All language subtitles for The Case of the Red Lips (English)

We wanted to make another project
with Janine Reynaud,

and I thought it was an opportunity

to have her play comedy,
something different.

That is, not to stay

in the realm of parapsychology,

which is a genre that only works
one out of 60,000 times,

but to do something closer to the audience,

more fun and enjoyable.

So we decided to make these two films,
and we shot them back-to-back.

I think it was the first time
1 shot two films back-to-back,

finishing one today
and starting the next one tomorrow.

It was easy
because we had the same characters,

the same actors, the same sets.

It wasn't difficult, and I
got a taste for it.

I've always adored comic strips.

So my second film
was already a Red Lips story.

Why? Because I wanted to recreate

the world that George Marshall

had made in the US

with Paulette Goddard.

Usually, there was a male comic, too.
Bob Hope or someone.

They explored horror stories

or mysteries from classic mystery novels.

They made several films that I liked,

and I still think
George Marshall is an important director.

1 felt that this should be exploited,

that this area should be explored.

And this area was so close

to the comic strip
that it sort of happened by itself.

I don't try to make films
that will be relegated

to the history of culture.

One of the things I fight for,

today more than ever,

is to prove that cinema is a show,

a spectacle.

The Americans understand it fully.
It's show business.

The director is an entertainer.

He's not Pascal.

No, he's just a guy who does something
to please the audience

and to distract people.

And comic strips are great for that.

I knew Rosanna Yanni
well before making this film.

She's an Argentine actress,

very beautiful, sweet and adorable.

1 really wanted to make a film with her,

50 I thought she would make a good foil
to Janine Reynaud,

since they were very different.

And the idea of Red Lips

is to have a pair of characters

in the vein of Bud Abbott and Lou Costello.

Only instead of having a fat one
and a skinny one,

we have two beautiful ladies,

while preserving the main difference

between Bud Abbott and Lou Costello
or Stan Laurel and Oliver Hardy.

And one is more keen and intelligent,

and the other is a dimwit.

That contrast is what makes it funny.

I wanted to emulate that.

They are characters I like a lot
because they are naive.

They correspond to characters
in older films, like silent films.

The smart one and the imbecile.
It's the same schematic,

but I think this is more appealing

because instead of having
Lou Costello's face,

you get Janine Reynaud,
who is a lot prettier.

It's a question of beauty.

Do you know
that beautiful statement by Max Ophuls?

You know the one?

"Cinema is watching beautiful women
do beautiful things."

I never had any diva problems. No divas.

Very sweet.

It was always easy to work with them.

They were both very sharp

and understood things quickly.

They already knew each other a bit,
I don't know from where,

but during the shoot, they became friends.

They were happy together.

They would go out with their boyfriends,

dancing at night.

They didn't even have conflicts
over the one thing

that sometimes causes problems
with women.

The problem of costumes, the dresses.

I had the same costume designer
for both films

and for both women.

He worked with both, and it went very well.
It was easy.

They were very well dressed in this film.

We really paid attention to this.

I think it's very important to the public.

When it comes to the protagonist in a film,

their clothes,
their way of presenting themselves,

have to work with who their characters are.

But in the case of the two actresses,
they were very nice,

they liked each other,
and there were never any problems.

1 wrote the two longest screenplays
of my life

because I had very nitpicky producers.

The Spanish producer
was a very good guy,

but he had produced new wave films
in Spanish.

He wanted to understand
and control everything.

I started working

with writing partners,

guys who later became directors
but who were my assistants at the time.

We wrote huge 200-page scripts,

but then I didn't follow them, of course.

I did follow some of it

because it was very elaborate and serious,

but all that work was useless.

It may make you feel good
when, afterwards, you realize

that you did a good job
and you followed everything as planned,

but the viewers don't care about any of it.

They don't know what you wrote.

They just sit and watch,

and either they enjoy it or they don't.

1 usually never get angry while filming.

I never yell or anything.

But during the editing of these films,

I got into many arguments with
my collaborators over this or that shot

and over archival stock footage
I wanted to use and things like that.

It wasn't about the money.

The issue was that they didn't know much,
and they would do it wrong,

and it wasn't working.

But other than that, it was normal.

We made these two films.

The first was called
El Caso de los bellezas

or Two Undercover Angels,

This one was a bigger success
than the second one

because the second was more provocative,

more bizarre and esoteric.

It was popular
but not as much as the first film.

Perhaps it didn't work for the public
at the time.

In my mind, Kiss Me, Monster was funnier.

I haven't seen Kiss Me, Monster recently,

but I watched the other one,
and it still works.

But Kiss Me, Monster
never worked as well as the first.

Maybe it was too surrealistic.

There were jokes
that were too tongue in cheek.

The title Sadisterotica

was from Adrian Hoven of Constantin.

It didn't come from me.

I think it's a stupid title
because it has nothing to do with the film.

It misleads the audience.

I don't want to mislead the public.

If make a film called Sadisterotica
with Janine Reynaud,

the actress from Necronomicon,

the public will expect something similar,
in the same vein, the same style.

If it turns out it's a comedy,
they'll be annoyed.

They don't care whose fault it is.
They feel misled.

They want their money back.
It's just stupid.

Producers think they're so smart,
and they're just stupid.

If you play fa,

you deliver something honest with a film.

You can't fool the public,
they'll burn the house down

and cause a riot. It's idiotic.

And it happened to me many times.
It's crazy.

For example, I made a movie much later

which around the world
was called Bloody Moon.

In Spain, it was called
Raped High School Girls,

but there was no high school girl
in the film.

It was crazy.

The film did well everywhere
except in Spain

because people went to the movie

and realized
there were no raped high school girls,

and those interested in horror films
for the horror

would not go and see
a film called Raped High School Girls.

They think they're being smart,
and it turns to shit.

My memories of this film are very good

because we had time.

We could shoot as freely as we wanted.

I had a great technical crew.

There were no major problems
during the shoot.

Problems started
when the film was finished.

Because, generally,

both the Spanish and German producers
disliked the film,

but when it proved popular,
they liked it more.

You know, producers like a film or not
based on the money it makes.

The revenues weren't huge, but it did okay.