Interview with the Director
By STEVE PERSALL, St. Petersburg Times
Staff Writer
Published October 9, 2003
Paolo Ravinski is
either a madman or a very good actor
milking a juicy role for everything
it's worth.
You don't know the name, but TV ads
for Halloween Horror Nights 13 burn
two things in your memory: a scratchy
phonograph playing You Ought to Be in
Pictures and Ravinski's gaze, with
yellowed eyes peering through a camera
lens as his victims - excuse me,
actors - perform against their will.
Critics and law enforcement agencies
call it snuff cinema. Ravinski prefers
"art." He's allegedly an underground
favorite in European circles darker
than the ones under his eyes. The
story goes that someone found his work
- films with titles such as The Blood
Letting and Death Procession - on the
Internet and brought them to Universal
Studios Orlando's attention.
Now Ravinski is the poster boy for
Universal's annual monthlong Halloween
bash. His specialty is Infestations,
where volunteers surrender to
Ravinski's art, at least as far as
park regulations allow. Being
subjected to snakes, rats and bugs is
child's play compared to what Ravinski
would like to do to tourists.
I met Ravinski in a screening room on
Universal's back lot. He's a small
man, tense and jittery, clutching his
jacket, constantly squirming and
stammering as disturbing thoughts are
shaped into words. And that's after he
says the screening room makes him feel
comfortable.
"Normally I would be watching
something, but they won't let me bring
my films on property because of legal
things," he says.
For 25 minutes we chatted about
Ravinski's art, why he'll never go
Hollywood, and celebrities he would
love to cast in a film. Lunatic or
thespian? Decide for yourself.
How did you begin making films?
"I picked up my father's camera when I
was 8 years old. But I got in trouble
because I was wasting film. I would
shoot birds with a BB gun and when I'd
see them fall out of the trees I would
film them flittering and stuff. I'm
self-taught in terms of knowing what I
like. Then I went to Europe and found
people who are into what I'm doing."
Any creative influences you can
pinpoint?
"I like Civil War photographs. Those
are just amazing, so long ago and they
have pictures of the bodies. I like
the old black and white Universal
films. And I like the '70s films
because they were very grainy and that
made it seem real. I think some of
that is coming back."
Like The Blair Witch Project?
"Blair Witch was supernatural. I'm not
big into supernatural films. If you're
not afraid of ghosts or witchcraft,
then automatically the viewer is lost.
"But you're afraid when you're
trapped, when there's power over you
and you want to get away. That's real
fear. I like the way they used the
video camera in Blair Witch. It had
that chaotic madness to it. But I
don't like video either. That just
looks like mom and pop shot it."
What is your style of handling
actors?
"I just tell them what I want. I'm
mostly about the visuals as long as
they give me what I want. I just turn
on the camera. I want to make sure the
fear is real and precise. I've got to
know what they're afraid of. A lot of
people don't know what they're getting
into sometimes. I've got to make sure
they know this isn't a game."
Where do you draw the line?
"I don't draw a line but I have to
watch what I say. If some situations
like this put a line there, I can't
cross it. I hope whenever it's my time
I would be willing to turn that camera
on myself. If it's boring, I would do
to myself what I've done to my own
actors to make sure it's good stuff. I
wouldn't draw a line even if it
pertained to me."
Describe a few of your films.
"They show clips in the commercial. I
did Clowns Are Always Laughing on the
Outside and Crying on the Inside, So
Let's See. I wanted to make that clown
cry and laugh at the same time and
really get inside him. But I was only
able to show a select part of that
movie.
"I did the Rubber Ducky one where a
guy is in a bathtub, trapped and you
know something's going to happen. I'm
not going to let you go. I've got
something planned. It's not going to
be like a joke like Candid Camera or
something.
"I did one that I felt was about life
and death. It was a man in his last
days, a lonely guy. I know he didn't
have any family. I was able to invite
him to my apartment to spend his last
days there.
"It was real. It was gritty. It was
dirty. It wasn't like a Hollywood
movie where they utter a final word or
a last breath and their eyes close. In
every movie they do that, and it's so
untrue. I've seen it and that's not
what it is."
You're looking agitated right now.
"I'm just getting ideas in my head.
You're so close that I get
frustrated."
Ever get a chance to meet your
fans?
"I do have fans, but when I actually
meet them, you may not hear from them
again. It's like my secret club.
Whenever somebody starts getting too
close to me, I kind of put a stop to
that. It's almost like I'm giving
somebody a chance to be my new star.
It's like life and death and rebirth
and death."
Ingmar Bergman had the same idea. Why
don't you try to work with the
Hollywood system, try changing it from
the inside?
"It's all about money in Hollywood. I
can't do the stuff they want. I don't
think the actors' union would
appreciate some of the things I ask my
actors to do.
"I would rather just go out into some
poor undeveloped country or region
where there's no questions asked,
nobody behind my back. I can't do the
Hollywood thing. I'm having a hard
time doing this, sitting on my hands
at Universal."
It could be worse. You could be
working for Disney.
"I've never even seen a Disney movie.
I've been told I should see Bambi.
They told me the mom thing. But that's
not real. The only thing I've seen on
television is Fear Factor, but it was
a lie."
Are there any Hollywood actors
you would consider casting in your
films?
"I would like to scare Ben Affleck and
J-Lo. They're annoying. I would like
to make them split for real. That's
just Hollywood right there. I'd really
like to get my hands on somebody who's
Hollywood so I could put them in a
position their agents and publicists
would never want them in. I would love
to put J-Lo in that clown thing. Oh,
yeah, that would be good."
