“IMPOLEX” INTERVIEW
May 12 | Author: Mike Plante
Alex Ross Perry was born in 1984. He later studied film production at New York University’s Tisch School of the Arts. For three years, Alex toiled behind the counter at the legendary Kim’s Video in New York City. IMPOLEX is his first feature film.
The film centers around Tyrone is on an obfuscatingly aimless journey into nonsensical frustration as he searches for undetonated German V-2 rockets at the close of WWII, guided by a lover he left behind and a talking octopus.
Tell us briefly about the film’s story and the world you created for it:
IMPOLEX is about a soldier in the United States Army at the end of World War II looking for undetonated German V-2 rockets. The Germans were working on this rocket basically from around 1940 and finished it just in time to lose the war. They still got to use them, most notably in the bombing blitzes on England and other places, but they had already lost. And it was a perfect weapon, the world’s first liquid fuel long range, aim-able rocket. The US launched this initiative called Operation Paperclip and basically sent soldiers all over Europe looking for these damn things, and also arresting scientists and bringing them to America.
I first became aware of this dark corner of military history while reading Thomas Pynchon’s Gravity’s Rainbow, and then made a script out of my own research, which included monographs on the V-2 rockets, German general’s memoirs, stuff like that. I occasionally added in vague allusions or homages to some parts of the novel I thought I remembered, though I never went back through the book to make sure I wasn’t making them up myself. I was just making fragmentary notes and bits of dialogue for a while and that structure, if you can call it that, definitely became the so called structure of the film, not that it really has one. To me, there is a sense of hopelessness and confusion about this story, the real one, and I wanted to find an interpretational way to make a film that was true to that and also true to the lessons I felt I learned about character and narrative from reading Pynchon.
How did you find your cast, especially the octopus?
Riley O’Bryan, who plays Tyrone, was somebody I worked with. The first night that I had my dream about a guy carrying a miniature V-2 through the woods. I knew I had to make a movie about it, I knew it would be him. I got to work at 10:00, he showed up and noon and I told him about this movie I knew we had to make. He said okay.
Kate Sheil, who plays Katje, I knew from school. She was a theater major, the only trained actor I probably know. She had to be the female part because of the chemistry between her and Riley. They are really hilarious together. She is a few inches taller than him, for starters.
Bruno, who plays the pirate character with the eye patch, again, was somebody I worked with. He is a natural storyteller, people love listening to him. He absorbs information and regurgitates it like no other. I knew he had to be involved. I gave him research and told him to improvise.
The octopus we rescued from a fish store in Chinatown. There are actually two octopi in the film, though they look similar, so I’m not sure anybody will think that Tyrone is actually encountering multiple octopi. But maybe he is. Preston Spurlock, who also did the original score for the film, worked with the octopus on set. He was our mollusk liaison.
Your film is in the Area 52 section, which is described as underground and midnite movies, films with an aura around them. What do you those film terms mean to you?
They mean wonderful things. I love midnight movies, cult movies, exploitation films, everything. I think it is brave and also amazing of CineVegas to do what most other festivals are afraid of, and that is giving these types of films their own chance. Obviously, a film like mine would not fit in comfortably with the ‘narrative competition’ segment of most festivals, so to find a festival that actually has made a special home for movies like that is beyond important. All movies these days have to struggle to find their audience, but the cult audience already knows where to look. And cult audiences are ready to see something and then pass it along, or see it again and again. Not that I advocate people watching IMPOLEX over and over, but I think that type of life is best for my film. By even labeling the film as such, people are going in with adjusted – and more accurate – expectations of what to expect from the film. I’m happy to be a part of that.
What do you think the role of a film festival is?
I guess to provide a way for audiences to find movies. That seems like a pretty obvious answer but that’s just about it. Nobody is going to go see a movie like IMPOLEX at a multiplex, but I imagine there are people out there, somewhere, who do want to see. It is up to a festival to realize that and bring it to them.
Do you gamble?
I obviously gamble. I shot a movie on 16mm and am paying more than the cost of the production to get a print, without any indication that anybody other than CineVegas wants to see the film. That is a classic double-down bet. I also like video poker and blackjack.
Screenings during the 2009 CineVegas Film Festival:
Thursday, 6/11, 12:30 PM
Saturday, 6/13, 8:00 PM
See also:
