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Interview with Anna Biller, writer/director of Viva
by Mike Mayo
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Mike Mayo: Viva is one of the most visually striking films I've ever seen. It's clear that you took great care within each scene to match or contrast colors and patterns in the sets, props and clothes. How did you go about it?
Anna Biller: I’m a big fan of old Technicolor movies and decorating books, and I’ve noticed that they always limited the |
color palette to only a few colors. For instance, you might see a Doris Day movie where the only colors in the set are blue, yellow, and brown. The walls and her outfit are blue, the drapes and carpet are yellow, there are yellow carnations in a vase, and there is brown wood paneling and furniture. And then a man will enter wearing a brown suit with a yellow tie. So I used the same principle in my set and costume design. I did set sketches for each set, in which the most important thing was the color. Once you get the main colors there by painting the walls and getting the right carpets and couches and bedspreads and drapes and all that, the only thing left is to make sure the little things match, like the vases, lamps, ashtrays, etc. I collected a ton of stuff from the period, so I had glassware and props in each color. Then I’d design or find clothes to match the sets. |
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MM: The costumes are also absolutely accurate to the period. Where did you find them? Thrift shops? Did you and your friends clean out your attics?
AB: I found a lot of the costumes at vintage stores, but there was very little out there that I was able to use “as-is.” Often the stuff left over from that period is either tiny or huge, and often the styles aren’t flattering. So I got a bunch of period clothes and re-made most of them to fit the characters. Sometimes I just used the vintage fabrics and made a totally new style, and I also bought dozens of period patterns and made a lot of clothes from scratch, often with new fabrics. For the orgy scene where I wanted a very limited color palette of mostly white, gold, and silver, I made all the costumes myself. Some things I found, like the chain-mail capes and dresses, but I made everything else. I even made the gold bikinis that the dancers and drummers wore, because the new ones are too skimpy and don’t look true to the period.
MM: In one interview, you said that you based much of the look of the film on advertisements and articles in old Playboy magazines. Was that your only source?
AB: Vintage Playboy magazines were indeed my main inspiration for the look, but I also looked at other decorating books and magazines, and some movies too. I already mentioned the Technicolor movies, and I also discovered the visually lush films of Radley Metzger, which were a great inspiration for the orgy and sex scenes.
MM: What was your first idea for Viva and how did that evolve?
AB: I wanted to make a movie about a woman with a troubled and perverse sexuality, inspired largely by Buñuel's "Belle de Jour." I wrote several drafts of a script but it wasn't quite right. Then I started looking at old Playboys from the early '70s, and everything suddenly fell into place. I started taking photos with a couple of friends that mimicked the style of some of the Playboy ads, and used these photos plus images from the magazines and my old script to concoct a new story about this character and the sexual revolution. It was so much richer once I set it in the sexual revolution, because of my ideas about that time and what it meant for people and especially for women.
MM: Did you plan from the beginning to be such an "auteur," to handle virtually every aspect of the film. The only other person I can think of who did so much on his pictures was Russ Meyer.
AB: I just used the same method I used to make my short films. It's the only way I know how to create. I learned the hard way early on that if you accept too many opinions and delegate too much, you end up with a film that's not really yours, and you don't know what to do with it. So slowly as I've learned more I've incorporated that knowledge into
the craft of filmmaking. It does have something to do with having a low budget, but it also has to do with the fact that making sets and costumes is the most important part filmmaking for me. It's creating that initial world that sets up everything else, an environment for the actors to play in, a world to light, spaces which recall things for the audience. If I gave that part up, I might have something meaningless on the screen. Plus, I come from an art background, so it's natural for me to make things in my studio. It's just a larger and more elaborate version of a performance art piece or a video or a painting. |
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