From "Repo Man" to "Sid & Nancy" and "Straight to Hell", Alex Cox has made some of the most original movies of recent years. His latest film, "Revengers Tragedy", is an updated version of Thomas Middleton's 17th century play that's set in post-apocalypse Liverpool.
Do you think your film might become part of the school syllabus?
Well, interestingly, "Revengers Tragedy" was on the syllabus a year ago, and we thought it was coming off, but it's still there. It's very fortuitous - but it does mean that some poor youths are going to have to troop to see the film because they're reading the play at school!
Do you think it might be subversive?
I definitely hope so. Everybody gets a little dose of Shakespeare. He's the greatest playwright in the English language, but his politics are fairly square. The greatest crime in a Shakespeare play is to murder the king. For Middleton it's like, "Kill the king? Why not?" It's inspirational - nobody is above being brought down. It's a revolutionary message.
Is it effective?
You can't change the system through violence. There's a very moral aspect to these plays, unlike films such as "Collateral Damage" or "Death Wish" where we go "Here's Bruce Willis, he's justified in killing everyone because they murdered his grandmother".
Was it a fun shoot?
It really was fun. Basically I think it all came from the brothers - Ambitioso [Justin Salinger], Lussurisoso [Eddie Izzard], and Supervacuo [Marc Warren]. You know, it's saying something when Eddie Izzard is the normal one! They really tried to outdo each other. Justin Salinger showed up one day with a pink cowboy hat on and everyone else got really annoyed because somehow he'd managed to get the pink cowboy hat. So that was very amusing. It's always nice when the eccentrics show up.
Is it true that you were once asked to direct "Robocop 2"?
I was. But it just seemed like a revenge film without any morals! That's my curse, I see the politics within these things and so I don't say yes to them. I was once asked to direct the Steve Martin comedy "Three Amigos". But it seemed like such a complete apology for American military intervention in Central America that I thought it was disgusting. But then, how many other people would have thought that?
Do you miss hosting 大象传媒 Two's Moviedrome?
The real reason why I stopped doing Moviedrome was because it was so hard to get them to license foreign language films. There's this dislike of subtitles on 大象传媒 One, 大象传媒 Two, ITV, and even Channel Four. It all gets relegated to the digital channels.
What films would you pick if you had a choice?
I would show the most obscure film imaginable, a film called "The Mattei Affair" by Francesco Rosi. It's the story of the man who founded the Italian petroleum industry. What could be more boring? And yet Rosi makes the story into a kind of "Citizen Kane". I'd introduce it saying, "It may sound boring, but it's actually fascinating."
