Lorenzo Lepori
There appears to be a bit of an underground resurgence in the Italian horror scene at the moment. One man involved in this is director Lorenzo Lepori with his upcoming anthology film 'Catacomba'. Cosi Perversa recently caught up with Lorenzo to discuss his influences and what we can expect from his new film.
CP: Ciao Lorenzo and thank you for your time. Could you please tell us a little bit about yourself, what got you into horror and any film projects that you have been involved in previously?
LL: I've been fascinated by strange movies since my childhood, and the first influences came simply from the posters I saw in the local video store, the "Super Video" store that no longer exists. Here, while my mother was renting some French comedy, I sneaked (viewings of) the covers of those forbidden movies: one stayed long in my mind before I was able to see the actual movie, the cover of "The Abominable Dr Phibes", with the bloody skull and the locusts.
Later, the first horrors I came across were the old classics from England, everything with Cushing, Lee and Price. Growing up, I've become a fan of action movies, criminal cinema and Italian Gothic, with a special affection to those (films) of Renato Polselli.
In my first movies ( "Il vangelo secondo Taddeo"; "Resurrection in blood/Resurrezione di cuori"; "I love you like a Twist") the mixture of horror and action is evident. In "...Twist" I tried a mixture of Italian action and American monster movies. While the result is pretty disastrous, I had the satisfaction of working with one of the most iconic faces of Italian genre films, Gianni Dei, from "Patrick still lives". Meanwhile the brief "5 cerchi roventi" is slightly different from my other works, less humorous and darker in atmosphere, surely influenced from Cronenberg and Ferrara. All those works were self produced and very, very underground...
CP: Is '5 Cerchi Roventi' available for us to watch online?
LL: You can find "5 cerchi..." on YouTube in three parts and with English subtitles. It also features a subplot about photography, another of my passions.
CP: You mentioned that you tried incorporating and mixing different styles and horror genres in the past, has this been beneficial to your development as a director?
LL: I always try something new, because my style keeps evolving with my life. Until now, I started a new work only when I felt I had something new to say, and (in) everything I've done as a director it's been useful.
CP: Your upcoming film, co-directed by Roberto Albanesi, is the anthology ‘Catacomba’, what can you tell us about it?
LL: It's inspired by Italian erotic/horror comics from the past. It's very grotesque in tone, especially thanks to the very ironic connecting episode from Albanesi: (it features) a guy, not very smart, looking for a barber shop, finding a very odd one, and while he is waiting for his turn he reads this comic with four stories. "Una messa nera per Paganini" is very classical, inspired to gothic cinema, features the iconic Pascal Persiano ("Paganini horror"; "Demons 2") in a story that resembles the last episode of "The garden of tortures" from Freddie Francis, but with a strong feeling of late Italian horror.
"Alien Lover" is more ironic, realistic with "actors from the streets", very inspired from the comic "Storie Blu", that always mixed eroticism and science fiction. "Evil Tree" is stronger in violence and eroticism, and features Antonio Tentori in the leading role of an unlucky screenwriter. "La maschera della morte rossa", is an erotic variation of the tale from Edgar Allan Poe (The masque of the red death...), very inspired by the Spanish bizarre cinema of Franco and Larraz, with a strong touch of splatter.
CP: You mention the prolific Antonio Tentori how did this collaboration come about?
LL: We met at a festival, and from there we never lost contact. Antonio is very easy to work with, very generous and humble. He co-wrote even "...Paganini", and we are going to work together again soon.
CP: Can you tell us anymore about this future collaboration with Antonio Tentori?
LL: It's very much too soon to say anything, but I think there will be much interesting news after this summer...
CP: Some of the Catacomba segments have trailers going back to 2013, how did you keep your motivation going all these years?
LL: I'm just very determined. I had so little money, I had to shoot every segment in just one day, something like 12 or 13 hours of work. But every time I had to wait for the moment I had the money for effects, actors, food...so years passed!
CP: You have said that it is inspired by the Italian horror and erotic comics, what made you look to the past?
LL: When I first encountered those comics, I found to my great surprise that I felt very close to their poetics. I always liked how freely the authors of those comics mixed sex, monstrosity, madness, black humour with fascinating stories and drawings. This style was, and still is, unique in the world of comics. When I discovered that one of the leading artists of this era was named just like me, Lorenzo Lepori, I started looking for him, in order to join our forces. I found him, and during two years we worked together on this project, without ever meeting each other. He has no cellular phone, and no internet, so we kept sending boxes with DVDs and drawings, very old style indeed. You see, when you find someone named like you, and this person is similar to you with so many other aspects, you have to work with him. There is something of mysterious, fascinating, so "Pirandello style", and I had to bathe in that.
CP: Are there any plans to release a comic and if so in Italian or English language?
LL: There will be a comic book that will be distributed in both the English and Italian language. Painted by the ominous Lorenzo Lepori. At the moment I still don't know if it will come along the DVD or separate. Anyway, it will be the actual comic which you'll see in the movie.
CP: It has been quite hard to find out much about the film in English. Has this been a conscious decision? It certainly makes the film feel more underground and exciting to discover more about.
LL: We are still at the first steps of distribution but the movie is scheduled to come out in DVD in September. I think there will be English subtitles so you will be able to enjoy it...there are so little words, and so much action.
I have started presenting brief segments of the movie in various festivals here in Italy and around the world, but everything is still very underground. We are growing the movie without any hurry. You can find out more about the movie on the IMDB page and Facebook page.
CP: Grazie mille Lorenzo for your time and we can't wait until Catacomba is released.
You can view the trailer for Catacomba below.
