After a really nice review of
Maleficarum appeared in
Obscure Video and DVD Blog back in July, he was nice enough to ask me to do an interview as well. You can
read it on his blog or right here below!
INTERVIEW WITH AMY HESKETH
Amy Hesketh, not many know the name that read this blog, but she
is a very talented and beautiful young woman who starred in a film I
reviewed here called Maleficarum, about the Peruvian Inquisition and it
has developed into my most read review and has made traffic to this site
triple.
My blog deals with older movies, cult films,a few newer low budget gems
and the like, but Maleficarum struck me as a cross between Jess Franco
films and the witch finder films of the 60's and 70's.
I consider Amy a very "
Jess Franco" type director with a similar vision (I hope she doesn't mind me saying that).
Amy was very kind to link the review to other sites and I decided to see
if I could do a small interview about her and her other projects.
Here, below are the results of that request and some interesting pics of her upcoming projects.
WARNING: THE PICS CONTAIN NUDITY....
I know you were shown the movie
Fright Night with Roddy McDowell when
you were six,
but are there other films of that genre that you like and got you
interested in movies?
Four films that I saw when I was younger are Return to Oz (1985), Warlock (1989), Tale of a Vampire (1992), and Boxing Helena (1993).
I realize that it's a bit strange that three of these films feature
Julian Sands... I also realize that some of these are not movies for
young people. My dad was great about not censoring my viewing, he let me
watch what I wanted. These movies made a big impact on me. I realized
very young that horror, violence, obsession, sex, art, and perversion
were the "good stuff" in movies. I think my work features a healthy dose
of the "good stuff".
What kind of film would you ultimately like to direct?
I'm so happy to have the freedom to write and direct almost any movie
that tickles my fancy, I have several scripts and ideas on the burner
for the next few years. Eventually I would like to be able to obtain the
film rights to a rather famous book that was slated to go into the
public domain last year and didn't.
Can you give us a little info on the movie you are now directing
called Le Marquis de la Croix, such as when it will be released?
Le Marquis de la Croix and Barbazul I directed in 2011and they'll both be released this year, Le Marquis will be direct to DVD/VOD in the Fall, and Barbazul will debut in Bolivian theaters October 11th.
Le Marquis de la Croix is inspired by the writings of the
Marquis de Sade. The film features a man who is writing in prison,
played by Jac Avila.. It's implied that le Marquis was locked up for
obscenity. He pays for a young woman, a gypsy, Zinga, played by Mila
Joya, to be brought to his cell. He writes about and commits all kinds
of atrocities to her. It's intense. I really tried to bring the writings
of de Sade to life in this movie in a very graphic way. At the same
time, I wanted to keep it a bit fun, a bit campy, old-timey
exploitation, done in a post-modern way, with a sprinkling of social
commentary. I think I succeeded in doing all of that.
Barbazul (Bluebeard), is based on the children's story by Charles
Perrault about a man (with a blue beard) who kills his wives. He's a
serial killer. This, again, is a very graphic movie in terms of violence
and nudity. It seemed as though other movies made about Bluebeard
skimmed over the more intense elements of the story. There was a hole in
the cinematic trajectory of Bluebeard. I'm not one to squander an
opportunity so I made Barbazul much in the fashion of the
1960's/70's Italian exploitation horror flicks of yesteryear but, like I
do, went farther with the "good stuff". It's a tense and terrifying
movie, but has enough (very) dark humor to appeal to a wider audience.
Have you always wanted to both act and direct or does one interest you
more than the other?
I started taking acting classes when I was 6 years old and I've wanted
to direct since I was about 10 or 11 years old . Both have their value
and interest to me. Being on both sides of the camera makes it easier
for me to ask for more from my actors and to understand what they're
going through. I've acted in difficult roles and done extraordinary
things, so when I tell them to do something that may sound a bit crazy
I'm pretty sure my actors think "Well, at least I don't have to sit on a
wooden horse for 5 hours like you did!". One actress told me straight
out that it's amazing that I think up these crazy ideas for movies and
everyone just goes along with me like what we're doing is normal. Like
the Pied Piper of Crazy Art Movies. I doubt anyone who works with me
would want to continue to do so if I made "normal" movies, they would
think I had completely lost my mind.
What are your five favorite movies of all time and why?
Well, if I can only choose five...there are so many more that are not on the list below.
Pretty much all of the movies I love have one thing in common, a
depiction of the point when the personality is stripped away and
something is revealed beneath: the animal, instinctual, something sick
or undefined. It's what I explore in my own movies. Call it an
obsession.
1)The Night Porter (1974). Dirk Bogard and Charlotte Rampling,
two amazing actors in a very sexy film. It's audacious, crazy,
wonderful. I would love a role like Charlotte's. Dirk Bogard in a Nazi
uniform gives me a frisson.
2)Le Mepris (1963) Brigitte Bardot in what I perceive to be her
most revealing role. I have a thing for the miserable, lost and
existential.
3)Jules et Jim (1962) Weird threesome, dark, existential, what's not to like?
4)Weekend (1967) In my opinion, Godard's most important film. It also embodies the spirit of film-making for me.
5)Antichrist (2009) When I saw this in the theater in NYC, half
of the audience walked out. I was leaning forward in ecstasy, hoping it
would be 8 hours long.
My blog is usually about off the wall and older films yet Maleficarum
seems, at least to the people who read it to fit right in. How do you
feel about that and account for it?
I'm very glad that Maleficarum fits into your blog as we admire the movies you write about here. Maleficarum,
as well as the other films that we make, is made in the style of the
older audacious exploitation films of yesteryear. Those films were
shocking in their day, and our films are shocking now. We take those
older films as inspiration and build upon that, going farther with the
"good stuff". Essentially we make the movies we, ourselves, would like
to see, but can't find because they don't otherwise exist.
Maleficarum is interesting to viewers in many different ways,
historically because we use actual transcripts of testimonies from the
Peruvian Inquisition (it's amazing to think that people really said
these things), in terms of how we graphically show the tortures as
realistically as possible, no holds barred, and the story arc of the
victims, the sad tale that it is.
Where eventually do you want your acting career to go?
I plan to keep pushing myself until I burn out... joking! I want to
get to a point in which I've acted in every role imaginable, a point in
which I can say, "you did good, kid". It could be a long time from now.
Is a sequel to Maleficarum planned?
We haven't planned a sequel to Maleficarum, however we may
touch upon the theme of the Inquisition in a film again. We've had so
many emails and messages requesting just that, it would be hard to let
people down. ;)
I know from very personal experience that I get a rush from making a
movie. Do you have the same feelings when acting and directing?
It's the best! I get more of a rush from writing and directing a film
than acting. Standing behind the camera when the actors do something
really good, when the scene comes to life right there in front of you,
pretty much exactly how you imagined it, is thrilling. Acting is more
complicated for me. The characters I tend to play, having to enter into
the soul of another and leave myself behind is draining. When I watch
the dailies and see I did a good job, that's when I get a good feeling
from acting.
An exception might be some scenes in Maleficarum. There was
adrenalin involved when we shot the roasting scene. A lot of adrenalin. I
was scared out of my mind. That's a kind of rush I guess.
My recent role in Diego Torres' experimental film La Montaña Interior
was an exception as well. To have to hike up to about 5000 meters
(16,000 feet), shoot some scenes, then take my shirt off in front of a
glacier (a glacier!), shoot that scene before the clouds came in, and
then go back down. That was a rush. More from the extreme cold than
anything else...
I gave myself a lead role (which I normally don't do) in my new film Olalla, inspired by the story by Robert Louis Stevenson. That could be a rush, and an opportunity for catharsis.
I hope you enjoyed this small little interview with someone whom I think will go BIG places.
Maybe I should have Amy in my next project? A huge thanks to Amy for the pictures in the interview.
