“You look at film history and The Texas Chain Saw Massacre needs to be up there as one of the greatest films ever made.” - Alexandre O. Philippe.
Alexandre O. Philippe makes documentaries that absorb the audience in great cinema without putting up boundaries. He employs voices to speak on specific films that range from academics, industry professionals, and cineastes – but the first thing he wants to know is, “Are you a fan? Do you love the movie?” Being a fan is the primary aspect each interviewee shares. How did they feel when they discovered the film? What keeps them returning to the film? What parallels do they find with art and life. How did a film change them personally and influence the broader culture?
After the success of documentaries such as Lynch/Oz, 78/52 (a comprehensive look at the shower scene from Alfred Hitchcock’s Psycho), and Leap of Faith: William Friedkin on The Exorcist, and Memory: The Origins of Alien, Philippe turns his focus on Tobe Hooper’s seminal slasher The Texas Chain Saw Massacre released in 1974 with Chain Reactions.
Nadine Whitney spoke to Alexandre during his visit to Melbourne International Film Festival about how and why he chooses certain works and the people who make up the onscreen ‘fan club’ for The Texas Chain Saw Massacre.
I ask Alexandre the silly question: “What were you doing on August 18, 1973?”
Alexandre laughs and says he was just hanging out being a baby in Switzerland. I was also being a baby, so we both admit we were definitely not aware of whatever was going on in America at the time of the “true story” massacre. It wouldn’t be long, however, until I recognised the word Vietnam representing a war more than a country. I’d hear the term Trick Dick and eventually put Richard Nixon’s face to that. And I grew up afraid of America just from the news. Takashi Miike notes in his section of Chain Reactions that people who saw the film in Japan became afraid of Texas – perhaps an antidote to the 80s prime time hit Dallas which concentrated on how good oil money is and how mean Alexis Carrington Colby (Joan Rivers) could be whilst maintaining “fabulous.” But Texas is Texas (with Austin being a conclave and hive of artistic activity) and it is mostly perceived as a frontier state. Cowboys, borders, battles, American determinism, and cannibal families. Dive on in and read the opinions of the expert who gets experts to open cinema to everyone.
In your career you’ve mostly made films about films. Movies that speak to your personal obsessions such as David Lynch or The Exorcist. What makes you grasp on to a film and decide “this one is a moment.”
AOP: In retrospect I tend to be interested in the films that have transcended the medium and have become cultural events. These very rare films that are so much more than just a film that have become part of our DNA and cultural dialogue.
I’m very interested in getting to the bottom, or trying to understand, because you can never get to the bottom of films like these. Trying to understand why those films resonated on their release and why they continue to resonate. What do they have to say about us? Why they are important to us? Those are big questions because I think those films are a part of us.
I feel a kind of responsibility to make films first of all because these films deserve to have a film made about them, but also to be a bridge between cinema studies and the general public. There is this idea that trying to understand a film, breaking down a film, film studies and the like can make people feel like it is beyond them, it’s overwhelming, it’s too much in the realm of PhD expertise. And sure; there are people who are that intense about cinema that they devote themselves to studying the medium, but most people who like watching films get to realise that the act of cracking a film open and trying to figure out what it means for them is something we can all do. Trying to work out why a films speaks to them is something that everyone should be to do and enjoy doing it.
Absolutely. That’s why I believe you choose very well your voices in the documentaries. In Chain Reactions Patton Oswalt is a creator and actor, but mostly he’s a fan first.
AOP: Yes, that’s it.
You elicit a very passionate fan reaction to Tobe Hooper’s film from Patton and how he connects it to his response to films such as Murnau’s Nosferatu. You also have filmmaker and exceptional thinker Karyn Kusama (Jennifer’s Body, The Invitation). Stephen King who is a horror icon across multiple genres who met Tobe Hooper when working on Mick Garris’ adaptation of his book Sleepwalkers. You also do have people with a PhD in the horror expert Dr. Alexandra Heller-Nicholas. And Takaski Miike who is a filmmaker (Audition, Ichi the Killer) and also has a unique cultural perspective coming from Japan. When you were choosing your voices what was the factor that attracted you to this cohort?
AOP: I think you just put it in the best way. They’re all fans. I think that I’m not interviewing them as experts, even though they are experts, I’m interviewing them as fans and I’m trying get their fanboy/fangirl out to express themselves as people who admire The Texas Chain Saw Massacre.
There’s a moment when Stephen King almost becomes really giddy when he says, “I admire it so much,” and you can see for a few seconds he looks like a little boy who has just discovered something pretty cool.
That, to me, is what’s fun about it. They are people who have a lot to say and a thesis on the film itself, but once you connect to their inner fan you can see the magic happen. That’s the crux of my technique.
All of your interviewees speak of when they first saw The Texas Chain Saw Massacre and how that impacted them. Alexandra’s experience of how she first encountered the film is very similar to mine. Australia is such a perfect place to relate to Hooper’s vision because if you were to get in the car and drive one hour or more out of the cities here you end up in “Texas” – a rural and often isolated space where anything can happen and people might not ever notice.
AOP: Yes, that’s very scary. I haven’t experienced that side of Australia yet. Maybe one day I’ll go.
[Nadine ponders how to kidnap Alexandre and drive one of the highways].
Cinematically it took a Canadian to come to Australia and point out with Wake in Fright how some of us live in isolation and the culture of ruination similar to that found in The Texas Chain Saw Massacre. Now it’s baked into our DNA. As colonial nation Australia is still young, as too is America. The main difference being Australia was populated by convicts and America by puritans.
AOP: (laughs ruefully in living in contemporary America). We deserve better. America is filled with talented and good people who are more qualified than who is in charge now but systematically they won’t get a chance to be political leaders.
I guess this is the Saturn’s return of The Texas Chain Saw Massacre. There are increasing moments in American history where the film’s relevance to contemporary events feels terrifying close. In 1973 when Hooper’s film is set there is a recession, an oil crisis, a corrupt President, an unacceptable war (Vietnam).
Your most recent project which is due to debut at Venice is about Kim Novak and her experience with Vertigo. Can you tell me a little about that?
AOP: I can tell you Kim Novak is an absolute joy to work with. We have become very close, and I have a lot of fondness and a lot of respect for her. As a human she’s lovely, just lovely, and I know she’s really proud of the film and really happy with it. For me, Vertigo is the apex of Alfred Hitchcock’s filmography.
What is that you hope people get out of Chain Reactions?
AOP: I think The Texas Chain Saw Massacre is a film that’s been maligned now for just over fifty years. Of course it’s been really embraced by a lot of people. It has been recognised as one of the great horror films of all time.
I hope Chain Reactions sheds light on to certain aspects of the film that people wouldn’t mostly pay attention to: the beauty of it, the artistry of it, the poetry of it. It’s a very smart film, it’s very respectful and as Karyn Kusama says, it sees its audience.
Tobe Hopper, Kim Henkel and the entire cast and crew caught lightning in a bottle. I hate to say, “It’s one of the most important horror films in history.” What I think we should say is that it’s one of the greatest films, period. We need to remove the word horror because it is one of the great masterworks of cinema that we have from anywhere and any time.