Francisco Barreiro and Adrián García Bogliano Talk Scherzo Diabolico
Staci Layne Wilson
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In Scherzo Diabolico, a bored accountant (Francisco Barreiro) just can’t win; he’s passed over for promotion at work, has a nagging wife, and is basically dissed by everyone he meets. So he hatches a scheme to get what he feels he is owed to him. After executing his plan of kidnap and ransom, things go straight to hell. (Yes, we mean literally.)
At the press junket in L.A., we caught up with the film’s star, Francisco Barreiro, and the director, Adrián García Bogliano.
Francisco was immediately drawn to doing the movie because of its diabolical plot and how his character is at the center of all the chaos. “The film is a revenge film about an accountant that has this plan to kidnap a girl and his plan at one point just breaks out and something terrible happens at the end. This film was premiering in Tribeca, I think one of the most important film festivals in the world. It went to Sitges, it went to the Italian Film Festival, it went to New Chapere so it had like a like a really, really nice festival tour.”
Adrian added that the L.A. premiere was at the famous Silent Movie Theater, owned and operated by Cinefamily. “Yeah, it was in the Silent Movie Theater here, and it was really nice. I always love that theater; it was a good experience to finally have one of my films screening there.”
Francisco said, “It was a great audience; it was really nice because in a way it’s a black comedy, but people don’t laugh at it normally. This was the first time I’d watched the film with an audience and normally they don’t laugh at what they are feeling at that moment but when you are watching with a specific audience like this that they react to everything they love, they enjoy, they shout, so it was that kind of screening yesterday and it was really nice. The film was made with a purpose so it’s really nice to feel it like that.”
“You never know what to expect and I thought it would be just a little bit darker and a little bit more mysterious in a way and then when it turns… When I watch the film, it looks like a nice comedy and it works really good so yeah, absolutely, it changed the idea that I had when we were shooting the movie.”
Adrian said the black comedy element, along with the horror, makes the movie unique to each viewer. “I think that it is interesting because it plays in a very different way in every screening. Yesterday was one of those screenings where the people actually laughed but at every point they were supposed to laugh. You know, I don’t even know if we have that experience in the U.S. screening for instance, [so] Tribeca was something very different. I mean, I had a blast showing the film there but I realize most people didn’t really connect with the humor, the dark comedy elements of the film; even if they enjoyed it, they didn’t know if they were supposed to laugh so I think it’s very different from… not even from one country to another, but from one screening to another.”
“So far we’ve had some pretty good reviews but I think it was supposed to be a difficult movie, it was supposed to be a movie that was challenging for the audience, I don’t think it’s a movie that gives any easy alternatives to the audience. The characters are not very likable, which is something that I love to do. I love to work with characters that are not that likable and the story keeps unfolding through all the film. You can’t really pitch the film; you can’t really say this film is about peace. I love that it demands some attention.”
“Unfortunately we are part of an industry that asks you to condense your movie and tell us about your film in 25 words, which is okay, but then it’s like… I don’t know… your movie, you’re going to have two hours to show it, it’s difficult when they ask you to tell it in such a simple way. There are so many other ways to approaching cinema; it’s interesting to try that. I’ve made most of my movies very easy to pitch, but I tried this in a very different way. I wanted to try something else.”
One of the “something else” things Adrian did was to use classical music in such a bold, pervasive way that it, in fact, became another character in Scherzo Diabolico – as much as the actors themselves.
“That was something I felt from the very beginning I wanted to use, classical music on this one,” said Adrian. “This is a movie that has to do with a lot of things that I see from my generation, things that keep happening, the more humane and more common elements that have to do with personal experiences. It’s happened to other people that I know, and the classical music is something that has to do with my own frustration in a way because I wanted to be a piano player when I was a kid, and I didn’t have the talent at all to be that.”
“So I thought it was an interesting element… the main character, he’s a very frustrated guy; he also wants to be a pianist actually, and he can’t do it, so I thought the piano pieces were a nice element. Then I found the piano piece that gives the film its title, Scherzo Diabolico, and I thought it was a great idea because of the structure of the piece, but also because of the title. I thought it was a great idea to make this movie like that, like a diabolical joke. It’s a film that the main character has to do the whole movie, but eventually it backlashes, it turns against him; you can say the joke is on him!”
Scherzo Diabolico is available NOW on DVD.
Synopsis:
Aram (Francisco Barreiro; We Are What We Are, Here Comes the Devil) is a low-paid accountant living an unbearably dull existence. With a nagging wife who berates him for not being assertive enough, he quietly suffers while awaiting a long-deserved promotion. But there’s more to Aram than his quiet demeanor lets on: He has been secretly devising a scheme to finally get what he feels he is owed.
One day he asserts his power menacingly when he kidnaps a schoolgirl (Daniela Solo Vell; Eddie Reynolds y Los Angeles de Acero) and keeps her tied up in an abandoned warehouse. But what seems like the perfect plan soon unravels into his worst nightmare, and his carefully constructed scheme comes crashing down piece by bloody piece.
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