Exclusive Interview: Filmmaker Dario Almerighi (42-66, Me and The Devil)

Exclusive Interview: Filmmaker Dario Almerighi (42-66, Me and The Devil)

What made you want to get involved in the film industry?

Of course like every cinema lover I started watching films (and “R”-rated ones)
since I was a child but the film that really got me into the cinema studies is
Antichrist by Lars von Trier. When that movie finished I just told to my self I
must go to study and do Cinema.

From script–to–screen, how close did your films 42-66 and ME AND THE
DEVIL come to your original vision?

42-66 has been written by an original Idea of Mino Bonini, I took his stuff and
wrote a new script by that. The core of almost all the film was the location and
Mino bonini itself (the character of 42-66), but all the rest was really a
challenge on extremely hard conditions because of the cold, really cold
weather and budget limits that made us almost fight to end a day of
shooting… So the final result has been something new for me too.

For Me and the Devil is different, we mainly followed a script line and I already
knew well the locations. Three executive producers worked really hard and the
path has been more soft than the first experience. I think the final result is
always something new you never seen before even in your head but the result
was not so different from the script and what I wanted to create. I think
anyway is good to see the movie like something that is new for you too also if
you are the director of that.

What was your favorite day on set and why?

In 42-66 I think the day we filmed the chainsaw scene with the toxic guys. We
were inside the real pig’s cave and with a real chainsaw working… the director
of photography was literally with the camera just some centimeter far from
42-66 with the chainsaw on his hands… has been really a weird and fun
experience…

For me and the devil has been the last day of shooting, that was also the day
of the final scene of the film. We took the twilight for something like 2-3
minutes, and I think that was really a cool sun to shoot in that moment. Has
been a great moment to take that in time while the two characters are going
away to the sun itself.

What scene did you enjoy directing the most?

I think the ones on 42-66 in the psychiatric facility where I also did a little
appearance like one of the nurses…that was the only hot day too!

What is the biggest obstacle you faced while making either 42-66 or ME AND
THE DEVIL?

The biggest obstacles has been for sure on filming 42-66. That film has been
make under an unbelievable number of difficulties, extreme cold weather and
real life problems me and Mino Bonini (42-66), as fate would have it, exactly
during that period of our life. I have to confess I hoped the madness that was
on real life during that period would be entered into the film itself…

What was your proudest moment during production?

I think the most beautiful moment when u’re making a movie is that moment
on first days of shooting, when you can finally look a script literally coming to
life. A paper that get flesh and bones.

How do you get a film to stand out in the crowd in such a vast crowd of
independent horror?

I think making film is something you do because “you must do that”. Then you
think if someone out there can like your film. Then I think the right thing to do
is to find a original way and in some way new to tell what “you must say”…
Originality is the key. Many of my favorite films are low budget ones.

What other filmmakers inspire you to do what you do?

True independent cinema and the spirit of old Cannibal movies age have been
a school and a master to me. I mean a whole kind of movies filmed in the so
called “guerrilla style” with no public permissions and actors that really want to
do that project, no stars. To tell some title of this extreme example there are
film like Crazy murder, Cat sick blues, Satan’s sadists, Doll Syndrome, Life
and death of a porno gang, Eva braun (a little weird Italian film). But I love also
masters of cinema like Sion Sono, David Cronenberg and Lars von Trier.

What is your favorite horror decade and why?

Strange to say, but my favorite decade for horror is really recent, I refer to the
decade 2005-2015… for me that has been a true nouvelle vague for horror. A
genre that was considered passed, superficial and in the best case
commercial entertainment. Closed on memories of what it was on ’70 and ’80
years… on the decade I said all this has brutally changed. New sub-genres of
horror has come out. Independent movies started to spread all around the
world, extreme, disturbing drama and torture porn has born on that years.
Many romantic gore films and masterpieces came out from France, Uk and
many other countries… Also new masters of horror have born like Pascal
Laugier, Alexandre Bustillo and Julien Maury.

What is the next step for DARIO ALMERIGHI?

I recently closed a project that talk about crime, deep web drug and a girl that
got he’s face burned by acid… a dramatic strong story with romanticism and
gore inside called Amore Acido (Acid Love). I think it closed a some kind of
trilogy I unconsciously made, I would say about love, death and redemption.