Luciano Onetti
Writer/Director of Sonno Profondo (2013) aka Deep Sleep
Argentinian director Luciano Onetti enters the giallo genre with his debut feature, Sonno Profondo. The film follows the path of a killer who, traumatised from childhood memories, receives a mysterious envelope containing photos of his latest murderous act. This action flips the usual conventions as the hunter becomes the hunted as someone is out for revenge.
I spoke with Luciano a while ago to discover the process behind the film and why when many contemporary gialli are looking towards the art scene, he has decided to go back to the roots of the genre with a strong 1960’s and 70’s influence.
CP: The title of the film puts me in mind of Dario Argento’s ‘Non Ho Sonno’ and ‘Profondo Rosso’, was this a conscious link on your part or just coincidence?
LO: It was really a bad coincidence because I always knew that the name Sonno Profondo would recall those film names. I thought about putting (naming it) in the first instance ‘Comatose’ but that name already existed, and also that name gives something very specific of the plot from the very beginning and Sonno Profondo was the best name that went with the movie. Deep Sleep is a stage or state of coma, where reality mixes with dreams. However I think that it is the best name for the movie despite the unfortunate coincidences with the Argento movies.
CP: What can you tell us about the film?
LO: It is very difficult to describe the plot of the movie, because you’re creating the plot as you’re watching the movie until the final scene where all the ends tie up, which in the beginning may appear confusing, almost like being in a deep sleep, but basically it’s a persecution between a murderer and another, so that one feels stalked and so reciprocally and the reason I can barely explain it and should be seen is because it is a movie that if you tell beforehand the mystery is lost from the first minute.
CP: The trailers feature a fantastic use of colour and authentic (replicated) seventies style cinematography, what equipment and processes did you use? Did you record in 35mm and how important was this visual authenticity to you?
LO: I worked a lot with the colour so it really looks like a movie of the time. Not only the colour, but also the quality of the audio, both sound and music. You would be surprised knowing the production of the film. I think that’s why I feel very happy to have achieved more than I expected. I just used a reflector (which can be used with one hand) and a HD camera and some lenses of the 70’s and certain adapters used with my digital camera. And when recording on HD, I retouched the image to remove that HD gloss to give the feeling of a movie on 35mm.
CP: Made on a very small budget, what challenges did you face getting the film made? And how long did it take?
LO: If I have had some budget I would have bought at the top, a real film camera. Beyond the excellent filming quality, I think my choice to give that retro touch was to hide that beautiful quality that a good film camera has and mine does not.
Why I always say that I had to adapt to what I had and with that to strive even to get something good, that’s why the story of the movie is perfectly adapted to my resources, I did not need much budget to tell my story.
The most difficult shoot was in the hospital, because of the permission required and security. I did not have a filmmaker card, and here if you’re not one known it is very difficult to gain permission. That scene was filmed in less than 5 minutes, very fast and the movie was filmed more or less in 4 months, filming during weekends or whenever the camera had travelled with me and I used to improvise a lot with what I saw in real time and saw if it could be included in the movie and could be adapted quickly to my story. All of the cars from the scenes were filmed appearing because they were there. I came across with them without premeditation.
CP: You decided to shoot the film in Italian, what prompted this decision?
LO: I think the movie could have been in any language, I think that art is universal and as it is not a movie with much dialogue, I decided to make it widely spoken in Italian. Beyond that the ancestors of my family are from Italy, in fact I have Italian citizenship and in turn I found it a challenge to do it in that language. As in music, I believe that rock (music) is English and giallo is Italian. It at least deserves that respect.
CP: The film is relatively short at 67 minutes and with limited dialogue and characters (similar in that respect to the contemporary films Amer and Symphony in Blood Red), what do you think your film brings to the genre and what will fans take away from it?
LO: The finished movie lasted longer, but I cut a couple of scenes that I saw as unnecessary. Also there are only a few actors because I wanted to tell a different story in the genre, is what I think that makes it special.
In the classic movies from the giallo genre, one set of characters were the police who were solving a case. I decided to tell it from the point of view of the main characters and I think that the fans will like to go back and see something new in the genre. To achieve something personal in genre but without crossing the line, many directors believe that to differentiate or do something new is to mix several genres and then do anything. The ideal is to do something different but staying in a genre, although ideas are depleted it will always be something else to shoot.
CP: I am glad to see that J&B is featured in Sonno Profondo, to you what clichés sum up the giallo film?
LO: Giallo is the sum of the details that were repeated in almost all of the films of that time. For example J&B, even in a background of a scene, but almost always present. Other clichés are zooms, always to any object or to display an overacted expression of a face, dolls that always generated fear, flashbacks, point of view, the defocus of the camera, classic leather gloves, razors, unreal blood. I think that the performances also summarized as a cliché as the performances at that time and in this genre were never important. The target of a giallo was to show other things, to tell a story even a ridiculous one.
CP: Sonno Profondo has received a fantastic reception at festivals across the world, how have you found the feedback and did you expect the response?
LO: It was exciting to have been selected to participate in many international festivals. I could present my film at Sitges. I never expected anything like that to happen. I think that the good things in life happen when you do not plan them. It was weird knowing I was going to compete with big budget movies and I have spent practically nothing.
CP: Music has always been important to the genre, what impression did it make on you when you first discovered gialli and how did it affect your decisions for Sonno Profondo?
LO: Music was something that caught my attention, because there are stages and directors. You have got classical music played with guitar chords and vocals like the Morricone style and then you have got something more Italo-disco and progressive as Goblin. It is the perfect music for this genre. I composed something different in some scenes and when I edited, I realised that the music did not match the image. Therefore I composed a musical style with influences of Morricone and Goblin
CP: What drew you to this genre and is there anything that you see in it that you don't get from other genres?
LO: I see the giallo genre as something very different from all other genres. It was born in a certain era and directors were giving each other their own style to create the giallo genre. Maybe today it is spoken more than a specialized genre because we look back and remember that time when we were kids, and saw that the movies were more shocking to see them today 20 or 30 years later. The genre was innovative then and it is today, unlike American horror. Giallo has very different ingredients, here it’s not a group of young people who go camping and a madman with a machete kills almost meaninglessly. The music soundtracks, narrative, gore ... everything is very different to the American horror classic. There were always big differences between European and American cinema and European directors were encouraged to make their films without seeking the commercial side.
I opt for this genre because I could do something interesting with few resources. Surely if I had received a much larger budget or been in contact with actors or perhaps been involved in the film world, I would certainly like to do something different or perhaps have done another giallo movie with more aspirations but I'm very happy with Sonno Profondo
CP: The giallo has seen something of resurgence in recent years, why do you think that it has once again come back?
LO: As I was saying previously I chose this genre because of the resources I had when I decided to shoot a movie, obviously besides liking the genre. I think that today the independent directors are aware that they cannot compete with big budget movies. To make a zombie movie genre nowadays is very difficult, because there are thousands and thousands of zombie movies, and maybe just a 30 produced. Similar is the found footage or ghost movies. There must be more than 20 films of these genres in one year, ideas are depleted. Even big Hollywood productions today opt to do remakes of '80s classics. Soon it will not be unusual if they make a remake of a giallo as they have done with Maniac or Patrick, but is not the same and never will be.
I like that there is a resurgence of giallo, but it's complicated. You must be very careful, if you cross the little line of giallo films of the 70s sure the horde of critics are going to show their teeth as they have done with Amer or The Strange Color .... I do not think that Amer or the other one are giallo genre, they are an experimental film with influences.
I compare giallo with music, such as jazz, or tango in my country; these styles have their way of being touched, have their own instruments, for example tango has the accordion, piano, violin and with a few instruments we have created great compositions. It is not surprising to know that today compositions made over 40 years ago are heard, and today people are still playing these compositions, they wanted to innovate with technology, but unfortunately it's not the same. Maybe the past is better and I think the same happens with the giallo genre. I think the giallo is never going to be giallo if you want to innovate with something modern.
It is like watching a movie from the 70s in HD it is not the same, for me it is better in VHS format. I do not like horror in HD or 3D. Also neo-gialli are not considering using many different dialogues. I think the reason is because of what I was saying, that current directors have wanted to stop something unnecessary in the genre: the bad performances of the 70s. But for me, the dialogue is very important if you are using actors, viewers often identify with a character and in the case of Sonno Profondo it is not because I decided to tell the story from another vision but with Sonno Profondo I want the viewer to imagine much more than they could see in a scene, because the imagination always trumps reality.
Sonno Profondo was released by BrinkVision and is available on VOD as well as Limited Edition DVD and VHS.
