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The ways other films influenced Be My Cat
🕑 Added 2020-03-01 22:43:33 +0000 UTCHi, everyone! I published a list on Letterboxd & IMDb with 25 films that influenced Be My Cat: A Film for Anne: https://letterboxd.com/adriantofei/list/films-that-influenced-my-movie-be-my-cat/
Here are exclusively for you the ways every film in that list influenced either the movie or my role (I might also make some of this info public, but later). Let me know what you think!
- The Blair Witch Project (1999) - the found footage filmmaking concept, the ultra-realism, improvisational filmmaking, working with actors, believing that a such a low-budget film can be successful, the concept of "what's not seen is more powerful than what's seen", the psychological horror. I also wrote a found footage manifesto in 2013 detailing more: https://adriantofei.com/writings/the-found-footage-manifesto/
- The Celebration (1998) - the striking realism, the Dogma 95 principles: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Dogme_95
- Exhibit A (2007) - the proof that found footage can be powerful beyond the horror genre (I didn't want Be My Cat to be a traditional found footage horror)
- Zero Day (2002) - the found footage concept, the ultra-realism, the raw quality, the proof that found footage can be powerful beyond the horror genre (drama)
- Taxi Driver (1976) - the antihero concept, the sociopathic character (and him saving a prostitute for the initial version of Be My Cat which you can learn more about here: https://www.imdb.com/title/tt3176980/trivia?item=tr4022877
- Falling Down (1993) - the antihero concept, the sociopathic character
- Psycho (1960) - the likable psychopathic character, the slasher concept
- Misery (1990) - the likable psychopathic character, the powerful acting performance
- Picnic at Hanging Rock (1975) - the atmospherical horror, the contrast between the open air natural scenery and the horrifying atmosphere (one of the reasons why the movie starts in my yard with greens all around and lots of sun)
- The Haunting (1963) - what's not seen is more powerful than what's seen, the psychological horror, the horror without blood
- Roger & Me (1989 Documentary) - Michael Moore's cinema-verite-like filmmaking method & style, going on the streets with the camera and talking to the camera, creating a personal connection with the audience
- Carrie (1976) - the likable paradoxical character, both innocent and destructive at the same time, the antihero concept, the powerful acting performance
- Cannibal Holocaust (1980) - the concept of giving audiences something 100% real in the beginning (the actual killing of animals on camera), so that later, when you start inserting fictional events (killing people), the audience will think those are real as well. I believe it's highly unethical to kill animals for a movie, I'm strongly against the way they used this concept, but the concept itself nonetheless influenced me. I applied it very differently, the real things in the beginning being actresses arriving for real for the first time at the location, me welcoming them in character and other similarities with out real lives and personas to gain the audiences' trust that what they see is real.
- Buried (2010) - the proof that you can make a successful movie with mainly one character in a limited space
- Going to Pieces: The Rise & Fall of the Slasher Film (2006 Documentary) - the slasher concept
- The Iceman and the Psychiatrist (2008 Documentary) (and also the first two parts from 1992 & 2001, The Iceman Tapes & The Iceman Confesses) - the psychology of a psychopath (this helped me more with the psychology of my character in The Monster one-man-show that preceded my character in Be My Cat)
- Snuff: A Documentary About Killing on Camera (2008 Documentary) - the snuff film concept
- American Horror Story: Asylum (2012) - the intensity of the horror genre (this really reignited my passion for horror exactly when I was developing Be My Cat)
- Halloween (1978) - the horror genre, the slasher genre, the atmospheric horror in the first half of the movie coming from outdoor street shots in a suburb not very different from my hometown Radauti where nothing happens usually
- The Call (2013) - the scene where the guy kidnaps the girl inspired the kidnapping scene of Sonia in Be My Cat (but me lifting Sonya in the air was actually discovered during shootings, when I forgot that the guy in The Call did the same thing, afterwards I was surprised of the similarities)
- Hollow (2011) - the atmospherical horror in a found footage film, the scene with the dead rat found on the road which anticipated the horrors to come (one of the reasons why I decided to keep the scene with the dead cat found on the road - but finding the cat while improvising about girls & cats was a huge coincidence)
- Hostel (2005) - the proof that horrors happening in Eastern Europe is a cool horror movie theme for American audiences
- Mute Witness (1995) - the snuff scene where the guys pretend to shoot a fictional snuff, but while shooting they kill the woman for real (I did not think of this film at all while making the movie, but after premiering Be My Cat I remembered that I watched Mute Witness in my childhood, I checked that scene and was surprised of the similarities, it might've influenced me without knowing, from the subconscious)
- Les Miserables (2012) - the incredible acting performance of Anne Hathaway, one of the reasons why I chose her in Be My Cat (I was not impressed by her performance in The Dark Knight Rises like my character, but I made an analogy with my fascination for her performance in Les Miserables)
- The Dark Knight Rises (2012) - Anne Hathaway playing a believable cat-woman (for the movie I needed a celebrity with some connection with cats)
