Maleficarum – The Aftermath

Maleficarum completed its third week at a commercial movie house. A multiplex. I’m sure it’s the last week of its controversial, highly polemic, heavily discussed run.

When things slowed down a little, after weeks of radio and TV interviews, after lots of press coverage, our crew took a long break. Amy and Jac decided to go away to the warmth and tropical weather of Coroico.

Coroico is the place where Perils of Jane was shot. A favorite spot in the Red Feline World. There’s a river with nice falls where the water is cold and clean and where Amy got some relaxing rest during the weekend. They talked about getting a permanent place in this paradisiacal part of the world, with a swimming pool and a dungeon.

They also talked about making a movie there soon. They walked around, while relaxing, checking possible locations. Even during their vacation they make room for some work. The location is awesome, the views fantastic. A lot can be done there.

This vacation came after weeks of hard and estressfull work. First the making of the film Dead But Dreaming, then the release of Maleficarum to theaters, with all the fuss that came with it. Most of it unexpected, as you all know by now.

Fresh air, cool river waters, long, very long walks, great cuisine in the tropics, good wine and beer, no internet at all, no e-mails or phone calls, nothing. Just nature, bugs, bats, birds, lots of birds… and rest. Those three days went fast, we’re all back in business now.

The theatrical release of Maleficarum was a huge gamble for us and we’re getting the results of it now.

The film receive lots of publicity because of the controversial decision to ban it by the Cinemateca, which resulted in a public debate on the issue of censorship. There were mixed reactions by the audience, some love the film, some hate it. Jac became the most controversial, polemic director of Bolivian Cinema, something that he’ll have to live with forever, I think.

The theatrical run is almost over. Maleficarum run for three weeks, which is good, and it’s fourth in ticket sales after Avengers, Battleship and Titanic 3D. Can we dare call Maleficarum a blockbuster? Dare we? Dare we?

The censorship to Maleficarum was the talk of town, it made the news big time. The backlash was so strong that the Cinemateca was forced to organize a public debate with Jac as the guest of honor.

On Wednesday the gloves were on in the Jac Versus Cinemateca match of wits. It was grand, the unthinkable happened Maleficarum opened a public and national debate. It’s a long story and it needs to be told. It started with a letter.

The letter in question had one phrase that set in motion a chain of events that culminated in the debate: “explicit language“. Jac cried “bloody censorship” and the press picked it up. When the theatrical release was announced the press made the point that the film was previously rejected by the Cinemateca, that it was censored by a committee.

Some of the TV coverage also touched upon the subject of censorship and when a well known journalist wrote a highly critical piece about the censorship things did not look good for the Cinemateca. The day that piece was published, Jac received a call from the Cinemateca inviting him to a debate on Censorship. Jac accepted.

Prior to the debate there was one review that appeared in a newspaper where the reviewer trashes Maleficarum, but the article starts saying that the film comes with pseudo polemic and attacks to two well known journalists. It was an obvious attempt to show the film in a bad light before the debate.

The morning of the debate Jac was interviewed at a radio station. He was told that the program was very opposed to censorship, etc. But the interviewer, after saying that he was against censorship, began to attack the movie and Jac. It was an obvious ambush. Later we found out that the interviewer is part of the Cinemateca, in an indirect way. The Cinemateca’s director and her assistant began linking the review wherever they could.

So, Jac braced himself for what he believed was going to be a nasty attack on the film. Specially after he was told that all of the people in the panel had to see the film first.

Well, as the people gathered at the Cinemateca for the big event it was clear that Jac was not alone. Many in the cast and crew were there to show their support. The cameraman and Amy set up cameras to record it.

The moderator invited Jac to take his seat, he was very nice, very polite. The debate opened and Jac was invited to open the discussion. He didn’t talk about the film, he talked about censorship. The next person, a well known writer, surprised all. Jac was sure she was going to attack the film. What she did was something else. She said she saw the film and didn’t like it and her reason was that she didn’t understand the insistence on torture. After that brief explanation she talked about DH Lawrence and his struggle to publish his novels, those novels and stories that even his closests friends saw as too pornographic to be published. It was an interesting comparison. Jac and DH Lawrence in the same discussion. It was a very elegant way to call Maleficarum pornographic in the tradition of DH Lawrence novels. Another person in the panel, a filmmaker, disagreed. “It’s not pornographic” he said. “Erotic, maybe, but not pornographic“.

After that the debate turned into a very polite engagement. When the debate was opened to the audience, one journalist said something that made the people at the Cinemateca a turn blue with fear. He said “censorship goes against the constitution” and then said that The Passion of the Christ was censored in Chile but the distributors brought their case to the interamerican courts and won. “I’m not suggesting Mr Avila gets a lawyer and sues the Cinemateca, but he could if he wanted to“.

And that was the end, basically. The Cinemateca apologized for the wording of the letter, saying that their problem was not the film but their programming and so on. The debate ended in an anti-climax.

Reine Margot: I’ve always enjoyed your image-and-detail-laden updates, but…well, the one about the Maleficarum theatrical bash was the mother of all posts. Truly, you are the Reine.
JJ you rascal…a hot babe on each arm. Dude, you are living every man’s fantasy.
That is unusual for the movie rating to be lowered, allowing younger people to see it. Could it be that some decision-maker – and it would interesting to find out who it was – saw this film’s value as an accurate portrayal of history, and felt there were lessons to be learned from it? It was very wise for JJ and the crew to meticulously research the background of the film’s tale and incorporate their findings so firmly into the art. All that, and GIMP too. Excellent.

YikYakker

The rating Maleficarum received by the people who do the rating here is a recommendation only. It’s not set in stone. The theaters can actually change that if they feel like it and they did. So, young people saw the movie. The reaction to the movie is mixed. Some people hate it, some love it. One guy complained in a post somewhere.’I paid 25 bucks to see two chicks naked“… someone responded “Two chicks naked?” Funny. I bet many people went to the theater after that comment.

Ralphus, I remember you are one of the producers of Jac’s movie and because of your generosity, this movie has become what it is… a classic. I wish you really were there to receive that well earned applause.
One must not forget about a well written screenplay about star-crossed lovers of the same sex, who loved each other with the willingness to suffer and die for each other. And the artful acting by the cast and good directing by Jac Avila to show us on the big screen, in very realistic terms what happens to victims of The Holy Office, the Inquisition. Thank You.

Gerry aka Heroone

That’s a nice comment and very true. Ralphus started it all, really. Jac and Amy were getting ready to shoot Barbazul, Amy’s second feature. It was scheduled, the tickets for Veronica were already paid for and she was ready to come to shoot the movie when Ralphus and Amy came to an agreement about the inquisition movie. So, instead of one movie, as planned, we shot three. Barbazul, Maleficarum and Le Marquis de la Croix. The last in that list was made because we had the location, plain and simple.

The Maleficarum Premiere: I’ll have to echo John Galt’s sentiments and say that is just very, very cool. Seeing the pictures of Jac and the stars of the picture standing in front of the poster of the film, posing for pictures and basking in the limelight is a well-deserved reward for all the hard work they put into making a film this special. I just wish I could have been there.
People actually applauded at the end of the movie? That’s gotta make it all worthwhile. I mean, of course the pervs and sick fucks that inhabit this forum were going to like the movie, but a mainstream crowd erupting into applause after watching nearly 2 hours of naked women being tortured? Maybe there’s hope for mankind after all. I can’t remember the last time I went to a theatre and people clapped at the end. Maybe Star Wars?

Ralphus

The applause at the end of the movie at the premiere came as a surprise, Jac was actually expecting a lot of booos. But no. There was applause and lots and lots of congratulations to the cast and crew. Some do believe, however, that the torture scenes are a bit long for mainstream audiences.

I often read complaints in this and other forums that torture scenes in mainstream movies are waaaay too short. Well, the opposite is true with Maleficarum. Future mainstream torture films will have nice, lengthy torture scenes, but not too long. More like in Dead But Dreaming.

As far as 14-year olds being allowed to see the film, all I can say is I wish I could be 14 again and watch a film like this for the first time. I was 18 when I saw A Clockwork Orange in a theatre and I still remember getting an erection during the “Singin’ in the Rain” scene. I had never seen anything like that. So I can just imagine how I would have reacted to a film like this. You’re going to blow a few minds and unleash some inner perverts at a young age. Trust me, they’ll never forget seeing this movie.

Ralphus

It’s funny but Jac said exactly the same thing, word by word, when he was told that the rating went from 18 to 14. “I wish I was 14 again to see this movie for the first time“. He was very impressed at around that age when he saw “The Whip and the Flesh” with Christopher Lee and “Angelique and the King“.

Maleficarum would’ve been the movie he would never, ever forget.

R. Margot, I am very curious about that movie rating reduction. I also noticed the movie duration of 100 minutes and not 102 minutes for my VeermerWorks DVD copy. Was this movie re-edited for Bolivian public viewing?

Gerry aka Heroone

Like I said, the theaters took it on their own to lower the rating after seeing the movie I guess. As far as the duration, Jac took 2 minutes off, he could’ve taken 4 or even 5 without affecting the overall impact of the movie. It’s a different editing… not too different.

Reine Margot: Thank you once again for the informative and entertaining post, as well as the great pictures. I think it is great that Maleficarum is getting such a positive reception. It wouldn’t be happening in America, I’m absolutely sure. I am curious about the differences between the “Theatrical” release and the original release, but honestly I cannot see any way the news it received the equivalent of a PG-13 rating is anything short of mind-blowing. I am happy that the project has worked out so well for you all. Maleficarum will never achieve mainstream status in the US, but it might make the rounds of the “Art House” cinemas here, which would be totally cool.

John Galt

The basic difference in the editing is in the structure. In the original release there are some long segments of the testimonies, like two at a time intercut with complete torture scenes. For instance, The testimonies before the rack are one long sequence, then the rack begins in full force and at the end there are more testimonies. In the theatrical release the tortures are intercut with the testimonies more often. That’s the only difference other than the tortures being slightly shorter.

D. “Sick Fuck” Santorum: Good point about Camille. I have not yet seen any of her works in its entirety, but every image or trailer I’ve seen that included her – such as the one you posted – was very impressive.

YikYakker

JJ and Camille did a lot of work which at the time was very personal, it’s only after the release of Red Feline on the Cross and working on the inquisition series and later Martyr that JJ felt it was fine to release part of that personal work, not all of it. There’s more. That work was part games, part rehearsal, part studies of a crucifixion, like the sketches a painter makes before the big work. Camille’s performance in those videos are what is impressive, everything else was done around it, to inspire her, to make it look better, etc.

It was a labor of love, perhaps, but now they are actually nice series of works that trascend the moment… a moment that now is way in the past.

D. “Sick Fuck” Santorum We’ll see if Ms. Hesketh launches to the top her once that public whipping scene in Dead But Dreaming is revealed to the world, but Red Feline’s Camille would probably rank at the top of my list. Some may remember the strong impression she made on me in The Via Crucis of Camille – Crux 6&7, which I wrote about a few months ago. But sometimes a pic really does speak a thousand words…

Dead But Dreaming is in the future. We’re just beginning to get through the release of Maleficarum and we have two more feature films to release… plus more of Camille, like Via Crucis 9 and 10… in two separate DVDs. We don’t have the images of these upcoming releases, just some old vid caps that don’t do justice to what they are all about. These two episodes of The Via Crucis of Camille are the top of them all.

I would like to comment, belatedly, on something that Ralphus posted some days ago.
But first I wish to make a comment that may seem pompous (although, I have to confess, that I can live with such a characterization!).
Ralphus wrote concerning the success of the showing of Maleficarum in mainstream Bolivian cinemas: “I mean, of course, the pervs and sick fucks that inhabit this forum were going to like the movie, but a mainstream crowd erupting into applause after nearly two hours of naked women being tortured? Maybe there is hope for mankind (womankind?! [my insertion!]) after all.”
After a lifetime of engagement in BDSM, both active and passive, I do not see myself as a ‘perv’ or ‘sick fuck’. I have enjoyed experiences and insights from which I believe all would benefit. And insights that enrich my capacity to engage with all individuals, whether ‘vanilla’ or ‘alternative’. For those of us in this community to describe ourselves as ‘pervs’ and ‘sick fucks’ does us no favours. (See below).
OK. Sermon over!
My experience is that far more individuals are sympathetic to BDSM responses than admit such to other people and to themselves.
Those who see Mal. will see two women; Ms. Joya and Ms. Hesketh; with delightful bodies exposed at length. What is problematical about this?
They will then see them controlled, made available and used/abused; taken by force. Many women, let alone men, have such fantasies.
These two women are then tortured. My experience is that many men, and many women, will again be sympathetic.
They are then executed; perhaps the aspect of the film that may resonate the least with the general public.
Of course, none of these comments diminish the intent or effectiveness of the film to engage with power and authority with a story of persecution and intolerance. The degree to which the audience ‘perversely’ engages with the narrative and the degree to which this assists the success of the film remains to be discussed.
My point is that there are multitudinous audiences, mainstream audiences, out there that will/can engage profitably with such films whether they acknowledge to themselves or others their interest in ‘alternative’ appetites and desires. Indeed such films may hold up to them an image of their ‘perverse/alternative’ souls.

Richard

We are always surprised by the reactions and responses from “average” people to our films. It depends in so many factors, education being one of them. People who don’t have a lot of access to what’s going on, who are from enclaves where the prevalent thought process is conservative, see our work as nothing but pornographic and maybe the worst kind.

Jac showed Martyr at a college in Connecticut. The audience was mostly middle class and of varying ages. He received a letter from the professor with the written comments of his students. One was intelligently written and praised the movie, it analysed it and commented on many aspects of it including the music, which in Martyr is a big factor. The rest of the students wrote what can be summed up in one phrase “you know porn when you see it“.

The reactions to Maleficarum are similar, while some people comment on the film itself, the music, the production values, the acting, others simply call it porn. One reviewer invented a term for it. Gorno, by combining the words Gore and Porno.

When Jac showed Martyr at a different college, one run by Franciscan priests in New York State, the reaction was simply amazing. An elderly nun was so impressed, in a positive way, that she said “those images of Camille representing St Eulalia will haunt me for the rest of my life“.

We never know what to expect.

Richard wrote: Indeed, is there a position in which Ms. Hesketh, naked, would not look exquisite?
I’ve seen her, as Jane von Detlefson in the Red Feline movies, die a slow excruciating death exquisitely…again and again.

YikYakker

Amy/Jane has a long story with all the awful things that can happen to a Red Feline heroine and she has a lot more to go through. In their recent vacation Jac and Amy looked picked the location where a new movie will be set. Something they’ve been thinking about for some time before the big productions took over. And they are planning to make this movie a big production as well.

The location is in the green inferno where they were vacationing.

May I suggest that an appropriate (humble, submissive, obsequious; dominant, master/mistress-full, authoritative) request should be sent to Ms. Hesketh asking her to include some or all of the six scenes in her future films. She would look exquisite in all of them. Indeed, is there a position in which Ms. Hesketh, naked, would not look exquisite?
However, having read her account of the filming of the Spanish Horse scene from Maleficarum, I think that any such request would need to be extreeeemely persuasive for her to agree to act out two of the represented scenes!

Richard

Many of those scenes posted in this forum are familiar to us. Some were done, as Ralphus pointed out, in Maleficarum and in other movies. You might recognize some in the pictures that promote the movies here and there and everywhere. I have one that might jog your memory.

Poll question: Amy Hesketh gets my vote because of her terrific performance in Maleficarum’s dungeon torture and spit roast and bats scene. Dungeon torture and fiery peril are what turn me on and Amy and Red Feline do Gimp movie peril scenes I love.

Bill K.

Amy has a bit of practice now… plenty I guess. She’s a terrific actress, for one, and she’s not afraid of taking risks and pushing herself to some limits. She did a lot in Maleficarum and she’s planning to go through some terrific tortures in the near future. Here’s something she did a while back, when she was just beginning.

Griffin: A lot of medieval poses there, from artists like Ferres, Badia and Damian, great stuff. What I really like is the AOH positions, as was the case in all 6 of your artworks. Any time you’ve got a spread-eagled suspension scene, that’s a really painful position. Amy was suspended and lowered onto spikes in the aforementioned Maleficarum. That had to be really uncomfortable.

Ralphus

For Amy most of the scenes in Maleficarum, if not all, were extremely uncomfortable, of course. One lady who saw the movie at the premiere commented to Amy about the scene where she’s pulled up and lowered unto the spikes. What impressed her the most in that scene is when she was pulled up. She said she could see the strain on her muscles. People were paying attention to those details.

Griffin, there is a movie with a variation of those scenes. It’s called Maleficarum. Your first posted picture is a Spanish horse (done in Maleficarum) with a stake support, the ones where gimps are hanging tied by their wrists, there are several scenes like that in Maleficarum. The spread eagle picture you can say the Maleficarum rack scenes fits. Also Blakemore and other peril movie makers have done that many times. The impaled one no way for real but with special effects there may be one out there. Bill K.

Bill K.

JJ, Camille and Gabrielle made a terrific impaling scene in Red Feline and the Inquisition… the fourth episode. They didn’t have all the means we have now, but still, it came out very realistic. I don’t have the best vid caps but I believe we’ll have them soon. Here’s a composite with a shot of that horrific scene. There’s another impaling scene in the up and coming Seven Days on the Cross 5

Amy Hesketh as Jane von Detlefson, had an encounter with a horde of ants in Romana Crucifixa Est…, but if those little guys tortured her, it didn’t make it into the film.

YikYakker

Yes there were hordes of red ants in Romana Crucifixa but they were too tiny to be seen. But there’s a shot of them in the movie, not on her, but near her. But they were definitely all over her.

So, the adventure of releasing Maleficarum theatrically is at an end. We don’t expect to go beyond this week. It will be a three week run, which is great, most movies run for one week. Blockbusters like The Avengers make it to a fourth week to then make room for the new blockbusters. That’s the way it goes. Sirwiñakuy run for 26 weeks… that’s uncommon and totally weird. That’ll never happen again.

We’re more than happy with the success of Maleficarum, both in its DVD/Download release and it’s impact with the theatrical release. It will continue its run around the world, of course. It will be selling for years to come, new people will discover us, as they are doing now, because of this film. The title itself attracts people. They are searching for old Maleficarum movies and they find us. It’s great. It’s turning into a classic and not only in our Red Feline world, but in the genre in general. It’s giving us the chance to make other movies, like Dead But Dreaming and what we saw as a possibility, to break into a larger market with our movies, it’s now a reality. It’s a slow process, but the transition from obscurity to a more mainstream world is happening as I type these words.

We don’t know what’s ahead, but what is here and now is great and we’re grateful to you all because without your support this can’t happen. And we’re grateful specially to Ralphus for putting his trust in us. Really, that was the most amazing thing that happened to us in the 14 years that we’ve been performing this show, the Red Feline Show. One other friend has done the same and Dead But Dreaming is happening.

This is a new beginning and it all started with one little film, one little experiment that was meant to be a One Time Deal but it grew and grew. Red Feline On The Cross.

We have new releases coming up. We have Le Marquis de la Croix, Barbazul, Seven Days on the Cross V, The Via Crucis of Camille -Crux 9… and so on. We’re done with the production of Dead But Dreaming and we’ll start the production of Dead But Dreaming II shortly. Amy has two great scripts in the works for this and next year and we have that new production I’ve been mentioning here, which we’re planning for August. Lots of work, lots of fun, lots of crazy stuff. So… walk with us, you’ll have fun.

That’s it for now, I hope you enjoyed this ride. I’ll have more news later.

Margot