Award-winning producer and director, Mike Montagna originates from Pavia, a city close to Milan, Italy. he possess an inherent passion for storytelling and an ingrained cinematic culture. through the eye of the movie camera, Mike delves into the essence of human nature and raises inquiries about our existence as human beings.
About Insider sat down with Mike to discuss his latest project Sunrise Boulevard.
WELCOME TO ABOUT INSIDER, MIKE MONTAGNA! WE ARE THRILLED TO TALK WITH YOU TODAY. CAN YOU TELL US ABOUT THE PROJECT SUNRISE BOULEVARD.
Thank you for having me. ‘Sunrise Boulevard’ is set in 1955 and follows an in-crisis famous actress who enrolls in a Clinic that helps artists to find inspiration through a pioneering sorrow therapy. The therapy doesn’t work with her. The other artists start to take inspiration from her sunny presence. The only way to bring the Clinic back to a painful and productive atmosphere is to turn her smile off forever.
WHAT WAS YOUR ROLE IN THE MOVIE?
For this project I served as Producer, Executive Producer, Director, Writer. It was my Thesis Film I did as the final project for my degree in Film & Media Production at New York Film Academy. I had the luck to meet at the beginning of the pre-production Roy Shellef, which produced the movie by my side, giving me the chance to focus also on the artistic part that my role as Director and Screenwriter required.
Working with Roy, and besides being a great artist and worker, is also a wonderful person – I could give life to a project that can express my vision of cinema, the one which prioritizes the story instead of the message, that sparks questions instead of giving answer.
Being producer, director, and writer I had complete control on the project, so I could do 90% of what I had in my mind at the beginning (100% is perfection and perfection doesn’t exist if your name is not Stanley Kubrick or Martin Scorsese).
But even if I had complete control on the project, I always kept my mind open, to listen to the advice and inputs from more navigated workers and artists around me, which made me personally and artistically grown.
Teamwork was essential, and I’ll always thank all the crew, starting from my DOP Rocket Scott that painted on the screen what I exactly had on my mind and the whole amazing cast, like my main actresses Leota Rhodes and Rebecca Ritz – who required very few takes thanks to their deduction to the role – and Joseph Lopez, the lead actor that beside being a great performer is an amazing artist and person that make me evolve as human being and filmmaker.
IT SOUNDS INCREDIBLE. CAN YOU SHARE ANY FUN FACTS FROM SET?
Plenty!! Lack of background actors? No worries, just need that 10 people from the crew start running and screaming on the blurred background. One take needed.
“How does this syringe work?”. The needle is shot from the syringe at supersonic speed and gets lost on the set. I told the production designer to get me at least 10 other needles for tomorrow, in case someone else will wonder how a syringe works.
IT’S SHOWTIME! Please everyone, we need to break plates, glasses, paints, clothes, chairs for the next scene… Do your best. Suddenly the set became a rage room!
HOW DID YOU GET INVOLVED?
Nowadays I watch a lot of movies that, from my point of view, start from a message, a moral that the artists want to communicate and, around it, they build the story.
Obviously, it is not a “mistake”, I totally understand and appreciate writers, directors or producers that want to communicate something that they have experienced, or they care about that have changed their life, like a nation under a war, poverty, a bad love story, a grief.
And, most of all, I enjoy and empathize with these movies! I thank all the artists that really want to communicate a message through a movie, to show their perspective on something. Elio Petri is one of my favorite directors. I love Ken Loach’s and Asghar Farhadi’s works as well. I just have to say that this is not how I approach cinema.
Let’s think about when we were children. Children watch and appreciate movies for the story, characters, colors, music, situations. Children don’t care about Snow White ’s orgiastic and patriarchal subtext or about the consumerist and anti-capitalistic message of Jingle All The Way. Probably I’m stuck in an unresolved childhood phase, but what I want to start from is the story, the characters, the CINEMA itself, and then get into the message.
I’ve started to think about ‘Sunrise Boulevard’ from a concept, not a message.I wanted to create a film that has a European soul within an American body (nothing new, Scorsese did it for the first time 50 years ago).
So how could I do that? I started to think about what would have happened if George Roy Hill directed Antonioni’s script. And what about Bergman writing a film for Billy Wilder? Then, writing the script, thinking about the story, the message started (more than a message, a few questions) to come out: is sorrow vital to create art? How much sorrow is addictive? How much mutual help is important to survive in this world?
My hope is to make the audience wonder about these questions as well, but, first of all, to make them enjoy the Film!
WHERE DID YOU CHOOSE TO FILM THIS EPIC MOVIE?
I chose an outstanding baroque mansion (the Clinic) in Chatsworth, Los Angeles, owned by the welcoming Farah Tarrah.
HOW CAN PEOPLE GET IN TOUCH WITH YOU?
I can be contacted through my IMDb @Mike Montagna and Instagram @mikemontagna_
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