, especially when
they're talking during your own film! That was the case
for the first couple of scenes of She Was Asking for It.
At one point I was planning to get up, turn around to
face the audience and tell everyone to shut the fuck up!
However, when the cherry-red dildo made its first
appearance in the film, projected in digital clarity on
a giant 40-foot screen, everybody (and I kid you not),
EVERYBODY shut the fuck up in unison! A collective hush
fell on the audience as the rape sequence and subsequent
murder set-pieces had them enthralled. By the time the
end credits rolled, the film received a standing ovation
with several demands of an encore, which the programmers
duly obliged by playing the film on an endless loop all
night!That's
quite incredible. So, how long have you worked with
photographer Mario Carangi?
I've been working with Mario for over a year now. I met
him last March when I was breaking into fetish modeling
and was looking for photographers to collaborate with.
He came highly recommended and when I took a look at his
portfolio, I could see why. |
But what really caught my attention
was a byline he had which expressed an interest in working with
anyone who wanted to tell a story. Now photographers aren't
necessary story-tellers pe se, they're more interested in capturing
moments that we as an audience can read a story into. But what Mario
seemed to be suggesting was very much a filmmaker's approach to
studio photography and being a filmmaker/writer myself I was
naturally intrigued. So I got in touch with him, told him about an
idea I had and we met up at a coffee shop. The funny thing about
that was that up until this point I had no idea what he looked like.
I was expecting some young hipster in his 20s or 30s but suddenly
this very warm, genuine, grandfatherly (he's gonna hate me for
saying that!) man came up to me and introduced himself as Mario! We
hit it off and have been working with each other ever since!
How long does a shoot take on average?
Vampyros Lesbos took 3 days to shoot. At least it was supposed to
take 3 days, but the cinema gods must've been frowning on us for
attempting to "remake" a classic as we were beset with all kinds of
problems! We shot in mid-December and on the 3rd day of shooting
there was a huge snowstorm which made travelling to the locations
impossible. So we postponed the shoot until January. Then when we
regrouped to finish the shoot, Mario threw his back out while
shooting the Dungeon sequence, so we had to delay the shoot yet
again. We eventually finished the shoot sometime in mid-to-late
January. Somehow we managed to keep continuity in spite of this
hectic schedule. Well, almost. I probably shouldn't be pointing this
out, but when you watch the film, take a good look at my hair as it
seems to "magically" grow and shrink from scene to scene! (laughs)
Why did you choose storytelling through pictures instead of the
typical format?
This is a style that Mario and I have been developing since our
first collaboration. As I mentioned earlier, what got me interested
in working with Mario was this filmmaker approach to studio
photography he seemed to have: the whole wanting to collaborate with
people who wanted to tell stories. So we tried doing that the first
time. The story was a cuckold scenario where I played a guy who was
in love with a girl who in turn wanted nothing to do with him and
loved lording that fact over him by having him tag along on her date
with her "real man" lover. The end result was mixed. On one hand,
the photography was gorgeous and I certainly felt a lot sexier and
confident after participating in it. But on the other hand, it
lacked direction and as a result any semblance of a story was lost.
The reason for that was because there was no director. There was no
one making sure the story had a clear beginning, middle and end and
that it was flowing properly. But Mario and I enjoyed working
together and when he asked me if I had any other stories, I told him
about a script I was trying to turn into a film for the past 3 years
called She Was Asking for It. I was having a very difficult time
trying to get financing for it and by that time figured it would
never get turned into a film so why not use it as a basis for a
photoshoot? This time around, I took over as director and the result
was night and day.
The pictures were better, the story
was stronger, the performances were inspired, in fact the whole
shoot was very much treated like a film, so much so that when we
were putting together the collage for our wrap-party, it dawned on
us just how cinematic the end result was and that with a dissolve
here, a fade out there, all timed to a rocking soundtrack, we would
have a film on our hands here! So what started as a photoshoot ended
up turning into an award-winning film that people really responded
to in a very enthusiastic way. Based on the success of SWAFI, Mario
and I decided to make another photomontage, only this time around we
knew going in that we wanted to make a film. So while shooting
Vampyros Lesbos, we made every effort to make it as "cinematic" as
possible. We shot the entire thing in landscape (widescreen) stills.
We shot on location whenever possible. We tried to avoid
studio-style lighting (high key, no fill) and lit the sets
appropriately. And of course, the big thing we did differently was
shooting in "real time", which is to say a sort of "stop-motion
animation with live people" approach which gives the audience the
subliminal impression that they're watching a live action film. In
fact, many people have commented that when watching the film, there
were moments where they forgot they were looking at stills. Suffice
it to say, Mario and I accomplished our goal and we couldn't be
happier!
So, where will you be
screening "Vampyros Lesbos"?
Well, it was already accepted into the Wreck-Beach
International Film Festival and will be screening there
in August. We're really looking forward to going back
there. We had a blast last year and even managed to win
the "People's Choice Award" for She Was Asking for It.
Here's hoping Vampyros Lesbos cleans up big time!
Besides that, I'll be sending the film to a lot of Gay
and Lesbian-themed film festivals, erotic film festivals
and underground/experimental film festivals. Not to
mention the usual haunts which have always showcased
Sinema Saliba in the past.
Uh... can you get me
Kitty Daly's phone number?
(Laughs) No, but you're more than welcome to Facebook-stalk
her! I'll send you her profile link later! |
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So what's planned for your next
short feature?
Two words: Frankenstein Unlimited. It's a feature-length,
anthology-style film composed of 10 independently produced shorts by
Quebec's Emerging Masters of Horror each taking inspiration from the
legend of Frankenstein and themes of the original novel. The
filmmakers involved in the production include: SV Bell, King-Wei Chu,
Matthew Forbes, Martin Gauthier, Stephane Gauvreau, Izabel Grondin,
Al Kratina, Isabelle Stephen, Steve Villeneuve & Hugo Bissonnet (who
are co-directing a short) and yours truly. This was a project I
launched last October inspired by the Masters of Horror series on
Showtime. Quebec has a thriving horror community which I'd almost
compare to the Italian Horror scene of the late-60s to the mid-80s
and so I thought it would be wonderful to gather all these
impressive talents together and have each director create their own
vision of Frankenstein while at the same time showcase to the world
the many different faces of Quebec filmmaking. In addition to
overseeing the entire project, I'll also be writing and directing my
own entry. I'm still debating what that might be, but lately I'm
leaning towards making a sado-erotic film-noir homage to Jess
Franco's The Diabolical Dr. Z. I'm aiming for a Summer 2009 release
but in the meantime, anyone interested in learning more about the
project, can
check us out.
Thanks for your time, Matthew.
No Problem!
"Vampyros Lesbos" and "She Was
Asking For It" are now playing at select festivals and screenings.
Look for them!
-
Felix Vasquez Jr.
5/29/08
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