KISS
OF MEDUSA was the last big crazy thing I did at Jersey
City State College before graduating. Ambitious as
usual, I once again bit off more than I could chew
finances-wise.
Everyone
was shooting 16mm Plus-X or Tri-X black-and-white
stock. Everyone was shooting 1 or 2 or 3 minute
things. I would shoot 10, or 15 or 25 minute movies
instead. With KISS OF MEDUSA I shot in color too which
was unheard of.
The
story was set in ancient Greece and we built costumes
and prop swords and even a cave. We rented a horse so
my Greek hero, dressed in Greek armour, could ride
around with his bright red cape flowing in the wind.
I guess
all short films tend to be arty and with a message.
KISS OF MEDUSA was about the birth, growth and death
of male sexuality.
It
opened with the hero's son's birth, "You have a
son".
We see the
young solider in battle doing sword fights, but
he gets older and older during the sword fight until
he is one old man.
He goes
into the desert and comes upon the grim reaper sitting
calmly watching a stone sun dial. The reaper directs
him to the cave of the Medusa. While he is talking to
the reaper the soldier doesn't know it is death he is
talking to, and as he walks away, the reaper raises
his hooded head to reveal his skull face.
The
soldier finds the cave. Enters. Finds a very beautiful
nude young woman dressed in a flowing see through gown
that we had float ghostly towards him like a dream
instead of walking.
Medusa
and the soldier make out. As they passionately kiss,
Medusa's hand lowers the soldier's hand holding the
sword and it drops to the cave floor.
"I
love you more than anything in the whole world"
she says to him - just before castrating him with her
sharp fingernails!
The
soldier pleads with Medusa for love. Medusa turns ugly
and savagely attacks him and throws his body back out
of the cave. The soldier finds himself in a graveyard
of stone white male corpses. As he struggles to pull
himself out of the stream he turns to stone like the
others.
What we
were shooting was a big deal at the college. The fog
machines, the dolly, the nude girl and the violence.
Students and Professors alike looked into the foggy,
blood soaked TV studio in amazement. The fake penis
was lying on the floor surrounded by pools of blood as
Jay and the actress laughed themselves silly. The
actress, nude, soaked in blood, walked out of the
studio down the hall to the bathroom leaving shocked
(and probably horny) guys looking after her. She was,
as I said, very beautiful and naked.
KISS OF
MEDUSA was the best thing I did at college and the
most ambitious. And most costly.
I
spent a few thousand dollars on it but ran out of
money before I could complete it. I bought a 6 pack
and started getting very drunk in the Media Arts
Department. Along came the head of the Student Film
Club and asked why I was drinking. I explained I had
shot this 25 minute movie in film in color and
couldn't afford to finish it. "Stop
drinking" he said and went away for awhile and
when he came back he said he had arranged for me to
get the couple of thousand dollars more required to
complete the movie - provided after looking at some of
my footage they felt it was worth investing in. I
showed them the lush color scenes of the Greek soldier
riding his horse and got the completion money! I was
back in business.
Shooting
had it's share of fun too. The Greek soldier star of
the movie was an old friend James Andriani who for
awhile appeared in nearly everything I shot including
INVASION FOR FLESH AND BLOOD as the power plant boss
who get torn in half.
James,
or Jay as I call him, spoke with a heavy Bronx
accent and walked with city attitude but that wasn't
the real fun part. The fun part was Jay vs Bromwin the
huge horse we rented in Colts Neck, NJ. Jay had never
been on a horse and Bromwin hated Jay. We got all
these great shots of Jay riding the horse around lush
fields and forrests and suddenly the horse escaped
taking Jay with him! They rocketed out of sight around
a far away corner! After a period Bromwin returned
without Jay. Then Jay appeared on foot walking back.
What had happened is the horse deliberately went under
every low hanging tree limb it could until is knocked
Jay off his back. Bromwin was a very big horse so
Jay fell pretty far to the ground which must have
hurt. Jay walked up to bromwin and punched him in the
nose! From that point on Bromwin was nicer to Jay.
Jay,
being the star, had to endure all kinds of crap. Like
being in the dead of winter dressed in fake Greek
armour with exposed arms and legs and having to fall
in a stream of ice cold water! We tried to heat it
with kettles of hot water but...
And I
remember shooting the castration scene in a cave set
we built in the studio of the TV department at Jersey
City State's Media Arts Building. We had fog machines
going, the actress was nude and we floated her towards
Jay on a dolly and Jay had to stand there with this
fake penis pointing at the actress which was rigged to
spurt blood as she torn it off. After he was castrated
Jay said, "Ok Warren, he's dead!" But then I
shot her attacking him after which Jay, covered in
blood, said"OK Warren he's dead", then Jay
had to flop into the icy stream and turn to stone
after which Jay said, "I give up!"
Another
funny side note is Jay's "Stunt Penis" went
on to become Gary Hoffman's "Stunt Penis" in
his castrations in "Flesh Eaters From Outer
Space" and "Invasion For Flesh And
Blood". Wow even the penis has a track record...
Prof.Herz,
my dad, appeared as a wise old Greek man. We gave him
a beard. I'll include the names of other actors in
this write-up as I remember them in future updates.
Michael Wright played a wise man too who gave the
young soldier advice in a very beautiful scene we shot
in winter as they walked through a snow white forrest
dressed in bright yellow and blue robes. Visually it
was beautiful.
While I
was editing KISS OF MEDUSA on a wonderful 6 plate
Steenbeck in one of three editing rooms at Jersey City
State, they were editing the independent feature film
THE DEADLY SPAWN (I guess without official
permission) in one of the other editing rooms and
it was even being edited by an NYU student, not a
Jersey City State student, with the guidance of
Ted Bohus and his brother. I remember they were all
excited about this one shot of an older woman who was
wearing an almost see through top. It was really not a
nude scene and they were acting like kids over it.
Then they started looking at what I was editing,
with a beautiful young girl playing Medusa fully nude,
and all of a sudden the stuff they had shot wasn't
that special anymore. I had got more than they had and
she was prettier too.
The
movie premired up on a big screen at the Hoboken Arts
Festival in 1982. Parents, despite all the warnings,
still brought their kids!!! I tried to get them to
leave but they wouldn't so I just ran the movie nudity
and violence and all.
KISS OF
MEDUSA is not perfect but it has very good things in
it and I am proud to have made it. It was a good final
16mm film as I graduated. Someday I'll release it
along with the other shorts on a DVD for those
interested in collecting them and maybe they can still
be submitted to current film festivals.
Jamers
Andriani as a Greek Soldier in KISS OF MEDUSA
