Barbazul, A Cold Blooded Killer
I recently posted December Belongs To The Twins Of Pain.
December belongs to the twins of pain – Red Feline Chronicles
In that post I tell the story of how strangely linked are the lives of the two beautiful twins, Camille and Gabrielle, and Jac. That post caused some interesting reaction and comments.
love it! I always liked the excellent acting and the good chemistry between all RFP ‘s artists.
Glenarvon @ Crux Forums
I would like to know other backstage stories… about writing, filming, characters creation and development, actors formation and their experiences on set…
All through the time I’ve been doing this, I told a lot of background stories, so did Amy and Camille over the years, many times and all over the place, forums, websites, interviews, videos… Even Dani most recently.
I quote Jac a lot about what he’s planning and how, who he is working with and all he does with and to them. In that long held tradition, I have a very interesting anecdote about Amy’s second feature as director, Barbazul.
When Jac was a teenager he had a girlfriend who was in love with the famous star of Hollywood, Tony Curtis. I think they saw all the movies with good old Tony. Jac particularly liked The Great Race, about the spectacular land race from New York to Paris in the early 20th century, the two main competitors being the handsome, dashing hero in white, The Great Leslie (Tony Curtis), and the dastardly, black-suited Professor Fate (Jack Lemmon). Jac loved that movie but not because of Tony, but because of Jack Lemon, who he also loved in Some Like It Hot. I digress.
When Jac learned that Tony Curtis was going to play Albert DeSalvo in The Boston Strangler, he was really curious, although he didn’t really know much about that case at that time. But Tony Curtis, the handsome, dashing, heroic and funny guy playing a vicious psychotic killer? That was something to watch.
Jac saw the movie, of course, and he was in awe of Curtis performance, and what most impressed Jac was the face DeSalvo had when strangling his victims, one scene in particular Jac remembers vividly. DeSalvo is strangling one of his victims, the camera closes up on him and focuses on the intensity of DeSalvo’s face, his cold unfeeling eyes as he takes the life of the young woman.
When Amy asked Jac to play Barbazul for her second movie, she was very pleased in how he played Luis Montez in Sirwiñakuy, Jac thought of Tony Curtis. He decided to play Barbazul like Tony played DeSalvo. He wanted to give that cold eyes impression when he kills. Except for the first killing of course, that of his first wife, played by wonderful Veronique, one of the twins of the post that originated this response, when Jac kills Vero, he has a deranged face.
For the rest of the killings Jac became a cold eye killer and it was impressive. The amazing thing is that the French critic Philippe Chouvel wrote:
Barbazul (a contraction of Barba Azul, Bluebeard in Spanish) is interpreted by Jac Avila, terrifying to perfection, mixing Landru by his seductions (charming his prey), with an Albert DeSalvo side (the Boston Strangler, who killed a dozen women during the years 1962/1964).
Philippe Chouvel
This critic actually made a comparison between Jac’s Barbazul with Tony’s DeSalvo. But he also used the famous killer Landru to draw more comparisons.
Henri Désiré Landru was a French serial killer, nicknamed the Bluebeard of Gambais, who murdered at least seven women in the village of Gambais between December 1915 and January 1919. It sounds like the kind of story some people I know would… Is it possible that …? … hmmm … no I’m not going to ask. There’s too much on their plate right now.
When I read that review I was really touched. Jac was eXtremely pleased, he did not expect that someone would notice his obvious, to him, take on Tony Curtis DeSalvo.
Amy was static. She loved the review, specially the beginning where Phillipe says:
Could Bolivia be the new haven of independent cinema? Given the output of Pachamama Films in recent years … there’s no doubt.
You can read the entire review here:
Review of Barbazul by Philippe Chouvel – Pachamama Films
Amy was glad she made that film for her second film as director. The film went to festivals, won a couple of awards, but most importantly it solidify Amy’s capacity as director. She’s now bordering the big time with her soon to be released Rucker.
Barbazul was also instrumental in making Mila a great actress. She had done a few scenes for Maleficarum before the production of Barbazul, but this film was her first huge movie as protagonist and she did a great job. The responsibility of carrying the film was in Jac, but Vero, Amy and Mila shared the weight of the female protagonists, but Mila had the load of the film itself.
I think this film deserves a huge audience and it just might get it. A lot is happening because of the release of Rucker. There’s a lot of interest in Amy’s previous work and this film will benefit from that, I’m sure. I’ll have more anecdotes soon.
Watch Barbazul at VIMEO
https://player.vimeo.com/video/127855639
Download Barbazul
https://movies.redfeline.com/Barbazul-Bluebeard/p/17837
Get Barbazul in DVD
https://dvds.redfeline.com/Barbazul-Bluebeard/p/26312
