映画|暴行列車|Torture Train

"Riding The Night Train"
Aldo Lado
Co-Writer/Director

The project came about because a producer whose name was Roberto Infascelli, called me bacause he wanted to do a movie, some sort of genre movie, which meant a movie with violence etc., etc., so we discussed the project.

This particular story in terms of its structure had something to do with an American movie that Infascelli had seen, a movie he had liked both for its story and its genre. Anyway, I did not see the film. He probably saw it and had this idea. But it was not intentional to reproduce that story. I had a chat with Infascelli and he told me he'd like a movie like this, and this, and this. You might say he gave me the structure by saying a girl is raped then the father goes after him for revenge. And this is how the story was conceived. It was created as this little treatment which I modified and then developed in a direction which was very specific to me, which was the metaphor.

A metaphor to tell the story of two outcasts who are exploited by the middle class, and the exploitation represented by the character played by Macha Meril who bookends the metaphor with two symbolic gestures. At the point where Macha Meril exploits the two outcasts and pushes them to use violence on the girls, she lifts the veil on her little hat. At the end of the movie, when Enrico Maria Salerno has massacred the two guys, out of revenge, he then tries to attack the so-called upper-class lady. She pulls down her veil and says, "I'm just like you, I have nothing to do with this. It's not my fault." By making that gesture of pulling down the veil of the hat she is back behind the mask, right? A mask of respectability. I have explored this theme since my first movie, "THE SHORT NIGHT OF GLASS DOLLS", where the ones that have power use the blood of the young to save their lives and therefore maintain power. So that's what I tried to do in this movie. I tried to tell this story and it was up to whomever to read it this way, showing how the middle class, the so-called good people, in reality, use the unfortunate to carry out their own evil.

I wanted to make a one way movie. I mean I wanted to show both sides of violence: violence and anti-violence. Show violence because society is violent because violence was all around us, especially in those days, everywhere, so I wanted to show that. I didn't want any concessions, any comic relief, or laugh breaks, which is often used, especially in the last ten, fifteen years. The kind of filmmaking we were creating in those days was a much more straightforward kind of cinema that would follow a certain path and tell you what it had to tell you and that was it.

FLAVIO BUCCI
"Blackie"

Flavio I had seen in the theater and had gone backstage to compliment him at one of his shows. So when I decided to make this movie I thought he was the most suitable actor for the role. The only problem with Flavio was that he had to be monitored because he had a tendency to give too much. Therefore, since he already had a strong face, you had to contain him.

Irene Miracle
"Margaret"

Laura D'Angelo
"Lisa"

Enrico Maria Salerno
"Guilio Stradi"

And the two girls I picked just like that, by chance I suppose. Since I didn't have to comply with the distributors for name actors, for them we already had Salerno who at the time was a good name. So I chose them because I really liked them. Miracle went on to make a great film and then she dissappeared.

Macha Meril
"The lady on the Train"

I knew Macha already, but had never worked with her.

Franco Fabrizi
"Voyeur"

I knew Franco Fabrizi, who plays the peeping Tom. I asked him to play this rather unpleasant role for me. I don't know if he was happy to do it, but he did it and did it well, after all he came from having worked with the greatest post-war Italian directors.

Ennio Morricone
Composer

Demis Roussos
Singer

I actually wanted one of the characters to play an instrument in the scene. I discussed it with Ennio, with whom I was working, and he came up with the harmonica and he did the whole score of the movie, practically a harmonica concert, and there was one performer, playing different harmonics with overlapping tunes etcs. doing this concert. But Ennio also suggested, I don't know, he had a relationship with Demis Roussos, to put in that song, to relieve the spectator in the end. And after all, Mr. Roussos was very big in those days. "Why not?"

I used something from my memory, but from when I was a young man. Trains at night had this blue light. I tried to give this sense of claustrophobia using this blue light, and not just that light, but for that whole part of the movie with the girls I gave a lot of attention to the costumes and things, to have this prevailing blue constantly. I think that's what ultimately gives the sense of claustrophobia as well as the closed wagons giving that claustrophobic feel.

I put in the story of the upper-class lady being deflowered by a doctor with a surgical knife because it was something that happened to a guy I know, who was a great designer, and had his future wife's virginity taken by a doctor with a surgical knife. Naturally this story really hit me and so for this reason I made the upper-class lady use her hand armed with a knife to do this thing. So I used this memory to tell a true story and as you know it's something that everyone that watches the movie cannnot help but notice.

As for the censors, when the movie was submitted to the censor board. which is made up of, well, weird people. I mean I had a few opportunities to meet them and we talked but the movie was rejected, which means we couldn't release it. Therefore in order to get it released and avoid ruining the producer I had to cut it by the meter, cut a lot of scenes. I believe I cut seven, eight, ten minutes. There wasn't any graphic bloodshed, there were no gross scenes. The problem was the structure of the film caused great great discomfort. The censors felt this discomfort and said the movie couldn't come out. So naturally you go there, you discuss it, say you'll cut a meter here, a meter there, and then cut only half a meter. In the end things settled down and I was able to get it out there.

The original title was "THE LAST NIGHT TRAIN." The distributors wanted "VIOLENCE ON THE LAST NIGHT TRAIN" to emphasize the violence for the public. That was the time of VIOLENT MILAN, violence everywhere. Audiences loved the word "violence." When we were scrutinized again because the movie had been rejected, luckily the word "violence" was removed leaving "THE LAST NIGHT TRAIN."

There are films which glamorize violence and therefore encourage violence, but generally, I believe if the movie's main issue is violence, to convey the fear of violence, it can act as a deterrent to violence. I'll give you an example, when I made this movie "NIGHT TRAIN MURDERS", I set up a screening at Fonorama, which at the time was near Piazza del Popolo. Naturally I invited many friends including Bertolucci and Domenico Modugno, and the theater was full. I was up iin the booth, petrified by the advance screening. About half way through the movie, right when the train scenes start, I see a person get up and leave the auditorium. And then a second. And then two more. I thought, "My God! What a disaster!" Then the producer comes to me and says, "Look what you've done!" All these people were sitting on the steps drinking cognac because they felt sick. I had created such a strong feeling amongst the audience that they became sick to their stomachs. Therefore, in creating such a sense of unease among the audience you cannot be glorifying violence, nothing of the sort. I'm glad because it means the movie achieved what it was supposed to, and therefore I think this is a positive thing.