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Your new movie The
Red Lips of the Octopus - in a few words, what's it about?
It is based on a poem by the same name by Aleister Crowley, and it is a
surreal telling of Crowley's relationship with the drag performer Herbert
Charles Pollitt. To ask quite bluntly, why Aleister Crowley, what does he mean to you
personally? And what kind of research did you do on the subject? As an occultist myself I have been studying Aleister Crowley’s
work for many years and first became fascinated with his writing when I
read his book 777 at a young age. I found out about Crowley’s and
Pollitt’s relationship a few years back and really fell in love with the
poetry he wrote about Pollitt, especially Red Lips. Besides the visuals
inspired by the poetry I wanted the story to be based on actual events. It
took quite a bit of research as there weren’t many sources online at
first. Crowley himself didn’t write much about his relationship with
Pollitt, except in his autobiography which is hard to come by. I had
written out most of the script based on the poem at first and then over
the course of several months I kept adding small elements to the story
based on my research about Crowley and Pollitt. (Other)
sources of inspiration when writing The
Red Lips of the Octopus? My other two main
sources of inspiration were Pink Narcisus, which is a queer cult art house
film directed by James Bidgood. It has some of the most stunning visuals
ever seen on the screen. The other big inspiration for me were the films
by Kenneth Anger. In The
Red Lips of the Octopus you tell your story in a highly
associative, non-linear way - so how hard (or easy) was it to not just
literally lose your plot in the process? It came about like this
because I first wrote down ideas based on the lines of the poem. I liked
that the story was flowing in a non linear way as Crowley is going through
this astral travel like experience while he remembers his life with
Pollitt. I wanted these elements of ritual and initiation as well to be
present, so nothing flows in a conventional way but I believe the viewers
will still get drawn deep into the story.
What can you
tell us about your directorial approach to your story at hand? This was basically my debut
film and the first time I directed actors as my previous short was a stop
motion animation film, Curse
of the Black Shuck. So, I was really nervous at first. The first scene
we shot was with Jeff Kristian [Jeff
Kristian interview - click here] at the beach performing a ritual. The fact
that I knew Jeff well and that we had worked lots together before made me
more comfortable and of course Jeff was a natural and got so well into the
character of Crowley. In general, as a painter my mind works in a very
visual way so with it being also a silent film it allowed me to bring
forth a lot of visual imagery. You
also appear in front of the camera in The
Red Lips of the Octopus - so do talk about your character, and
what did you draw upon to bring her to life? I wanted to play a small cameo in
the movie, so when I thought about this angel character in a scene were
Crowley encounters the alien deity Lam, I thought this was a good part for
me to play. I called the character Shamayim which is the Hebrew word for
heaven. The character appears only shortly, she helps Crowley along his
journey but is a devious spirit. Do talk
about the rest of The
Red Lips of the Octopus' cast, and why exactly these people?
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I can’t express enough
just how lucky I was with finding this cast, that I have in this film and
how wonderful just each and every single actor was. The middle-aged
Crowley is played by Jeff Kristian. I had asked Jeff first about composing
the music and once he agreed I thought he would actually make a very good
Crowley so I asked him to also play the lead role in the film. From
expressions to movements, and everything Jeff embodied this role just
perfectly and I couldn’t have found someone better for this part. Then
the hardest role to cast was the role of the young Crowley in the flashback scenes. I wanted someone so specific for this part as young Crowley
had that very aristocratic feel about himself, and the actor had to embody
that. So, after casting this part for almost a year, Brandon Edwards
applied for the casting and I knew instantly that he was my young Crowley.
Brandon and Danny Beaton who played Pollitt also had an amazing on-screen
chemistry and were just both so wonderful to work with and such talented
actors. Then I had the character of the alien deity Lam written out but
the original actor I had cast dropped out last minute so I had almost
thought about cutting this part until I found H. Taylor, they had this
perfect look for the part very Bowie-esque and was just such an uplifting
force on set and a magnificent actor.
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A
few words about the shoot as such, and the on-set atmosphere? The majority of the film was shot over a period
of over three days, so often we had to cover a lot of footage within a
short timeframe. The days were often really full on, but everyone worked
so well together, and thanks to the wonderful cast & crew we managed
without any setbacks. You
also have to talk about the music in The
Red Lips of the Octopus for a bit, and was it created especially
for the movie or pre-existing tunes? And how much of a say did you demand
when it came to musical style and the like? Here I need to again praise the incredible
talents of Jeff Kristian who composed the entire soundtrack himself.
I proposed to Jeff a psychedelic theme and the music he created is very
much inspired by late 1960’s psychedelic rock bands in the likes of Jimi Hendrix and the Doors. It just makes the film and adds so many
elements to it. The way we worked, was for me to send him the finished
edited scenes, one by one and he would compose the music to that
particular scene, since the film was in these 13 separate segments that
technique worked really well. The original motion soundtrack is also now
available on all platforms and stores worldwidem so go and check it out! The
$64-question, where can The
Red Lips of the Octopus be seen?
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The film
has been picked up by Gonella Productions which is a short film
distribution company and will be released on various streaming platforms
very soon, but I don’t have a date just yet. Later on in the year it
will also be released by
Après Vague as part of the anthology Feature
Films Confiscated from a French Brothel. Anything you
can tell us about audience and critical reception of The
Red Lips of the Octopus? Since the
films hasn’t been widely watched yet I haven’t had much feedback but
from the few people who did see it the feedback has been very encouraging. Any future projects
you'd like to share? I’m currently writing my first
feature film script, it’s a slow process and a very ambitious project.
It will be a dark fantasy feature inspired by the classic fantasy movies
such as Labyrinth and
Legend, just much darker and queerer. Beyond that
Après Vague are also in deep pre-production again of another feature film
project to be directed by Selene Kapsaski [Selene
Kapsaski interview - click here] called The Moon is a Hologram,
and we will start shooting in autumn. Your/your movie's website, social
media, whatever else?
Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/redlipsoftheoctopus
My Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/rahel_kapsaski/
Anything else you're dying to
mention and I have merely forgotten to ask?
Love is the law, love under will. Thanks for
the interview!
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