The Surprise Film Interview

Interview with Horrible Bob, director of the SURPRISE FILM

We were lucky enough to get our hands on this hitherto unpublished exclusive interview with the director of SURPRISE FILM, known at the time of writing as “Horrible Bob”. Horrible Bob’s enigmatic masterpieces are never quite what they seem, many of them winning a loyal fanbase whose love of the film is completely misguided and misplaced.

I meet Horrible Bob in The Imperial Hotel, Vienna. Fans will be surprised to hear that Bob is drinking a pot of English tea, and I watch as he deposits seven sugars into the urn before drinking straight from the spout, tossing aside a dainty porcelain cup that smashes loudly on the floor beside us. The auteur’s black turtleneck is flecked with dandruff and cigarette ash – but it’s all in the eyes. I ask whither, following SURPRISE FILM, where could one possibly go having set such a standard?

“I’m done with films. I’ve been getting into transcendental meditation. I’ve also been creating works of art with found objects, old movie stock and mild irritants.” Horrible Bob, whether at home, on set or on a Caribbean beach, always carries copies of the entire Bob retrospective in a battered leather suitcase.  Bob shows me reels of material from student experimentation found in the parental attic, a brand new sound mix of CHOCOLATE SPRINKLES, SEX FACE, THE EFFLUENT WOMAN and deleted scenes from NEVER SAY NO. GREEK STREET – an exquisite triumph– was released just four years ago; since then Bob has wowed us with some shocking reverse shorts as well as a series of outré speculative documentaries. But it’s SURPRISE FILM that has really put Bob on the map. An uncut, six inch ode to penetrability that was shot on 8 1/2 mm but had no trouble, of course, finding a distributor.

In preparation for SURPRISE FILM, Bob took a set of photographs – mainly of scaffolding and the labourers who frequent them.  “The soft cleavage of a builder’s bum juxtaposed with the cold, indifferent steel girder. It’s all about the inevitable.” Bob also works with asbestos, fibreglass and “basically WD40”.  This masculine, dispassionate approach is not something one would automatically associate with the sensitive creator of GLADLY, MY CROSS-EYED BEAR. Usually thought to be a reclusive genius, Horrible Bob is laid bare with every artwork and is not shy about discussing each piece. So how does he apply this artistic sensitivity to filmmaking? “I like Magic Paintbooks. I like to infuse my brush with water and apply it to the page. The colours burst out. I never know what they will be – tangerine, moss, air-force blue.  But always dull, dull colour. So I throw away my paintbrush and use a finger moistened with saliva. I blur the colours.  I allow them to stain me. Metaphorically, of course.”
Bob’s reputation divides fans – closet lunatic or tired krypto-fascist? The plain fact is, Bob just doesn’t like SURPRISE MOVIE. But we hope that you do.

The SURPRISE FILM is screened on Sunday 27 September at 3.30pm

ROSY HUNT