Paul Solet: Director
Interview: Paul Solet [Part 2]
Thursday, September 13, 2007
Paul Solet traveled the continent to make "Grace," leaving his alma mater in Boston, editing his first short "Means to an Ends" en route and arriving in Los Angeles. There, he joined the Hollywood rank and file, muscling for notice, for contacts, and for a shot to film his new script - about a mother and a decidedly unnatural birth (see the review of "Grace" in DISCOVERIES).
Cinescare picks up the conversation, here in part two of an interview, with what Solet thinks about genre splatter, what works about it in "Grace," and how to predict (or at least survive waiting for) the future in the tempestuous world of studios and producers.
Cinescare: I think most people who deal with genre cinema, and horror in general, begin to see gore as a purely technical achievement. There are two kinds of things going on with on-screen graphic violence. One is, it's meant to completely smash your sense of security. The other is, it's ironic, or it's meant to be a wink at an audience. The latter, I think, has become so overused that it's not effective as either comedy or as an inside joke. I think that gore has become cliche in horror film. I think that horror films that have lasting quality have, time and time again, had, oddly enough, very little on-screen gore. The grandfathers (and grandmothers) of the horror film are conspicuously lacking on-screen gore.
Paul Solet: Still, occasionally, you'll get someone like a Douglas Buck, that will come up with some really creative gore. And you're like, "Wow. I just had a visceral response to seeing someone brush their gums off with steel wool." I'm really impressed when I see stuff like that. I think that's really cool. I think you're totally right. I think you're absolutely right. It's tough. Audiences are very, very smart. We have become so cinema-savvy, as fans, as viewers. Even if the average dude can't articulate why it is they feel something works, or why it is they feel something doesn-t work. They know. They really do know. It makes it really exciting as a writer. You need to constantly stay ahead of the game. The way to produce real drama is to figure out what the audience's expectations are and then give them something else. Flip it on its head. But you can't do that every time. Horror, if you want to make a successful genre movie - I mean, an effective genre movie - you really do need to think. People really know their stuff.
Cinescare: I haven't experienced a reaction to on-screen gore special effects as strongly as I did with "Grace" since Cronenberg ... when your character is on the table and she's having blood and tissue hit the floor.
Paul Solet: We call that the hell omelet.
Cinescare: Right there. That reminded me of the fact that the special effect, when synched up with something that's a really powerful subtext or a really powerful piece of thematic material—let's say it's birth, motherhood, the center of the body to which we still attach this very powerful psychological and spiritual importance—now you throw gore on that canvas and I had to stop watching the film until I finished eating.
Paul Solet: Oh, that's great!
Cinescare: This is where I think "Grace" is going to hit that nerving ending that we cannot escape. And it reminded directly of "Rabid," when Cronenberg's camera finds the little proboscis coming out of the armpit. It's just unbearable. The use of that part of the body, which is so sensitive, and dark, and secret. Putting the camera in there and finding something moving. "Grace" and that have this cousinhood. I think that you've tapped into the way that horror film can still horrify us, which is show us something painful and awful within a context that is psychological and spiritual, and we will want to boil our eyes afterwards.
Paul Solet: I'm a huge believe in body horror, and Cronenberg, and what he's done. He's the guy that started the body horror phenomenon. He really brought it to fruition. That's a big compliment. I really appreciate that.
Cinescare: You've worked with some actors who have a huge profile, to make the short. And you've worked with a crew that was seasoned and excited about what you were doing. How has that affected the profile of "Grace?" Where in the process are you when it comes to moving the feature into the green-light area?
Paul Solet: I probably shouldn't comment on that until things are locked up. I've got some really fantastic [people] attached. They've really done a lot of footwork. They're genre fans and they're filmmakers themselves. I'm extremely excited to have the team that's already been forming around the project. I've turned down a number of different options on the "Grace" script, for various reasons. These guys just felt completely right. They totally get this project. They completely get it.
Cinescare: Are you going to attempt to bring the short's cast with you?
Paul Solet: I think that Liza is an amazing actress. I would love to see her in the feature. And Brian, top. You develop a serious, serious appreciation for their craft when you see actors like that at work. These are actors who've done thousands of television shows. They're technically so on the money that every once in a while they'll correct your blocking.
Cinescare: To the uninitiated it said: these are known quantities doing something really risky. It's not to be considered a deep underground project because of their faces.
Paul Solet: If you can get recognizable names involved, do it. It always opens doors. The way that we got them: I had been cold-calling various celebrities, pitching the film and stuff. This is before we had got the casting team. We ended up getting [the] casting team through Rebecca Perry Cutter, one of the producers. They do a lot of TV ... they're incredibly good at what they do. I gave them a wish list of the people I wanted for each part. They got them. They actually went out and they got them.
Cinescare: You're at the cusp of what sounds like the next step in "Grace." Let's go back to the beginning. You're a student at Emerson. You're having some potentially fateful interactions with people that would go on to make movies in genre film. Tell me about how you perceived your greatest advantage that comes out of that background.
Paul Solet: That's a really good question. I think that there have been number them. I so believe in the path that I'm on. I so believe in filmmaking. There is nothing else that I want to do. It's always been what I want to do. So, I've always felt a real sense of purpose.
Cinescare: Talk about the moment of greatest challenge in this experience, for you.
Paul Solet: I don't know that I can isolate one specific moment. The idea that people waltz into Hollywood or the film industry and end up overnight successes ... it's not a reality. It's not they way it works. Even people who appear to be overnight successes; their publicists would have you believe waltzed into Hollywood and were so incredibly talented that they became immediately successful, those people have been working their asses off for years and years. It's a challenge. If you're not feeling challenged, if you're not feeling some fear, then you are not growing as a filmmaker. Being a screenwriter or a filmmaker is not a decision for someone who is not willing to work on becoming comfortable with being uncomfortable. How much fear are you willing to walk thought? How much grace - no pun intended - are you willing to bring to the challenges? So much of it is just keeping faith in your work.
