I have always believed, as far as the actual craft of filmmaking is concerned, that the Italians do it best. When you consider the artifice of a film: how every sound has been created and placed specifically to get a reaction; how every camera movement is (prior to filming) a discussion and/or decision; how the actors you see onscreen are completely fake in everything they do—Italian filmmakers like Luchino Visconti, Sergio Leono, Dario Argento and Lucio Fulci simply do it better than anyone else.
In terms of the very real, no-bullshit, capital-F Filmmaking, Lucio Fulci’s Zombi 2 (1979) is a superior film to Star Wars: The Last Jedi (Johnson, 2017). There. I said it. But when you take into account the decisions that have been made and executed as artistic events or motifs in the form of a film that you are now watching and reacting to, Dario Argento’s Suspiria (1977) is a superior film The Hateful Eight (Tarantino, 2015). Suspiria (as I’m sure Michele Fiascaris and Filippo Polesel would tell you) is a film that has been designed within an inch of its life. It is brilliant for the very same reason.
‘I have always thought the same for British music,’ Rain Catcher producer Filippo Polesel says sat alongside his writing partner Michele, ‘there’s a sense of research in British music. And you don’t get bands like Pink Floyd or The Beatles anywhere in the world except here.’
I mention how Cream drummer Ginger Baker set up a recording studio in Lagos, Nigeria in 1971. He played and was friends with Fela Kuti (the premier Afrobeat musician of the 20th Century). Baker was subsequently run out of the country by the then-military regime (whom Kuti was a vocal opponent of), but I can’t quite imagine Buckethead moving to the Spanish Cantabrian Mountains so that he could learn guitar playing from an ancient Latino master called El Chico.
‘You don’t get Radiohead in other places,’ Filippo continues, ‘it’s very specific over here. These kinds of sounds. This melancholy. It’s very British. I think the people reflect that in their art.’ I ask what he and Michele reflect through their films. He notes how Rain Catcher is acute (which it is). This specificity in recreating the real world: it is ultimately ironic, since the film projects a complete artifice, but only because it is attempting to understand photographic voyeurism by replicating it to a tee. Rain Catcher is not about surface, precisely because it is composed of surface – at the end of the day that is all a film amounts to. But the meanings; emotions, comments, deconstructions, exist within the construction of the film. Especially in Rain Catcher.
Michele and Filippo watched a weird video online. (This was how the creative process began.) They showed it to me (https://geekologie.com/2016/02/creepy-guy-staring-at-zoom-lens-from-far.php). There’s this guy in a crowd. The camera is obviously miles away. But he looks at the camera. Then he starts moving towards wherever the cameraman is. He keeps looking at the camera. But that’s impossible, surely? If the cameraman is that far away, then how the hell does this guy know where to look? The shot zooms out: wow. We really are miles away from this strange, strange dude. ‘It’s a bit random,’ Michele remarks, “we thought, ‘What if there’s a mysterious guy in all the photos or videos we take?’” You’d be hanging out with Roger Stone too much for a start.
Filippo adds to that: ‘We wanted to explore the world of photography and the world within a photograph. The elements that a photograph can contain […] It’s a bit of a tribute to Blow Up,’ Michelangelo Antonioni’s groovy 1966 film, ‘the triggering element was that video Michele was talking about with that man walking towards the camera. But being far away.’
Where’s Wally. Filippo said as much. ‘Where’s Wally.’ See.
Another rain story: ‘We had very specific locations,’ Michele explains, ‘we had the Barbican. We had Kings Cross St. Pancras. Even the Woolwich Tunnel. And we did get very lucky with a storm that happened at the Barbican.’
‘It’s a real rain storm,’ Filippo chimes in.
‘We wanted that,’ Michele continues, ‘and then it actually happened so we got very lucky with that. Everybody would have complained when it starts pouring rain,’ he obviously has never met Guy Nattiv, ‘but for us, it was a blessing.’
For Polesel and Fiascaris, the major influences were Denis Villeneuve’s Enemy (2013) and Denis Villeneuve in general; David Fincher films like The Game (1997) and Seven (1995); Peter Weir’s film The Truman Show (1998), which I’m yet to enjoy as a viewing experience. ‘Francis Ford Coppola, Martin Scorsese, Brian De Palma,’ Michele lists them off like an assortment of baked goods, ‘Godfather, Goodfellas, Scarface. All those things,’ synchronized, ‘all those crime stories: sorry, there are too many films!’
‘No!’ Filippo interrupts, ‘that’s what brought Rain Catcher to life! The passion for certain themes and subjects; colours, stories.’ Work with people you like. Plan in advance. Watch weird videos. Run a short film festival (Michele and Filippo have their own: Shorts On Tap [http://shortsontap.com]). Pay attention to the details. Always be tweaking. Improving. Communicating.
Have the passion for beauty.
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