Angelina Jolie discusses directing 'Without Blood' | CTB NEWS

Angelina Jolie discusses directing 'Without Blood'

Angelina Jolie's upcoming film, "Without Blood," is based on Alessandro Baricco's short novel of the same name.

"I read it when a difficult phase in my life began. I read it after my divorce [from Brad Pitt in 2016]," says Jolie, who filmed the adaptation at Cinecittà Studios in Rome. "It had the same effect on me as it has on so many others," Jolie says, stressing that the book is about the human condition.

"I didn't get it at first. She recalls, "I knew the book affected me deeply." "It's a work of art, someone's intuition and mind, that says so much about who we are."

She talks to Variety while filming a major scene after a firefight at a farmhouse. The wood farmhouse floor on the Cinecittà studio is scattered with blood and bullets, and a bullet-ridden dummy is being finished. "Is it a Western?" asks Jolie. "We're on board."

Emmy-winning production designer Jon Hutman met Jolie on the set of "The Tourist" in 2010. Since then, he's worked on four of his films.

“Having a lot of shootouts means you need multiples of the same costume,” says costume designer Ursula Patzak, who says Jolie was inspired by “The Godfather,” which includes many black-and-white costumes. Because "color distracts from the tale and the performers," the film's costumes are somber.

Jolie created "In the Land of Blood and Honey" to "understand" how people who love each other may turn against each other. "How come they loved one other at the beginning and killed each other at the end?" she asks. "The movie shows how that happens."

In flashbacks, "Without Blood" explores violence, war, and decisions. This picture poses problems; there is no obvious good or bad, despite nasty, horrible, criminal acts.

(This interview was conducted before a 2016 FBI investigation claiming Jolie was assaulted by Pitt on a plane emerged last week.)

Jolie optioned the book's rights since it focuses on the human condition. She says, "It's amazing." "Baricco gives practically every character a backstory, several textures. So it's hard to tell one from the other."

The story is set in an unknown region with echoes of Mexico, while the film spans the 1920s through the 1970s.

Salma Hayek plays Nina, a little girl who sees her father and brother's murder by his enemies. She hides under the farmhouse floor, and one of the murderers, Tito (Demián Bichir), notices her but keeps quiet. They'll reunite years later.

Jolie and Baricco wrote the screenplay after reading the novel. Six years later, after meeting with Fremantle officials and Lorenzo De Maio, who formed De Maio Entertainment with Fremantle funding, she was able to bring this passion idea to the screen. "They adored the material," she says. They don't create many films like this anymore.

"Without Blood" is the first production from Jolie's three-year partnership with Fremantle. De Maio calls it a "opportunity"

Andrea Scrosati, group COO and continental Europe CEO of Fremantle, says "Without Blood" was in pre-production one month after Fremantle signed the overall contract with Jolie. The high-end European budget is secret.

De Maio said the film's casting happened "quickly and organically." This was due to Jolie's tight relationship with "Eternals" co-star Hayek and Bichir's high regard for Baricco. "Most of the cast are Mexicans with Mexican accents," says Jolie, who labels the film a "hybrid"

She has been happy to shoot "Without Blood" at Cinecittà, where Fremantle has a long-term rental deal, and in other Italian locations, including the ancient Southern Italian town of Matera, where the opening car chase in "No Time to Die" was shot; in Puglia, "Angie's favorite set," according to Hutman, where they shot Nina's father's field hospital; and Procoio, an estate west of Rome where the perfect farmhouse f

Several Andrew Wyeth paintings serve as visual reference for the farmhouse scene, says Hutman, who notes that "the movie is full of faded whites and natural woods."

A climax sequence in "Without Blood," in which Nina and Tito reconcile at an art nouveau cafè, was shot at night in Rome's Piazza della Repubblica and redone at Cinecittà using a gigantic LED wall.

Now, "Without Blood" will be finished in the second half of 2023.

"The reality of these never-ending battles has helped me look at violence, trauma, and revenge in very different ways," adds Jolie. "There is no easy answer."