"The Internet has two problems: the first one is that you never know who you are in front of and you run the risk of falling into the trap of wrong interpretation; the second problem is that the Internet gives you a lot of information you can't control. Instead I believe in little but good: I am in favor of élitism. I think the same about art: art must be deep and pregnant, art can't be for all, popular art is just nonsensical. I am an artist, and art applies to people like me, interesting and convoluted people".

But our society tends and the more will tend in the opposite direction, that is to make everything available for everybody and always. Art will be more and more reproducible and more and more accessible.

In the past I used to paint and live in Rome. In spite of that, I looked round two museums only; then I met Lucio Amelio, Achille Bonito Oliva, Annina Nosei and made an exhibition, my first and only, in the best gallery.

Since you are so extremist about "popular", what do you think about Tarantino's cinema?

Tarantino is garbage, his work is not art, but garbage only. I love the films he steals from, but his don't interest me at all. Tarantino appropriates something fine and turns it into garbage. Same thing about music: he takes some beautiful records, which I like very much, and steals music from them. So, records that nobody listened to when they came out, now sell a lot and only because Tarantino used them.

It is not an anomalous practice: many artists recycle styles or other artists' works and make them of their own, for example the U2.

The U2 do nothing else but assembling music, they only repropose in other terms ready-made music.But that's not art. So you run the risk of lapsing into mediocrity.

But on the other hand you make art available for everybody, even if obviously deprived of its aura.

If you need Tarantino cultural recovery, then you are a jerk and you have no need for art. I repeat: I don't believe in popular art. Sure, that's not democratic, but it's just so. In America the Democrats and the left-wing people, waste a lot of time and energies for the minorities, taking care of the 4% of population and overlooking the big groups and the big élites [that is the lobbies' interests].

That's a very moot point.

Art must be radical, art must upset people as much as possible. I am radical and obviously I suffer consequence. But I think that only this can lead to the evolution of the human kind.

Do you read Nietzsche?

No, never read him. I read a very few books, but those very few were really incisive. There's an author I like very much. His name is John Fante. "Ask the Dust" is his best book. I got both its rights and the ones of "The Road to Los Angeles" , which is more suitable for shooting and whose adaptation I'm writing . But also "Letters to his mother" is interesting, because there he tries to express his themes in a more elementary and accessible way.

Then you'll play the role of Bandini [ the protagonist of Fante's bestseller "Wait until Spring, Bandini"]?

No, I won't. I'm too old.

Your next film?

They are editing my first film as a director. It's called "Buffalo '66".

What is it about?

The screenplay is mine, and it is an original story, for which I got inspiration from me, my parents and my friends. After writing the film I called a director to shoot it, but I immediately realized that things didn't go off well. So I decided to shoot it by myself. During the making I fired five assistant directors before finding the right one. Same thing with all the crew, from the lunch-basket boy to the postwoman: I looked, controled and chose everybody, and in the end my crew was perfect! [ he laughs ]. And I did all I could : for example, I designed all the actors' shoes, I controled all the costumes, I checked everything in each petty detail, besides directing and acting. The story is about a guy who kidnaps a girl and bring her to a dinner with his parents so that they esteem him.Of course they will esteem the girl only, but in the end she'll fall in love with him. The guy is aggressive and violent to her. That's misogyny, pure offense. A beautiful love story [ he sneers ].

You are the star, of course.

Yes, I play the guy, and co-stars are Anjelica Huston, Ben Gazzara, Christina Ricci ( I designed all her dresses ), Rosanna Arquette, Mickey Rourke. I shot it in Buffalo, NY, a real Neapolitan place. Yes, it is really a love story.

What do you think about Stanley Kubrick, an obsessive and maniacal great director?

Killer's kid", "The Killing" and "Fear and Desire", his first three films, are wonderful, real masterpieces, a genius' works. Then he retired to England, he doesn't show his face anymore, and made some nice films that any good director could have shot. It makes me sad thinking of where he is now. He doesn't compare notes with others anymore.

Is there anyone who influenced you in life-style and in art?

My relatives are Sicilian, and are all authentic monkeys. My cousin even looks like a monkey. But I have also a Neapolitan uncle. I learned to reason by him. It's not by chance he is the person I am closer to. My parents think I am still a hoodlum, as I was when I left home at 16. Instead he educated me, even if he didn't study and doesn't know art. He can understand me.

Have you ever thought to make him work in a film of yours?

I wanted him to play in Buffalo '66, but he wasn't very well. So I chose Mickey Rourke.

And your relationship with your parents?

My father was a better and my mother a hairdresser. Of course, my father bet with the money my mother gained. This is my family. In her beauty shop my mother had "Vanity", and trough the pages of that magazine I learned about photography, fashion and beautiful chicks. I'm very happy when I model : I like having around me people who dress me, make me up, look at me. I modeled for Prada, Versace… Leafing through Vanity I got a passion for shoes. I designed all the shoes that I wear. I have 250 pairs of shoes, and they are hand-made by a friend of mine who made shoes for Frank Sinatra, Dean Martin… His name is Di Fabrizio.

In this frenzy of interests and neurosis, how did you come to cinema?

I have always wanted to be a movie-star, a great actor. Pure glamor. When I see DeNiro on the screen I blush.

Favorite actors?

John Wayne, Charles Bronson…

Tell us about your experience with Abel Ferrara.

It was nice to work with Abel, till I was injured. It was interesting to be directed by him, but on the set there weren't either security or control at all. There wasn't a single conscious or sober person. Everybody used to drink and take drugs. Incredible. I was in hospital for three weeks.

What kind of accident did you have?

I've been hit on my head : a drunk and envious actor gave me a blow. But I defend Ferrara, because he is drug-addicted, is evil, is unreliable but at the same time he is great, is funny and is very intelligent. A great director.

Instead you neither drink nor smoke. Is it right?

That's right! Drugs and alcohol cloud your mind.When you drink, you do things you wouldn't do as sober. And that's why most people drink… O.K., but it doesn't interest me, I'm talking about who is alcohol-addicted. I don't either smoke or drink when I work, I had my experiences about it and, no, I don't do it. The Europeans prefer living in an intellectualized non-functionality, but here that's possible. The Americans don't have their own ideas on themselves, as they don't have an idea on the world ; they don't have an opinion about the universe.

Let's talk about cinema again. What directors were important for you?

I love Monte Hellman ; when I was a Jim Jarmusch's friend we were big fans of Sam Peckinpah and Monte Hellman. I like Besson very much, too : his first film is great. And then I really love a lot Pasolini, most of all "La terra vista dalla luna", starring Totò. Years ago you could see Pasolini, "Accattone"for example, once a year in New York, and in that time, when people met, asked each other : "Have you seen Pasolini?" "Yes!" and then silence. Now , when you go and rent a movie, for example "Die hard", they tell you "Take this too, it's Italian, Pasolini". Once we had to wait a year before seeing it again.Yes, Pasolini is just my favorite director.

Are you planning another film?

Yes, I am. It's called "The Brown Bunny". It will be a pornographic film, not erotic, but really porn. There will be a really hard-core scene only, a very painful ejaculation. The film will be X-rated. I'm still casting, I'd like Liv Tyler or Juliette Lewis. I will not act in it and I'll shoot it in November.

Is it an independent film?

No, it's a medium-budget.

How could you persuade a producer to finance an X-rated film?

Well, if I can persuade an actress to fuck and suck dicks…

Tell us about Palookaville, a film very similar to Italian comedy.

It is a very beautiful film about bad men. But they aren't really bad, because the whole thing comes from a Calvino's short story. In the film I'm very close on being a bad man, because when I point my gun at the running policeman, well, I'm really at the border of good and evil. At first I had no intention to make it, but then they told me they were going to remake "Operazione San Gennaro". It's the funniest film I've ever seen. I saw it in New York in '77. That's why I've acted in Palookaville. But you in Italy didn't seen the real Palookaville, because of the dubbers: let's kill the dubbers! The 20th century imposes us to fight the lazy, the fat, the bored, the Coca-cola drinkers and the pop-corn eaters and require subtitled films. Compare my voice to the one of "a buffoon paid in liras for ruining my performance!"

What is it like for you to be in Italy?

Since my passport has expired, I would have never thought to move from the U.S. By the way, since I revenged my parents, I rehabilitated my European roots.

What do you think about what is happening in Texas, where they are executing many death sentences?

Remember I am a reasonable person, so I don't believe in right and wrong. We have to turn our attention to this subject rationally and not emotively. The Government takes too easily decisions about it. You have to consider the whole thing from the economic and social standpoint: there is no proof of death sentence as a deterrent. But I understand the sorrow of victims' relatives. It's a great sorrow that can end only with the culprit's death. You have to consider the cost, too. You, Commies [ me? ] must stop mobilizing all the country for minority questions. If you are a pregnant single mother, the government helps you, if you are a normal mother, it doesn't. That's not right. If you were wrong, you must help yourself, yourself and your family must help you, not the Government.

Perhaps it would have been better to end the interview at the previous question. Anyway it has been an interesting interview: it comes out a sure intelligent personage, who found his own way and his own life philosophy, and applied these life principles to cinema. Sure, he can be at the same time a schooldays hoodlum and a romantic and maudit artist who fight against adversities to defend his art. Sure he likes playing the bohemien, the cosmopolitan artist. Sure, we are impatiently waiting for his next films, which he told us about. It is a pity he is a Republican…