Interview: Antonella Fulci
Ryan gets the inside scoop about Italian director Lucio Fulci from his daughter, Antonella Fulci.
Lucio Fuci. - To any horror fan, this should be a recognizable name, if not a household name. To me, it means a little more than that. Very few directors have managed to influence other directors in the way Lucio did. Gore was one of the main ingredients in his horror films, while atmosphere topped it off, adding the last piece to the puzzle. Recently, I got the chance to talk to Lucio's daughter, Antonella Fulci. I was very excited to get her take on things and have her share some of her experiences while growing up with such a controversial Father. Her words were very comforting for some odd reason and it made me look at Mr. Fulci in a whole different light. To many of his fans, this may give insight that he was simply a mortal man with a great imagination. From what I have experienced with people with Italian culture, they are very generous people. Antonella even proves this further with her willingness to answer my questions and share her thoughts.
Living-Dead.com: First off Antonella, I want to thank you for taking time to share some of your thoughts with us.
Being the daughter of one of the most beloved horror directors of all time, I would imagine that at a young age you were introduced to the nightmarish world of your Father's work. How did being the daughter of such a controversial figure in the Italian/American horror industry play a part in your younger years?
Antonella Fulci: When my father shot Zombie, I was already 19 y.o, and for us, it was just another film. If you think that my father had already shot about 40 films as a director and had written about 90 as a screenwriter, you can understand why. My father had a job like any other father, the only difference was that his 'office' was a set. When I was a kid, in the 60's, the words 'let's go say hello to dad at work' meant going somewhere where a bunch of wonderful people were playing a game and joked with me and bought me ice creams . I loved it, and thought that my dad was the luckiest guy in this world, cause his job was having fun with his friends.
I don't think that, if he could decide, he'd like to be remembered for his horror movies even if, as a perfectionist, he surely did the best about the matter. After all, he had 30 years of carrier on his back. I must say I don't like it too, cause I find it very limiting
Living-Dead.com: To shed some light on my horror background a little: One of the first films that ever gave me nightmares was 'The Gates of Hell'- The scene where the lady vomits up her intestines is pure art in my book! I am curious to know, what was the first horror related experience you ever had?
Antonella Fulci: Good scene indeed, and functional for the mood of the film. The first time I saw my father shooting a 'horror' scene I was very young, 12 or 13 I think. I went to 'visit dad at work' on the set of 'Don't torture a Duckling'. We were in a small real cemetery in Abruzzo (a region of central Italy) and my first vision was miss Florinda Bolkan, and I still remember how beautiful she was, with the longest black hair I'd ever seen, sitting on a chair and happily chatting with a guy that was fixing little tubes full of a red substance on her skin with some plaster. While I was still staring at that awesome 'creature of the wood', the guy started modeling a horrible scar on her shoulder, and I became curious to see what would happen next....
There were guys around there, with plastic chains in their hands, familiar faces that I had seen 'playing games' with my dad since when I was a little kid, so nothing frightened me until then...
But when it came to shoot the scene of the brutal killing of the 'Maciara' everything changed. It was so real! Their faces changed, those harmless plastic things really seemed deadly weapons, that false scar kept bleeding tomato in front of me, and I felt strange, because I somehow understood that I wasn't scared by the chains or by the fake blood, but by what was behind that scene. When my father said 'cut!' the villains and the victim started joking and laughing as always, but lately, when I saw the movie, I understood that my fears were related to something that my father always repeated to me. He always said that the most horrible things in this world come from ignorance and bigotry, and as they were both well represented by that scene, my mind had gone beyond the false chains and the tomato.....
Living-Dead.com: As is probably obvious to you, many movie critics wrote Lucio's films off as being barbaric and lacking vision. I personally couldn't disagree more and consider him a master at delivering 'atmosphere'. How did it make you feel to hear such things about your Father's work?
Antonella Fulci: I think that they probably have seen the wrong movies. As I said it's impossible to judge my father's work only from his horror movies. If it goes on like this, his fate is to be misunderstood. If you could see all the beautiful comedies he's done and written, and all the different kind of movies he has made, you'd see that there are many good horror directors and only one Lucio Fulci! :)))))
Living-Dead.com: I understand that you were a special guest at 'Cult Con 2002' of November of last year in Tarrytown, New York. Could you maybe give us some background on who was there and maybe share a mini experience you had while attending?
Antonella Fulci: I was in Sleepy Hollow-Tarrytown 2 years ago for the 2000 edition of the Cult Con. It's been mostly a great experience for me, I met a lot of very nice people, and a couple of them have become my dear friends. Plus I feel that New York is my second hometown. Me and Valentina, mr. Deodato's girlfriend, were the only girls of the gang (I'm 42 now but please let me call myself a girl once more), and I had a lot of fun with all the Italian bunch.
There I had the chance to meet many american hardcore horror fans, all great guys, and even if I think that some of them make a little confusion between fiction and reality they've been truly exquisite.
The touching side of the story is that sometimes I felt 'watched'. You know when you feel someone's eyes right on you? Well, most of the times I turned back and saw a guy staring at 'the daughter of the Godfather of Gore'. Every time that it happened, I would have liked to go there, introduce myself and say: 'Hi guy, I'm Antonella, nice to meet you', just to show I was nothing special.....
Living-Dead.com: As is obvious to any Fulci fan, your Father didn't start off his directing career with the horror genre. I understand that he has a few spaghetti westerns and comedies under his belt. Do you have any idea why Lucio transgressed from the direction of light-hearted material, to the the macabre world of gore and death?
Antonella Fulci: The producers offered him to shoot those kinds of movies, and probably he showed up so good in making them that the producers, or better let's say The Producer a.k.a. Fabrizio de Angelis, a genius in my humble opinion, understood that he had a winning horse by the hands. They became collaborators and good friends, and together made great stuff. Behind the scenes, the making of those movies was a fun and a pleasure. With a wizard of the lights like Sergio Salvati, cameramen like Franco Bruni and Maurizio Lucchini, make up artists like De Rossi and Maurizio Trani and all the other wonderful people there, you can imagine that it was heaven, for my dad. Unfortunately, even when Fabrizio de Angelis stopped producing his movies, his name has been typecast into horror genre, and italian genre cinema started to fall down the hill.
I hate the fact that some people may start to know Lucio Fulci from film like the ones he just did for money, like Demonia or Zombie 3, that he only directed partly. I can't really disagree when someone says that my father has made crappy movies, cause they've just seen those ones, but it hurts....
Living-Dead.com: It was brought to my attention that you are a very big 'American' horror film enthusiast as well. What is your favorite 'American' horror film and why?
Antonella Fulci: Actually, I'm a big fan of 'unusual movies' and a John Waters and Divine's true worshipper. Horror is a genre like the others, for me. There's good and (terribly) bad in it. Anyway, there's a recent enough American movie that terrified me, and made me fall in love with it. It's 'Requiem for a Dream' by Darren Aronofsky. I consider it a horror film with a touch of genius. There's fear, there's gore, there's hallucination, and the sensation that you are somehow part of the story. At the end of the movie, I was petrified on my chair, feeling that I was Sara, and Harold, and Marion, and that other guy (wonderful actor by the way), all at once. What I'd just seen was the nightmarish side of everyone's everyday life. My father would have loved it so much! Ironically the title of one of his best short stories, that's been published on one of his books is 'The killer of the dreams'. I've also had a crush for 'The Blair Witch Project', so hard that I wrote a book about it that went very well, but that's another story....
Living-Dead.com: I understand that a hardcore Lucio fan named Mike Baronas is in the process of publishing a biography on your Father. I would imagine you played a part in the making of the book. Can you maybe give us a little information on the book and when it will be released?
Antonella Fulci: As you've probably understood, I don't think that a horror fan could be the right person to write my father's biography. I really appreciate the passion that one may put in such a thing, and am grateful to every single Lucio's fan, but to speak about my dad so that people may really know him, one should dig deeper, so as always I put a big distance between me and these projects. I had problems, in the past, with people who wrote for horror magazines, and with some 'wish I was a writer' people who put out bad books and articles about my father that only helped to typecast him. I'm not saying it could happen again, but sincerely I prefer not to be involved with these things.
The only book that gave me a big satisfaction was Stephen Thrower's 'Beyond Terror'.
Actually there's a book that I'm supporting, soon to be published by an Italian author, Paolo Albiero, that's the most complete Lucio's biography you can imagine. The author, a professor in psychology at the University of Padova, spent 5 years collecting material and interviewing all the people (some of them are not with us anymore, unfortunately) that had an impact on my father's personal life and carrier. The result is so awesome that reading it I, myself, sort of reconstructed parts of my family life that I had missed. I'm glad that now the readers will have a choice. Not only books about Lucio's carrier in the horror scene, but also books about Lucio, that was a more interesting human being than most of his horror films.
Living-Dead.com: I would have loved to have visited the set of any of Lucio's films (preferably New York Ripper) so I could have experienced the magic of filmmaking first hand. Did you ever get to visit the set of any of his films? And if so, could you maybe share an experience with us?
Antonella Fulci: You're lucky cause I've been in NY during all the making of The Ripper. A nice anecdote regards Howard Ross, the guy with the amputated fingers in the film, and the nicest and gentlest person you could ever meet. They had to shoot the scene where the guy is found dead with his head wrapped up in plastic. The make up artist had done a great work on his face, so Renato (Howard) had the idea of making a joke to the hotel clerks. He went down the hall in full makeup, with all the false rotting skin hanging around his face. But the clerks said nothing, looked him normally in the face, took the room key and politely greeted him. He got very disappointed by that at first, but then we looked each other in the face and started laughing so hard that the make up almost fell down.......That was more or less a typical situation, in the making of a Lucio's movie....
Living-Dead.com: When it came to the films of your Father, some of his ideas were marvelous. I would imagine that being around your Father after a long day of shooting, he would sometimes 'bring his work' home with him. Do you have any ideas where Lucio came up with some of his nightmarish visions? And if so, can you elaborate just a little bit?
Antonella Fulci: Questions like this make me more motivated in realizing a project that I have in mind, a documentary about my father. The title will be 'Gimme some truth', and it will be a 'Lucio in his own words' thing. It will include some family movies shot by him in the 50's and 60's and other amazing stuff. Anyway, about your question: 'No, the 'nightmares' stopped when he said 'cut!' then we all went back to our lives, that were very happy at those times. A filmmaker is mostly an illusionist, he can make you believe he's having nightmares while he's making wonderful dreams.
Living-Dead.com: I don't think many people realize this, but Lucio authored a few books in his time. Can you give us a little information on this?
Antonella Fulci: They're two collections of short stories and memories. The first one is called 'Le lune nere' (the black moons), the second 'Miei Mostri Adorati' (My Adored Monsters). They're both beautiful. They've never been translated in English but, who knows?
Living-Dead.com: I have to say, that being a Fulci fan, I tend to enjoy all of his horror films. I'm sure you have a favorite of his as well. Just curious, out of all his films, which do you enjoy most and why?
Antonella Fulci: Don't Torture a Duckling, cause every character of the movie is a good fellow and a monster at the same time, and for the reasons I've explained before. And all the wonderful comedies he co-wrote in the fifties with 'Maestro' Steno (Stefano Vanzina), a person that he idolized and that taught him almost all he knew about filmmaking, when my father was his assistant director.
Living-Dead.com: Before we close, I would like to say that to most of Lucio's fans, he is remembered as being the 'Godfather of Gore', but to his beloved daughter, what words would you use as a remembrance to describe your famous Father?
Antonella Fulci: He was a natural born entertainer and the funniest person I've ever known. Every day with him was a 'happening', and you could never imagine what he could invent next. He was a cinephile and a jazz music big fan. He taught me that if you have a passion, an interest, nothing can be stronger than you, because in every situation, even in the worst ones, you'll have a film to watch or a song to listen to, that will help you overcome the bad times.
Living-Dead.com: Antonella, I want to express my deepest thanks for your sharing some time with us. You have made me and every other Fulci fanatic very happy. It is always good to know that there are still some very nice and cooperative people left in the world. I bid you the best of luck in life and wish upon you nothing but happiness and good times. Thank you very much.
