Exclusive Interview: Co-writer/Director Adrián García Bogliano Talks Cold Sweat, Argentinian Politics, Future Projects and More!
Steve Barton
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After an incredible festival run throughout 2011, co-writer and director Adrián García Bogliano is celebrating the release of his latest thriller Sudor Fríos – or Cold Sweat for all you gringos out there – on DVD shelves everywhere on January 17th courtesy of Dark Sky Films and MPI Media Group.
Starring Facundo Espinosa (The Motorcycle Diaries), Marina Glezer (Valentin) and newcomer Camila Velasco, the Spanish-language thriller centers around two villainous old men (Omar Musa and Omar Gioiosa), remnants of a time of war and different ideals, who lure young women into their home only to subject the insolent hostages to a barrage of tests and torture via the use of decades old (and highly unstable) explosives they keep hidden away in their decrepit house.
Dread Central had the opportunity to talk with Bogliano about Cold Sweat, the inspiration behind his film, how real-life politics shaped his story and what’s up next for the ever-busy filmmaker (at age 31, he’s already written nine short films, ten features and has then gone on to direct 15 of those projects as well). Bogliano discussed with us what inspired the story behind his unusual thriller and how the socio-political climate of Argentina in the 1970’s played a huge part in Cold Sweat.
“I wanted to make an homage to the films I’ve always loved, and I had always had this one visual stuck in my mind – of people having to carry unstable dynamite down a difficult road – and decided to make that, just on a smaller scale,” explained Bogliano. “I’ve always loved this one quote from Sidney Lumet when he’s talking about making a movie just simply with what you have laying on a table and getting the story to fit that scale so that’s what I did here. Instead of trying to carry dynamite for long distances, now the characters are soaked in nitroglycerine and basically have to make it from the basement of this old house to the roof safely before they blow up.”
“The idea of someone having explosives these days in Argentina isn’t really that commonplace because it’s not a particularly violent country now; in the 70s, though, the country was dealing with a dictatorship and violent groups of people committing some of the worst crimes imaginable so I started thinking about what if someone from that dictatorship still had explosives around, how would they use them and why would they use them; and the story came out of that inspiration,” added Bogliano.
Being a huge horror fan himself, Bogliano knew that his villains would be the key to creating an effective terror tale. “I wanted our villains to be the complete opposite of what you’d expect a villain to look like. When walking around Argentina, you see a lot of older men who are very similar to our villains in Cold Sweat who seem harmless and nice. But what if they weren’t. I thought about what it must have been like decades ago in Germany and what would you do if you happened to make friends with someone, only to find out they were an ex-Nazi.”
Bogliano added, “Part of the challenge for me was figuring out how these two old men would be able to lure women to them and do it logically so the idea of the Internet popped into my head because our society now is so open online and I think people forget that not everyone who may be interacting with you is being 100 percent honest. And using the Internet also explored the idea of how the villains have to adapt to this new world that they truly hate. I know a lot of people don’t like when the villains talk about their motivations, but for me, I love it. And I knew these were the kind of villains who would talk about why they were doing what they were doing because in their minds they were right and people needed to know they were right. It’s about these clashing generations and how men who used to live under ‘Big Brother’ have to adapt to this ‘new world’ that they find incredibly empty and lacking in morals.”
Even though Bogliano is something of an ‘old pro’ himself with almost 20 projects to his credit, he discussed how his latest was definitely one of his hardest stories to shoot. “Making Cold Sweat was really interesting for me because we only had 19 days to shoot and didn’t have any time at all really to prepare for the shoot at all. We only had two cameras so my brother had to shoot all the second-unit footage himself even, and with all the effects and the large number of shots we had to get done, it was incredibly difficult to pull off. I didn’t even get a chance to work with the cast a lot before we started shooting – I think we had one meeting for two hours before production – so a lot of the magic you see in the movie is completely all on them.”
With Cold Sweat releasing this week and a number of announced projects on his slate, we asked Bogliano to talk about what’s coming up for him and what keeps him coming back to the horror genre, time and time again.
“I love horror movies,” said Bogliano. “I want to keep making them for a very long time, but the truth is, as a movie fan, I really love all kinds of movies so I don’t know if I would ever turn down the chance to make a movie outside of horror, but this is where I definitely want to stay. Both Dario Argento and Brian De Palma are huge influences on me, and as a storyteller I like taking subjects that you usually don’t see in horror movies (like the political climate of Argentina in the 1970s) and incorporating them into my stories. To me, that gives the story a little more authenticity and maybe it helps connect with audiences better, too – or I hope it does.”
“My next film Penumbra is coming out in the US in March through IFC Films, which is really amazing. I loved seeing the reaction to Penumbra at Fantastic Fest so I’m really excited to see how fans react when it comes out. I just finished shooting my segment for The ABCs of Death, but I can’t say much about that except that I’m really excited to be a part of that film. I’m also currently preparing my next movie called Here Comes the Devil, and it’s the first movie I’ve ever made in Mexico so that’s exciting, too. MPI came on board to help us get the movie made, and I am so honored to have their support while making this movie. It’s a ghost story shot in Spanish, and hopefully I’ll have more news in a few months on when it will come out.”
Special thanks to Adrián García Bogliano (while on set, no less!) for taking some time to speak with us today, and make sure to check out Cold Sweat now that it’s released on DVD shelves everywhere!
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