At 60 years old, Uwe Boll (Wermelskirchen, Germany) is fully aware that his name is often accompanied by a description: “the worst director alive.” Over time he has learned to embrace that name and find his audience: “At first it is difficult for all the criticism to put you on edge. But then you are left with the positive. Suddenly, decades later, my films are among the most viewed on platforms,” he says in English with his strong German accent during his visit to the CutreCon in Madrid, where he fully embraces cinema. trashwith jokes from the audience during screenings of his work, and not taking it too seriously.
“There are many films sold with enthusiasm by the press and festivals, that no one sees anymore. There are many Cannes winners that we have never heard about again. And I have films that 20 years later are still shown in theaters. I wouldn’t call them garbage, they are simply fun, and that’s why they survive. In the end, what a filmmaker wants is for his films to last,” this triple Razzie winner (the anti-Oscar) defends to EL PAÍS this Friday, even with an honorary award for worst race: “If you ask me about my 10 favorite movies, I always make two lists. One, the ones I want to see over and over again, like Sharkwhich I can see a hundred times. And another with things like breaking the waveswhich I know are masterpieces, but I never want to see again. I am aware that films like House of the Dead They are riddled with glitches, but they are fun to watch.”
With 40 films under his belt, Boll has a long history as a director and producer. In the list of 50 worst rated movies for IMDb users, it has three mentions: the zombie film House of the Dead (2003), one of his first works, is eighth from bottom with a score of 2.1 out of 10; Alone in the Darkbased on another video game and with 1% positive reviews in Rottentomatoesoccupies thirteenth position, and Bloodrayne settles for a three. Now, with his films converted into tacky cult works, he wants to reunite the entire cast of the first 23 years later, through crowdfunding.
This self-made character, who faced his critics in boxing matches (including against the director of CutreCon, Carlos Palencia, in 2006), became a pioneer of video game adaptations, so common today in Hollywood: “The New York Times I hated them because they were dumb entertainment, and I had a target on my chest with all the fans. My movies would be the worst, but at least they cost 10 million dollars. Then they made them just as bad for 140″.
Because of this rejection, Boll, who spends more time producing than directing, learned to finance his projects independently. First with aid from German funds – to receive it I had to produce them at full speed – and today with three strategies: “I convince companies to co-produce me. Then, my 40 films continue to make money (House of the Dead amounted to 250,000 euros last year), and I don’t spend on ferraris. And I also travel to countries with tax incentives like Croatia, which help me limit everything to much less than 10 million.” In his incessant production chain, in 2011 Boll managed to shoot three films at the same time, to receive all the aid, for 16 days on a set in Croatia: a historical one about Auschwitz, the third installment of the video games Bloodrayne and an action parody with Nazis.
In Postalanother crazy comedy about the United States, took the main character from the eponymous video game to build one of its most “personal” works, a parody that included Bin Laden and Bush among its protagonists. He peppered it with fart jokes, laughter about capitalism, religion, police and racial violence, the use of weapons in the United States and even a mountain of dead children. “Today it couldn’t be filmed. It would offend left and right,” he acknowledges. He also points out that 20 years later the viewer would not accept things like the abundance of gratuitous and unjustified female nudity in his films. “These are ridiculous things, but freedom is not having that fear and breaking barriers. If part of your audience is uncomfortable and the other part loves it, that’s what makes movies interesting. However, today we are control freaks, everything scares us,” he says in a speech against political correctness.
Boll, fearful of the merger of Warner and Netflix, says that everything is getting worse in the cinema: “Now all the studios are afraid and measure what they can sell to the streaming”, to which he attributes the loss of personality in the directors: “The author is no longer known, only that he is from Netflix. And festivals also fall into this publicity bribery. My films were never advertised and still they find their audience.”
He is especially critical of people like the Russo brothers, about to release two more blockbusters by Avengers: “They are not good, although they give them all the money in the world and it makes them worse. There are also directors who already make terrible films that no one needs, but they are forgiven. Scorsese, Ridley Scott with Napoleon and Oliver Stone, who did the most bad things World Trade Center o Alexanderand he never did anything good again.” His rant about the industry, which in 2016 made him temporarily retire due to all the hypocrisy it entailed, does not stop there: “Ben Affleck has dinner with Ted Sarandos, head of Netflix, and he has 80 million to film whatever he wants. It’s unfair to the producer’s job. Since they are famous, they make eyes at them. Or everything becomes political, like all the millions of Melania to shoot that garbage documentary. Trump has everyone under control: Apple, Zuckerberg… It’s a disgrace. And I don’t have dinners with anyone, so nothing.” His biggest budget was achieved with in the name of the kinganother $60 million (about €50 million) video game adaptation with Jason Statham, Burt Reynolds and Ray Liotta.
Boll is very critical of Hollywood cinema, which he blames for the state of the world: “Marvel teaches that violence is positive. For me it is always dark. I support the mandate to restrict social networks at the age of 16 in Spain, because people normalize violence from a very young age,” he explains.
The director has wild opinions left and right, as messy as the editing of his films. Regarding the left, he says that he does not understand that “a trans or a lesbian” is included in every police series. Although it is against the right that he has to shoot the most: “I will never be in favor of murder, like those of the ICE agents, nor of violence. You cannot shoot people. It is fascism, a dictatorship. And if a migrant works and pays taxes, they can stay. It is the system that radicalizes them and turns them into criminals, because they do not get papers,” says this director.
Although in 2016 he opened a restaurant in Vancouver to try other things, as he told in the documentary. What everyonenow he wants to keep rolling. In fact, he has filmed Citizen Vigilantewhich marks the return to the screen of Armie Hammer, star of Call Me By Your Name disowned for some private messages that even appealed to cannibalism. For Boll, the actions of his protagonist must be differentiated from those of producer Harvey Weinstein or those of Brett Ratner, director of Melania, protected by Trump and “justifiably canceled” after being denounced for several violations.
In the end, when it comes to what’s important, Boll is delighted because he has found his audience: “They are like party films. This is what festivals have to aspire to, to be closer and offer experiences. There is an audience here, and the platforms should know it.” And he already sells himself as “the worst director in history,” because that keeps him rolling.