If you make a film normally it's all right, the distributors are helpful and cooperative. But if you make a film that's a little stange, a little bizarre, then all the time it's a struggle with them.
'Macbeth' is one of the best operas ever, and doing it was a great experience. I added some things to the opera based from my experience on the movie - such as some of the special effects and bits of film - to make it new and interesting. It was a very good work and a very good experience.
I used a Luma crane, a wounderful device; it makes the camera able to go anywhere. It was also used on Friday the 13th Part 3.
To try and raise a budget for a film that is strictly for adults and both strong and graphic in content is not easy, especially when there is pressure to spend serious money on good special effects.
When I was five. That's when I started to love film.
Then I realized my early work did have something special that audiences adored apart from what I humbly thought about them. They occupy a distinguished niche in Italian film history and probably always will.
The Opera was a very cold film, a hopeless and dark film, no hope, no love.
It's incredible that they censor films. It's sad.
My daughter, Asia, has been in many of my movies. I love working with her. In the beginning, I was not supportive of her being an actress, but now I think she is fantastic.
I first came to cinema as a passionate filmgoer, when I was a child. Then, when I was a very young man, I became a film critic precisely because of my knowledge of cinema. I did better than others because of this. Then I moved on to screenwriting. I wrote a film with Sergio Leone, 'Once Upon a Time in the West.' And then I moved to directing.
In Italy the censor is very old and there are many judges and psychiatrists who analyse you.
When I was a teenager, I read a lot of Poe.
I think the camera was always my obsession, the camera movements. Because for me it's the most important thing in the move, the camera, because without the camera, film is just a stage or television - nothing.
But you know, as you say, the original versions of my films are getting out there, slowly.
It irritated me that my fans kept wanting me to retread old ground.
I also don't like films that are made just to make money, no this kind of film I don't like.
I went through a phase where I thought nostalgia was a bad thing.
My life and career is my own adventure.
But no one should have the right to manipulate my films in the first place.
I wanted to get back to my style of 20 years ago after a long period of exploring horror and fantasy themes.
Fear has disappeared. No more fear. In Asia, it is different. They've discovered again the fear and the psychology of the characters. Without psychology, the horror film doesn't exist.
I've been lucky enough to have had the luxury of being able to make the picture I've wanted to make each time on my own terms and without compromise.
Theres nothing gratuitous about my films.
