Ted Kotcheff plans shooting movie about saving of Bulgarian Jews during Holocaust

The director is in Bulgaria for a second time at the invitation of the Sofia Film Festival. He says Sofia has changed a lot since the times of communism and also told us about his friendship with great Bulgarian erudite Petar Ouvaliev aka Pierre Rouve – film producer, critic, writer, translator and lecturer.

Ouvaliev was the producer of the movie Blow-up by Antonioni. The movie was too long and Kotcheff was offered to make it shorter. The great Michelangelo Antonioni used all suggestion made by then 28-year-old Kotcheff, who still remembers Antonioni saying: “In Italy we do not consider dialogue in movies to be so important like you do in Hollywood. For us movies are pictures, images and dialogue should be left for theater.” Today Kotcheff admits that when writing his scripts he always strives to draw pictures.

Among the movies shown during the Sofia Film Festival is First Blood, starring Sylvester Stallone. It is curious that the cult movie has two endings. The producer did not want to leave Rambo alive and the movie crew decided to test the audience in Las Vegas. After Rambo’s suicide somebody in the cinema shouted: “If the director of this movie is here he should go hang himself.” People were saying the action movie was brilliant but killing the main character at the end was not tolerable. The producer panicked but Kotcheff showed him a paper with an alternative ending for Rambo. The DVD version actually contains both endings. But which one is Kotcheff’s favorite?

“The happy ending is the popular one but the sad one is the more intelligent. I have made both and that is why I like both of them.”

For decades Ted Kotcheff has been dreaming about shooting a film about saving the Bulgarian Jews during the time of ruling of Tsar Boris III.

“For forty years I have wanted to create such a film but when I speak in Hollywood about this story nobody believes me,” the director says. “They say that if it was true, everyone would have known about it. But it is true. Actually, when I started writing the script I had talks with the royal family, with Simeon II, and his sister Maria-Louisa." The screenplay is almost ready now and the director is looking for financing.

The director counts on subsidies from Canada but when he receives his new Bulgarian passport he would be also able to apply for European financing. At the opening of the cinema festival Ted Kotcheff received the Sofia Award for his contribution to the art of cinema. A day later he also received the Golden Age order of the Ministry of Culture.

Свързани новини:

• И Видин обявява грипна епидемия
• Без безплатни бързи тестове за грип
• Приложение на „Майкрософт” ще ни предупреждава за сайтове с фалшиви новини
• Опозиционерът Хуан Гуайдо се обяви за временен президент на Венецуела
• Жената, нападнала медик в Горна Оряховица, е с повдигнато обвинение
• Руската ВТБ: Заложници сме на нарастващ конфликт между Тръмп и Конгреса
• Ивелин Попов се настани в хотела на "Ростов" в Доха, ще подписва

• Алберт Попов спечели втория слалом за ФИС
• Паредес се отдалечава от ПСЖ
• Прекратиха търсенето на самолета със Сала поне за днес
• Погба носи тузарски костюм със своите инициали
• Зафиров: Цената на Неделев е висока
• Емери: Арсенал работи по трансфера на Суарес
• Зафиров: Неделев отхвърли ЦСКА и Лудогорец, търсим нападател и ляв бранител