I was practically born into cinema...
because my father was a producer...
so I grew up in the world of cinema.
And in my house there were famous actors and actresses, also directors.
And my mother was a photographer of famous Italian actors in the '60s.
So I was really born into it.
Then I did... But it wasn't...
I never considered being a director because I knew the world of cinema...
and I didn't like the chaos when they were shooting films...
everyone shouting at the top of their lungs, arguing. I hated it.
Therefore, I became a film critic.
I liked it a lot and I was a film critic for a few years.
Then I went from writing about films to writing films.
It was quite a simple transition for me.
I wrote scripts for Sergio Leone...
and for some other famous Italian directors.
For a short period, for a couple of years.
Then afterwards, I wrote the film The Bird with the Crystal Plumage.
But those days were not like today. Today it's more difficult.
It was easier then. So I made many more films.
At that point I had a good reputation...
for writing screenplays.
The films I had written had done well, were successful.
So it wasn't difficult.
Not too difficult.
It is a theme and one of my obsessions, psychoanalysis.
It's also very psychoanalytic...
the difficulty of communication...
alienation, these themes were significant for me.
But the film is realistic and he physically...
couldn't speak with this person, but not only.
He has a memory that is completely false...
and memory becomes the theme.
That is another theme that obsessed me a lot.
Also in other films, like Deep Red, etc...
It's the memory that's faulty. In addition, we only remember the things...
that we want to remember, in every case.
We remember things that our culture wants us to remember.
The rest we remember in a different way...
or we don't remember at all.
This is the theme on which I based the film.
I had this idea that actors have too much power on a film...
because if the director has his own clear idea of the film...
and not one that's confused...
but is quite precise and therefore the actor must follow.
Even if the director is wrong, the actor has to follow.
You cannot compromise because you think one way, he thinks another.
You cannot see who is right because the film does not yet have...
its personality and style.
Our collaboration had its ups and downs.
There were moments when everything was fine...
and other times when it was a nightmare for both of us.
Because I had my ideas and he had his own ideas.
And then he thought, because I was a newcomer...
that he had the right to tell me what to do, how I should do my job...
how I could have done it better.
So there were nice moments and not so nice moments.
In the end it was bad, but when it started it was nice.
I collaborated with Storaro.
Let me preface this.
It was my first film and Storaro's first film in color.
He had done a small film in black and white.
We were both newcomers, contemporaries.
So I really enjoyed that he was new to this business...
because he didn't show off with his presence or experience.
I knew other cinematographers, but for me, as a newcomer...
they thought I was getting everything wrong.
Because I was a novice...
everyone thought they could tell me how to do my job.
This really got on my nerves, because I was the one who wrote the film...
and I had made a perfect storyboard.
So I did not want to talk with anyone.
Anyway, regarding Storaro, we had a great friendship.
I had the film critic background and knew all the theories about cinema.
And I gave him examples of movies I would like to get inspiration from.
For example, I loved the pitch dark.
These things are not used a lot in cinema...
because they are afraid that people won't be able to see.
I adored these things and in this way the film was very successful.
But the strange thing was that this great friendship, this debut...
with Storaro and I, we never worked together again.
I wanted to have the camera act as the eyes of the character...
as he falls to the ground.
So I said to the production staff, "I want to do this thing.
"Get the camera and attach it to a cord and throw it to the ground."
And he said, "If it breaks?"
"If it breaks, we have insurance, I think.
"And therefore if it breaks, the insurance will pay."
"But, no..." He came out with all these excuses.
In the meantime, I continued to research.
And in the end, he said, "Okay." I would not change my mind about this.
So they tied up the camera and hung it from a cord, as I told them to.
Then they threw it down from the sixth floor.
The only thing was, this was a new thing for them. They were not experts.
Because when you throw something heavy from up high...
even the strongest cord becomes elastic.
It stretches.
They had counted on the camera stopping like that but instead...
the camera broke on the pavement by the road.
But the film was saved, fortunately.
Usually, in a film, the killer is a man.
So I was approaching unknown and different territories...
and right away they started pointing fingers.
And to be accused of being a misogynist, of misogyny, is simply absurd.
Simply because in my movies I talk a lot about women.
There are women who are victims and also non-victims.
Everything is there...
because this is a view I got from my family.
As I said, my mother was a photographer. She photographed actors and actresses.
She specialized in shooting female faces, actresses.
So I grew up watching my mother photograph women...
which taught me how to photograph women's faces...
because if you start when you are three or four years old...
watching your mother taking pictures of, say, Sophia Loren, all the time...
and she places the light in a certain way, then another light...
and it becomes part of your life.
When I find myself in the middle of my films...
I get a lot of joy from it, when I have an actress...
because I am on the right road. I know I won't be wrong.
I could make mistakes with men, but with women I am almost always right.
I will preface again by saying I was naive and that this was my first film.
I didn't know a lot of things, I didn't know what the relationship was like...
between the director and the composer... I didn't know these things.
I wrote the film and did the storyboards, I directed and did everything on the film.
I co-produced the film with my father...
which means I was practically in charge of the film.
Since I knew how the film worked...
I asked my father...
who was a friend of Morricone. Morricone responded...
and he said, "One day come and see me so we can talk."
So I went to talk to him about the music for the film...
and I took a lot of records which gave me inspiration.
There was even Stockhausen, children's songs...
infants' songs, really everything...
that I had gathered for my previous films.
I took over the records, and Morricone became very, very angry.
He said, "What have you brought? Do I copy other people's music?
"I am Ennio Morricone!"
I said, "I know, but this is the music I like." "Oh, no! Look."
He was very irritated.
He later accepted the music, more or less.
I would drive around with him because we lived close to each other.
Driving around with him...
I'd put the tape on and make him listen to the music.
I'd say, "Listen to this music." He'd say, "It was good, interesting."
I thought, "Nice, Stockhausen."
In fact, there is contemporary music...
in The Bird with the Crystal Plumage.
It is the only film that has this kind of music.
Deep Red also has a piece of contemporary music.
But in The Bird with the Crystal Plumage there's a lot of atonal music...
which is a very beautiful kind of music.
There were very serious problems.
I remember like in a nightmare.
We had just started shooting about two or three weeks before.
Two or three weeks, I don't remember how many, on the film.
Lombardo went to see the material that had been shot.
The editor put the scenes in order.
He looked at them, and they were horrible for him...
because I was trying to invert the rules of the thriller, suspense, etc.
In other words, presenting the scenes in advance.
I was anticipating the following scene...
in which something dreadful would happen.
I showed it before it happened.
I did this thinking the audience would follow me...
like in a sort of common understanding...
a sort of agreement.
And Goffredo Lombardo did not understand this.
He thought it was wrong...
that it was going against the conventions of the thriller genre as it was known then.
So he invited me to meet him...
one Sunday...
when we had a break. He asked me to meet him...
He said the reality was he wanted me off the film.
But I knew that I'd written the film, that I was directing the film.
And that it wouldn't be easy to remove me from the film.
He suggested a mediocre director from that period.
And I said to him, "Listen, Goffredo, I like you a lot, we are good friends...
"but this I cannot accept, I am sorry.
"I will continue. Now, go and see...
"if you like the rest of the material as it arrives.
"But I cannot accept that." And I didn't accept.
This really upset him.
He continued to watch my film...
even though he had many others to look at. He was fixated with my film.
It was one of the cheapest films that year...
meaning he had bigger, more important films.
Goffredo Lombardo, and everyone who was financing the film...
his entire group watched it.
At the screening, I wasn't there, but my father was there.
He said they didn't like the film, they thought it was bad.
They all left. They thought it was a bad film.
It had no suspense, they knew what was going to happen before it happened.
That it was ridiculous.
My father went into Lombardo's office, and Lombardo said...
he couldn't distribute the film because it was bad.
While he was there, Lombardo took a call.
Lombardo's secretary, a woman not a girl...
a woman who saw the film with him...
was eating something and her hands were shaking.
So my father asked her what was wrong. He asked Sarina if she felt ill.
"I'm fine," she said. "It's that horrible film I saw. I was so scared.
"A terrifying film, full of suspense."
My father urged her to tell Lombardo what she'd just told him.
You see the power of the secretary!
Lombardo believed her more than anyone and decided to launch the film.
And the film went on to be a hit.
Thanks to Goffredo Lombardo's secretary.
Lombardo completely forgot about what had happened...
and the week after the film came out he called me and signed me for three films.
Then he said, "You see how smart I was to choose you.
"You're a little genius, I'm very happy."
When it came out in the United States...
it was in first place at the box office for a week.
It was an unexpected success, and it started my career.
It's the film where I established my style.
That is, I directed in a way...
that I did not know was a style.
It turned out to be my way of expressing myself.
In that sense, I discovered something.
I was very comfortable directing a film.
In fact, I made this film in only six weeks.
I think everything came spontaneously to me. Very easily, the framing, everything.
I had it all in my mind before I started.
In Italy, this was not common at the time.
I discovered that this was absolutely perfect for me.
After all, it's a very personal film...
that changed and renewed...
both the Italian thriller...
and the international thriller.