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→ Katja von Garnier
The Director of the horror/fantasy film Blood and Chocolate
"Even though the film has its frightening moments it's not specifically a horror film. In werewolf movies, often their transformation is a type of curse. In our movie, the transformation is something liberating and beautiful in nature. Also, the end result is a real wolf, not a fictitious beast." - Katja von Garnier
Katja shares her view on her first genre film, being a female director in horror,
and Hollywood:
Blood and Chocolate is based on the novel of the same name by author Annette Curtis. In 2004, Ehren Kruger was on a roll, having written Scream 3 and then The Skeleton Key, The Brothers Grimm, and The Ring. Why he ever decided to give a go at Blood and Chocolate we'll never know, but his adaptation of the young-adult story is PG-13, unlike anything else he's done. It also condenses the storyline into something less than faithful to the book, according to fans. Nonetheless, he's stayed on as executive producer, while several directors came and went between 2004 and 2006. It's not your classic werewolf story, but it has an appeal to horror fans because, well, the "werewolf factor" is there.
"They express fear of the unknown", agrees von Garnier. "But more than that, they express fear of the unknown within the known - the hidden predator living amongst humanity, the hidden animal within the man"
Like several other female-directed films in the horror genre (Track of the Vampire, Spookies), Blood and Chocolate was passed along several times until it landed in Katja's hands, the script chopped and changed several times over. Director Katja von Garnier comes from Germany, where she directed several female-oriented independent films. After her females-on-the-loose indie film fest favorite Bandits (1997), she made the big move to Los Angeles to start her Hollywood career. She took a break between then and 2004, when she directed the TV movie Iron Jawed Angels, an historical piece about the women's suffrage movement in the early years of the twentieth century, to get married and have her son Merlin. Blood and Chocolate seems like a strangely out-of-place film for Garnier, because she usually sticks to much more political or gender-specific storylines. Blood and Chocolate does revolve around the character f Vivian, however, which is what connected her to the film.
"The producer had seen Iron Jawed Angels and he liked the energy of the film…they sent me the script, and I was drawn t the script even though its not typical… I thought it was a really strong story. I really connected on a real level with Vivian, who is hiding a art of herself, and then who falls in love with someone from 'the other side'… I think on a subconscious level can relate to that because the animal inside of you represents our instincts."
Von Garnier did bring some fresh ideas to the table that the producers liked.
"My mission statement was to do an anti-genre film, because I am an anti-genre person if you will. And I think they liked that… I was always adamant about showing another side of the wolf, not just the dark and scary part."
She adds, "And working with Wolves. That was a big factor for me"
Working with real wolves in the film is an aspect of the film that von Garnier is extremely proud of. "I thought it would be beneficial to shoot with real wolves, she says. "They infuse the film with a spirit I never could have gotten from a CG wolf. They embody something that can't be brought to life on a computer."
She's right. CG wolves would have made this film unwatchable, even on a Saturday night on the Sci-Fi Channel.
Working with real creatures, and not cartoons or puppets, also gave von Garnier some ideas about how she wanted her actors to behave.
"It gave me an opportunity to study with the wolves, and the actors to study the wolves".
You see, von Garnier's werewolf is not the traditional werewolf of horror legend. This werewolf is a powerful and symbolic force of nature, not a monster.
"I put material together on the mythical, mystical, and symbolic nature of the wolf in hopes of drawing upon them in different ways. I wanted to incorporate aspects of wolf-like behavior with them as humans. The way they move, the way they think."
Her werewolves, unfortunately for gore and shock fans, are not frightening. But that's what her intention was.
"I thought it was important to break the cliché of The Big Bad Wolf."
One thing horror fans will have the most trouble with (and that I had the most trouble with) is the way the werewolf transformations take place. Instead of anything gruesome, painful, or remotely terrifying, the change comes about in a big glow of light that inundates the person, from which they gently emerge as wolf.
"I loved the idea of the transformation not being a curse. I wanted it to be a blessing, an ability. A choice. A leap of faith, literally and figuratively… In the book it's mental, but it's still liberating. It's described from inside her head in the book."
Even more than a fantasy or horror film, Blood and Chocolate is a love story.
"This is a story about two people from opposite worlds who fight to be together, very much like Romeo and Juliet, except that Juliet belongs to a group of people who are shape shifters, people who can transform into wolves."
Rated PG-13, the film has little blood and almost no sex. Because its based on a novel for young adults, I guess that's okay, but von Garnier actually had shot some scenes that were cut for being a little too "racy" for this version.
"There are a few scenes that I would have liked to see in there, because I think they are great scenes… who knows. Now it's maybe catered more to a younger audience…you never know. I like these scenes, and I probably would have kept them in there. But I also understand not to have them.
Von Garnier is adamant that these scenes will appear on the DVD of her "director's cut".
She's also aware that the audience who will be most moved and most affected by her film is young women who are drawn to not only fantasy stories, but also romance. The character of Vivian is someone that adolescents will have an easy time relating to and understanding, despite the magic and the glamour of shape shifting because,
"Vivian resents and resists the animal part of herself. She dislikes the current regime of the loup garoux that's based on hatred and revenge".
Von Garnier is specific in the message she wants women, especially young women, to take away from the film.
"The book itself works very well by itself, but I think we were going
for a message that love transcends cultural differences. I love saying that.
The book says that too, but it's a little different than the way we say it in
the film. I think they'll see a young girl coming into her own, they see a girl
empowering herself, a girl hiding something inside herself, not doing what the
consensus expects of her.
Something cool about the directrice: She has cast her friend Katja Riemann in
almost every film she's ever done, including Blood and Chocolate.
Her other films include only Iron Jawed Angels in the United States. Everything else she did was made in Germany, except her 1997 indie hit Bandits, which was a French production. Bandits is about four escaped female convicts who form a gang and gain fame because of their "on the lam" status. 2004's HBO TV movie Iron Jawed Angels starred Hollywood Oscar winner Hilary Swank and concentrated on the struggle to gain the vote for women in early twentieth century America.
" Naturally I find myself connecting to female characters more so than others, maybe because I am one…and also because I think that there's a lot that hasn't been said about female characters. When I started out; it seemed like you have the two kinds of female characters; you have the suffering victim, or the neurotic type, you know, and I think there's gotta be more. Especially with women, there's more that can be done. Not by myself."
Von Garnier took a very long break in between finishing up Bandits and shooting Iron Jawed Angels.
"I moved to the states, and it took a long time to find the project. It's easy to get lost in what Hollywood wants you to do rather than what you wanna do. And then there were other things that I would spend like half a year on and they'd fall through. And then I had a child…. When I was pregnant, it sort of catapulted everything. The child enabled everything to go faster.
Partly, this delay in her finding the right project had to do with her adjusting to the Hollywood system of making movies.
"All films are more independent in Germany. You don't have a studio system. We have films that are financed by subsidies. The producers apply for subsidies, and maybe use some of heir own money. It is a big adjustment.
As a female director, von Garnier, like so many other females working in the film industry, agrees that women, especially when it comes to genre films, are not given equal opportunities.
"I thought, a while ago, that we were. Because I hadn't encountered anything that would make me think about a difference…I just walk in and try to do he best job possible, which I still do, but, no, I have since encountered things, because I am a woman, and its about… You know, I heard something really interesting, I heard, if you can really be powerful as a woman, being powerful, in a room of men, how would she have to be? How would she be equal to them without using her sexuality? What does a powerful woman feel like who is not using herself as an object? What is she like? What does that feel like? We don't want to be men. We don't want to be women trying to be men. That's not being a powerful woman. We don't want to seduce… that's not real power either. So it's interesting to explore that, and ultimately it's just about 'being' powerful.
Oh, and she went out with Brad Pitt, but if you ask her about it, she always
says "No Comment", but you can tell that that means yes by the way
she smiles.
For more info on Katja, visit her web page : http://katja-von-garnier.de/
Blood and Chocolate DVD will be released on 12th June 2007
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