"I believe that the subject for Eaten Alive was inspired by the Jonestown massacre that took place in the nineteen-seventies." "Yes." "Is that correct?" "In effect, the story of Eaten Alive was inspired by the notorious Reverend Jones case I think his name was Jones the American Leader of a sect in Guatemala or in a country in Latin America, I forget whether it was Columbia, or Venezuela." "In any case, the sect was a mixture of Christian and pagan beliefs." "It was sensational news, because almost two hundred people committed suicide." "This gave me the inspiration for a film that in the plans should have been just about cannibals." "Nevertheless, I did not want to do a film on the subject of cannibalism alone therefore I chose to focus on the story of Reverend Jones who was in effect, exploiting the members of his sect and on the American girl who Looks for her sister who has joined the sect." "We shot this film entirely on location in the hinterland of the island of Sri Lanka, Ceylon, at Candy in a very difficult situation, surrounded as we were by very wild animals deadly insects, black scorpions, etc." "It was difficult work." "In any case, the film was a smashing success especially because of the famous scene that I think audiences will remember." "When the Italian actress, it was Paola Senatore is cut to pieces and eaten Alive, still Alive, by the cannibals." "The scene was full of unusual special effects because it was shot in the studio, not in the jungle which would have been difficult because of the effects." "Do you remember if a Lot of the film was shot in the studio, or..." "No, in the studio we just shot the scene where the girl was killed and some night scenes when the actors, the protagonists, are sleeping in their tents." "This film was very successful though not as much as Cannibal Ferox, the film I made right after this one." "In all your films about cannibals, is violence..." "Important?" "Is it important sexually?" "For example, the rapes of Janet Agren and Paola Senatore in Eaten Alive..." "Look, my position about Cannibal films, films that, should we say, exploit these rituals, was primarily a result of experience I had with a previous film entitled The Man from Deep River, that was distributed under different titles in the United States, one being Sacred Vice." "The scenes in that film were taken from genuine authentic rituals that a local anthropologist had explained to us." "In effect, in The Man from Deep River the rituals were explained by someone who had spent several years with Burmese tribes." "Therefore, the starting points in both films are real facts." "On the other hand, if we think that even in Western democracies such as in Europe or Latin America there are still cases of political prisoners being tortured, and all that." "We should not be surprised if the film contains some violent actions that take place among savage tribes." "What I wanted to show primarily is that this violence violence against people even when it's not merely sexual violence, but violence such as killing, mutilation that this violence has been caused above all by a policy by a Long history of third world colonization, of the exploitation of savage tribes." "We can see that clearly in the story, the plot of "Cannibal Ferox."" "In "Cannibal Ferox" some white people, some ruthless drug addicts take advantage of the naïveté of these tribes of the fact that they are defenseless in the Amazon interior." "We are talking about primitive people who cannot defend themselves and these white people exploit them, oppress them and persecute them inhumanly." "Clearly, the natives react, they counter attack, and in doing so they become they unleash their primitive fury to avenge themselves." "Me Me Lai's death scene..." "Yes the Burmese actress." "But there's another, earlier movie, called Cannibal Holocaust that has some of the same scenes that are in this film..." "Did you shoot your own version of Me Me Lai's death, or..." "Well, explaining would take too Long." "I did shoot Me Me Lai's death." "However, there's a very short take of the body burning, the head burning where I used a scene from a previous movie, whose producer was a friend and so I asked for those frames and inserted them in the movie." "However that particular scene is only five feet Long it's a fraction of a second when we see this head burning, that's it." "Everything else concerning Me Me Lai or the cannibals, the Cannibal film, is mine." "I want to be clear, as I've said in previous interviews, the scenes are from my film The Man from Deep River." "Everything else, the film that was made later on by the other director because I refused to do it." "The producer, and I want to be clear about this he had sold this sequel worldwide." "He had sold the sequel to the film using my name and the names of Me Me Lai and the actor Ivan Rassimov." "After I refused to make the sequel, he was forced to use at least the two actors otherwise he could not there would have been opposition worldwide." "Therefore, whoever is saying that I took the film in reality made the sequel only thanks to me." "Did I explain myself sufficiently and clearly?" "Yes, yes, very clear." "That strange scene with Janet Agren all covered with gold, do you recall it?" "Ah, yes, yes." "She is all naked and covered with gold." "Yes." "Why is that?" "Because it's a ritual." "It's an authentic ritual of New Guinea tribes, one that is still practiced." "When a woman, a white woman especially, finds herself in a tribe the tribe, according to the ritual, proclaims her queen and covers her in gold." "But it must be a white woman." "It's one of many rituals that I filmed after researching the traditions folklore and rituals of these tribes both those living in New Guinea and along the border of Burma and Thailand where we still have savage tribes that practice Cannibalism even if the newspapers do not talk about it and the TV does not show it." "It is common practice among these tribes who live along the border between Thailand and Burma that a warrior who has killed an enemy in a battle between hostile tribes will cut him to pieces and eat his heart." "And you know, this is just one of many rituals." "Therefore, the scenes we made were always based on ethnography and we had evidence of these rituals on location." "What I would like to do now is to say the names of the other actors and actresses and for you to tell me if you remember them." "Now then..." "Robert Kerman?" "Mediocre." "Janet Agren?" "Excellent, very beautiful, capable." "She is a friend of mine, right Olga?" "Paola Senatore?" "She went on to become a well-known porn star." "Did you know that?" "Yes." "You see, I had no way of predicting that she would become a porn star." "But even if I had been able to predict it, I would have hired her because she was a good actress, good for the part especially because she was not bashful about shooting certain scenes in the jungle, like the scene where she is sodomized by a native savage." "It was difficult to find an actress who was willing to do it on location in the middle of the jungle, with all the savages around her." "Next?" "Me Me Lai?" "Me Me Lai made two films with me." "She started her movie career with me, in the famous Man from Deep River." "I have good memories of her, very good." "Finally, Ivan Rassimov." "Ivan Rassimov is a friend of mine, we made many films Roma a Mano Armata, L'uomo Dai Film Profondi and also Squadra Selvaggia." "There is no need to talk about him, he's a good actor and a friend." "And Ilet's not forget the great American actor Mel Ferrer." "Ah, Mel Ferrer, we had already made a movie together..." "It was called Incubo Sulla Citta Contaminata or, City of the Walking Dead." "Yes, Mel Ferrer is a star, a great star he really had some top moments in his career..." "For example, in King Vidor's film War and Peace..." "He is a great actor, I remember him with much affection." "In the film Eaten Alive and the other film, Cannibal Ferox is the music, the theme, the disco music, is it Budy's or is it Maglioni's?" "No, Maglioni her full name is Fiamma Maglioni was a young woman who was a friend of ours and who wrote music." "She wrote it with another composer." "But I really did not understand the question, did you ask if it was disco music?" "Is it music..." "No, she created the music, she did, together with a fellow musician of hers and recorded it." "I should also tell you that the film Cannibal Ferox was purchased by Sage Stallone Sylvester Stallone's son, who published it in DVD format in the United States." "He also remade, re-recorded all the film's original music in America, in Los Angeles re-adding it to the film just as it was before, but with a different orchestration." "It's very beautiful music, you know?" "I don't know if you recall, but Fiamma Maglioni, the author of the music isn't she Loy's wife..." "At the time she was Loy's wife, but later they divorced." "They are no Longer together." "She also had a part in the film, in Cannibal Ferox she plays the protagonist's friend who takes a plane to the jungle to find him." "And finally, which of all your Cannibal films do you prefer and what are your thoughts today about Eaten Alive?" "Well, I have no favorite film in the Cannibal genre, not really because I am better known for other types of films such as action movies and war movies." "I made these films, I made them well and I consider them good films but they are not among my favorites, so to me one is as good as the other." "From the point of view of international success and the impact it had on the public all over the world I would say Cannibal Ferox." "Cannibal Ferox was banned in 23 countries, 23." "Nevertheless, it has always enjoyed a spectacular success, because banning a movie in 23 countries sometimes works in its favor as great publicity." "You only need to consider Bertolucci's film Last Tango in Paris a film that in Italy was ordered burned by the courts." "But they were able to save one copy and after several years it came back on the screen and now has become or still is, a cult movie."