- Title: ITALY: James Franco finds comedy in tale of murderous backwoodsman
- Date: 31st August 2013
- Summary: VENICE, ITALY (AUGUST 31, 2013) (REUTERS) DIRECTOR JAMES FRANCO ARRIVING AND WAVING AT FANS FRANCO AND ACTOR SCOTT HAZE ARRIVING VARIOUS OF FRANCO SIGNING AUTOGRAPHS BEFORE ENTERING BUILDING FRANCO SEATED FOR INTERVIEW (SOUNDBITE) (English) DIRECTOR AND ACTOR JAMES FRANCO SAYING: "You usually don't see a character like this as the central figure, as the protagonist, usually he's being pursued by detectives or you see him through the eyes of the victims that are running from him if it's a horror film or something like that but you're never looking at the situation through his eyes. The other thing that was unusual about the character was that he's kind of, in some ways he's kind of clumsy, he's, you know, almost comedic. Not laugh-out funny but he's a little ridiculous in some ways and I felt like that's something I've never seen before on the screen, a killer like this that's a little foolish or almost like Charlie Chaplin-esque in a way." VARIOUS OF FRANCO SPEAKING WITH ACTOR NICOLAS CAGE AND HUGGING HIM BEFORE WALKING AWAY (SOUNDBITE) (English) DIRECTOR AND ACTOR JAMES FRANCO SAYING: "It's not a movie like Texas Chainsaw Massacre that is drawing people in with the violence, it's using the dark subject matter as, for me, using it as a metaphor or as an extreme example of something that is more general, a more general kind of a theme which is extreme isolation, extreme loneliness and also somebody that is unable to fit into the civilised society. I'm not trying to do a sympathetic portrayal of him, I don't condone murder but it's a film, it's a piece of art so in that sense you can use this extreme subject matter to talk about something more general and that was what was interesting.
- Embargoed: 15th September 2013 13:00
- Keywords:
- Location: Italy
- Country: Italy
- Reuters ID: LVA28N4LEEI0ZB1IS14GZF2TO0L4
- Story Text: James Franco's "Child of God", the chilling tale of a cave-dwelling necrophiliac, premieres at the Venice film festival.
Actor-director-artist James Franco says the character Lester Ballard in his new film "Child of God" has a trace of Charlie Chaplin in him, though the tale of a cave-dwelling necrophiliac is mostly as dark as can be.
Based on Cormac McCarthy's novella of the same name, the movie premiered at the Venice Film Festival on Saturday (August 31) portrays a Tennessee backwoodsman who has never recovered from his father's suicide and sinks into ever deeper levels of anti-social and psychopathic behaviour.
Franco said he sought permission from the "No Country for Old Men" writer to film the seemingly unfilmable story because it provided a way "for me to examine something that's pushed out of civilised society".
But he also found elements of a fumbling, awkward comedy that reminded him on Chaplin, though of a much darker nature than anything the silent film star ever put on screen.
"You usually don't see a character like this as the central figure, as the protagonist, usually he's being pursued by detectives or you see him through the eyes of the victims that are running from him if it's a horror film or something like that but you're never looking at the situation through his eyes," Franco told Reuters Television in Venice, where he rubbed shoulders with Hollywood star Nicolas Cage.
"The other thing that was unusual about the character was that he's kind of, in some ways he's kind of clumsy, he's, you know, almost comedic," he said.
"Not laugh-out funny but he's a little ridiculous in some ways and I felt like that's something I've never seen before on the screen, a killer like this that's a little foolish or almost like Charlie Chaplin-esque," he added.
The character's awkwardness shows through in one scene when Ballard, played by Texan actor Steve Haze, struggles to push a woman's body up a ladder into an attic.
"It's not a movie like Texas Chainsaw Massacre that is drawing people in with the violence, it's using the dark subject matter as, for me, using it as a metaphor or as an extreme example of something that is more general, a more general kind of a theme which is extreme isolation, extreme loneliness and also somebody that is unable to fit into the civilised society," Franco said.
In preparation for the film Haze spent months living in the isolation of a remote Tennessee cabin.
His only connection to the real world was an iPod with a selection of Eminem songs, he said.
"Being that isolated does something to you, when you're not around anybody, I mean the only thing that I had on me was an ipod with only Eminem music on it," he said.
"Eminem did an album called Relapse, it's very dark and I took selected tracks from him because it just did something to me and it's and instinctual thing; I can't say I wanted that part of Eminem in Lester Ballard or this song because it's obviously not Eminem but it did something to me and that was the only thing I had with me in the cabin that was part of the world, if you will," he added.
Franco said the film is not as violent as the subject matter suggests, and does not portray violence as graphically as some recent films, though there are scenes that will make jaws drop.
In recent years, Franco has undertaken several ventures outside of acting, including writing a book of poetry, curating an art exhibition in Los Angeles, engaging in performance art and teaching screenwriting at the University of California-Los Angeles.
The actor also stepped behind the camera as director on numerous projects including LGBT film "Interior. Leather Bar."
Preoccupied with his more intense artistic endeavours, Franco credited the 2008 stoner comedy "Pineapple Express" with loosening him up as an actor and allowing him to embrace the lighter side of filmmaking.
Franco also starred in hit films like 2011's "Rise of the Planet of the Apes" and scored a Best Actor Oscar nomination for Danny Boyle's 2010 survival drama "127 Hours." - Copyright Holder: REUTERS
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