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True Original
We speak with filmmaker Buddy Giovinazzo about ‘No Way Home’, one of the first releases from FILMINK ORIGINALS.
Film lovers should know there's a new DVD label soon to launch in Australia! FILMINK is working with Umbrella Entertainment to launch FILMINK ORIGINALS, a DVD label which offers film lovers gems that have never been released on DVD in Australia before. Up first is Buddy Giovinazzo's No Way Home.
No Way Home was a movie we discovered when we were setting up the magazine and I don't think it's ever been available for the home in Australia.
No, it's not available on DVD in America either, although it played for years on cable and was really successful. No Way Home really hurt my career. I didn't work for three years; I was dead. It was owned by Vestron, and then LIVE. LIVE went bankrupt and were bought by Artisan, who didn't release it. If they put money into my film and it was successful, they wouldn't get the credit, but if my film failed, they would get the blame. People would say, ‘Why release a film from a company that went bankrupt?'
Was getting Tim Roth for No Way Home a coup?
That was the only reason we got the film made. A friend of mine had just signed with a new agency and that agent had Tim Roth, who loved the script. I told Tim, ‘I don't have any money and I'm trying to raise the money'. Tim says, ‘Go to Cannes, tell people I'm in your film and see if you can raise the money.' This British company called Crest liked the idea of a British actor and American director and financed the film for $1 million. Before, I couldn't even raise $50,000 because of Combat Shock [Buddy's debut film which was made for Troma], which was so upsetting to so many people. Anytime I went in for a job and they looked at Combat Shock, I lost the job. After that, Tim Roth was an attraction, he's respected as a great actor. That's the key with independent films. Find an anchor; find somebody that can be the heart of your cast that will attract other actors.
You got such amazing performances. Did you workshop or did they stick to the script?
It depended. There are certain scenes you can't really improvise but there were scenes we workshopped on. One example is when Deborah Kara Unger sees James Russo, her husband, sitting there drinking, completely destroyed. He tells her that he owes all this money to the local criminal. We started shooting James, and Deborah - who wasn't giving me what I thought the scene needed - was just reading the lines to James so he had someone to play off. I said, ‘That's the fucking performance!' So we shot Deborah exactly like that. She's a tremendous actress; very instinctive. James comes with the character in mind.
What about the release in the US? Did it play a few cinemas?
It played in cinemas in Australia, England, Germany. The American film market is tough, especially for independents. They put it out on VHS and I had moved to Los Angeles because I had a Tim Roth movie. It was really a chance to go out to Hollywood and find some real money to do my next film, but I just couldn't get anything going.
Independent filmmaking seems to come in waves, like the ‘70s and ‘90s. I wonder if there is a golden period coming up?
Well, films like Taxi Driver, Five Easy Pieces and The Conversation: those were studio films. But they're very personal: author-driven, they're about small, ordinary characters. It was a great time to be a filmmaker in the ‘70s.
Can you tell me about the shoot for No Way Home?
It was my second feature film and I went from making Combat Shock for $40,000 with friends, family and my brother as the main actor, to doing a $3 million film with Tim Roth, James Russo and Deborah Unger. I didn't know enough; it was the first time I worked with really strong actors. You can't give direction to actors like Tim or James unless you have a damn good reason, because if Tim's asking me ‘Why should I sit at the table instead of standing by the phone?', I can't bullshit him. I either have to give him an answer or say ‘What do you think? Let's work on it.'
You write novels, right? Did that start after No Way Home?
I wrote my first book in 1991, because it was really frustrating to write scripts that weren't getting made. You write a book, it's finished. You write a screenplay, it's just a skeleton. You have much more creative freedom in a book. With films, you're dealing with a team. Everybody brings something to the table.
Is your book Potsdamer Platz being adapted into a movie now?
It's already adapted; I did two scripts for Tony Scott years ago. Mickey Rourke and Javier Bardem are attached. I like Tony Scott, he's a good guy. I think some of his stuff is too crazy, like the shooting styles. But True Romance I love; I think that's a great film. He's made some classic, wonderful films.
So what, if any, cinema stuff have you got coming up?
I have an erotic thriller called Dying Flowers. It's about a wife who wants to escape an unhappy marriage. She pretends to be a lesbian and finds this lover and tells her lover her husband has been beating her, threatening to kill her. Like Body Heat crossed with Bound. The main character isn't in love with the other woman, and she's not really a lesbian. She's just looking for a way to get out of her marriage. Then she can pin the whole blame on her lover, which she does.
No Way Home is available on DVD from August 11. To pre-order your copy, visit Umbrella Entertainment's website. For more information and to keep up to date with Filmink Originals, visit the Facebook Page.