Atlantica - 01.01.2006, Page 17

AT L A N T I CA 15
Quentin Tarantino has the Icelandic media in hysterics.
Tarantino is sitting in the Panorama Lounge, located on the eighth
floor of the posh Nordica Hotel in Reykjavík. The quirky-looking director has a
bottle of Icelandic water in front of him and is speaking at his signature speed,
squirming about as if he has ants in his pants when he quips:
“Eythór Gudjónsson is the Jackie Chan of Iceland.”
I know what you’re thinking. Who the hell is Eythór Gudjónsson and what’s
the former video store clerk turned renegade director doing in Iceland?
Tarantino has come to this cold, windy island to promote his latest production
Hostel, a horror film written and directed by Eli Roth, an emerging filmmaker
who is quickly becoming the new American guru of horror films after his
successful debut Cabin Fever.
Roth is the real reason we’re gathered at this hotel in Reykjavík. The director
is what’s commonly known as an Íslandsvinur – a friend of Iceland.
Roth came to the country when he was a spry 19 year old, living for a few
months on a horse farm outside of Selfoss. The would-be director, who hails
from New England, found himself hooked on Iceland.
Roth liked Iceland so much that he came back for a special screening of his
2002 film Cabin Fever. Here he met Gudjónsson, and the two hit it off. While
Gudjónsson had never acted before, Roth cast him as a sex-crazed, heavy
drinking Icelander in Hostel, a film about three backpackers who, on the advice
of a fellow traveler they meet in Amsterdam, train it to Slovakia for no other
reason but to meet sexy nymphomaniacs. Once in Slovakia all hell breaks loose,
to put it mildly.
“If we have an Icelandic character getting drunk and having sex with lots of
girls, we could take 1,000 of years of Sagas and flush them down the toilet...and
[Eythór] would basically become the new face of Iceland. Because, I think it’s
time for Björk to step down,” Roth jokes, cracking up the entire pressroom.
BUT IT AIN’T REAL
Horror movies have always been a popular genre. The films are produced for
nearly nothing, and make big bucks at the box office, most spawning sequel
after sequel. From Friday the 13th to the Scream series, studios churn out a slew
of teenage slasher films replete with blood and sex as a means to line their
deep pockets.
While some might dismiss Hostel as just another horror film, the movie
is topical. Dig beneath the surface, and it’s clear the film makes a political
statement.
The idea for the film came about, according to Roth, from a discussion the
director had with a friend about violence. Afterwards, Roth’s friend sent him
a link to a website that offered people the opportunity to go to Thailand and
pay about $10,000 to walk into a room and shoot a person in the head. The site
looked so real, even offering the option to pay by credit card, that it disturbed
the horror director.
“Whether it was actually real or not, who would have thought of something
like that? It got me to thinking about the things people do to each other for
their own pleasure, and the value of life in other parts of the world,” Roth says.
It’s fair to say that Hostel opens a door into the world of those who might pay
to shoot someone in the head for money, or use a chainsaw for purposes other
than cutting firewood.
Hostel also argues, most likely accidentally, against those who feel that
torture should be allowed in certain situations. Okay, so you can’t take the film
too seriously, and at certain points in the movie you can only laugh out loud as
the blood splashes across the screen. Still, it’s unlikely that you can sit through
Hostel and afterwards support a man like Dick Cheney who feels the CIA should
be exempt from any Congressional law banning torture.
Whether Roth was thinking about the wacky, Darth Vader-like man from
Wyoming or Abu Ghraib while filming is anybody’s guess. At this press
conference, Roth is sure to remind everyone in the room that Hostel is just a
movie.
“It’s just pretend in movies. Look at what’s going on in real life, all the violence,
the [Iraq] war and terrorism. How can my movie be worse than that?”
Roth is right on the money. Hostel is nothing compared to the realism we
read about in our daily newspapers. The film is make-believe.
VIOLENCE IN AMERICA
Hostel is the type of movie that causes cultural conservatives to send angry
e-mails to the ratings board. The film has all the ingredients of a good horror
flick. There is blood and guts (imagine the alternative uses for chainsaws and
power drills). Screams. Dark humor and, of course, there is the prerequisite
amount of sex – men will surely be looking up the Czech actress Barbara
Nedeljakova, who plays Natalya, on imdb.com after they get home. (Sorry guys,
pictures are not available.)
With Hostel, Mr. Roth gives the audience all this entertainment and fun while,
surprisingly enough, still maintaining an R rating.
“We were obviously very concerned about the ratings board. People who
read the script were like, ‘There is so much sex and violence how are you ever
going to get an R rating?’” the director says, alluding to the industry truism that
an R-rating is necessary if you want to get the DVD into the Wal-marts and the
Blockbusters of the world.
“I know a lot of filmmakers who will go to the ratings board... and they say,
‘Fuck you this is my movie.’ Quentin gave me this whole talk on how to deal
with them and make them your friends and we got an R, with almost nothing
taken out. People were just shocked.”
Tarantino wasn’t shocked about Hostel’s rating. In fact, he believes the ratings
board is becoming more liberal. More liberal? During a political epoch where
the cultural conservatives have a friend in the White House to help them wage
their cultural war?
“The ratings board has gotten drastically better in the last five years,”
Tarantino says. “If you’re trying to push the envelope with sex, and Eli pushes
it a little bit, then it might be a bit of an uphill battle. But if you’re doing horror
films they kind of get it...that the film’s not for everybody. This is for the kids
whose parents wouldn’t mind if they go see Freddy vs. Jason. They tend to get
that now. They give you a bit more leeway.”
Of course, if you make your living directing stylized films where limbs are
routinely hacked off with samurai swords, or characters are scalped (how can
you kill off the lovely Lucy Liu?), a more relaxed ratings board is a positive
change of events. But how does all that violence affect the impressionable
teens flocking to these types of films? How does a filmmaker like Tarantino
respond to American politicians who want to wrap a tighter leash around
Hollywood?
“I don’t respond,” Tarantino says adamantly.
Roth, on the other hand, certainly has his opinions on the age-old argument
about how violent films make their mark on society.
“Violence is a part of American culture. The whole country was founded on
violence. They went in and people wiped out a culture. There’s the Wild West.
People love their guns. There is so much crime in the cities. They are shooting
each other in schools. It’s just the way it is. The whole joke is that if you have
Brad Pitt and Angelina Jolie shooting each other it’s a PG movie. But if they have
sex, everyone freaks out.”
Tarantino then decides to throw his two cents into the discussion, and he
grows passionate, all the while maintaining his raw sense of humor.
“Violence is not only a part of movies, it’s one of the reasons I think Edison
invented the f@!*ing camera in the first place,” the gifted director says to
thunderous laughter. “Violence is one of the most cinematic things you can
capture [on film].” a
Blood & Guts
Eli Roth Stills from Hostel ai
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