Nuot Arquint interview

Actor and dancer Nuot Arquint might not have fully penetrated our minds just yet, but his distinctive looks and chilling performances ensure that here is an artist (and a face) you won’t forget in a hurry!

Film-News’ Claudia A. caught up with him at this year’s Film Four Frightfest to ask a few questions about his latest movie, the Federico Zampaglione directed and ultra-stylish Giallo TULPA.
Contrary to his sinister on-screen appearance, Nuot turns out to be charming, soft-spoken, intense, and with a taste for the finer things in life.

Film-News:
Nuot, to the FrightFest crowd you were already known through your terrifying performance as ‘Mortis’ in Federico Zampaglione’s SHADOW. Now you have returned in the role of Kiran in Zampaglione’s TULPA (premiered at this year’s FrightFest). Are you becoming somewhat of a Zampaglione /FrightFest regular?

Nuot Arquint:
With Federico and his movies I would attend the Frightfest for a thousand years! There is an amazing atmosphere. Horror fans from the whole world – all the pilgrims of horror- meet in London to enjoy the latest horror delicacies thanks to the great organizer Alan Jones.
Federico is a great and very sensible poetic master of horror, with an international appeal.
For me it is fantastic enough being at Frightfest with two of his movies - I am really very happy. I don’t’ ask for anything more...

FN:
Your character Kiran is the mysterious and sinister proprietor of Club Tulpa… a Tibetan mysticism-themed place where its members can fulfil their most wicked desires. How do you see your role as the club guru, and how do you see a connection between Tibetan mysticism and a twilight sex club?

NA:
The name Kiran stands for ‘ray of light’... and people who have already seen the movie know that Kiran’s character is a fusion of opposite aspects. Kiran’s soul has a very dark side despite the meaning of his name.
These opposite aspects of his personality create a sort of disaccording force, but instead of being in contrast with each other they join together and complement each other.
Eastern world meets the west. Mysticism meets eroticism. Material world joins the immaterial. Lights and shadows blend together. The Western mind creates conflicts when the opposite poles meet (Lisa’s working place). For the eastern mind, however, every difference creates only disorder, for all the events are linked together and become one.

Maybe now you can believe me when I tell you that at the beginning, when I was studying Kiran's personality and trying to get into his mindframe, I experienced an identity crisis. I spent sleepless nights in Kiran’s company… I was confused. I discussed this with Federico and we decided to work on the non-material side of Kiran's personality.

FN:
The way you speak your dialogue appears slightly distorted and oddly paced. Was it your idea to deliver your lines that way, did Federico direct you to do so, or was it also a case of English not being your mother tongue?

NA:
Kiran himself - the guru managing the “Tulpa” club - suggested to me how to speak.... it came out naturally while searching for his feelings. Working on the non-material part of the character I singled out the sense of emptiness (Sunyata). In the Eastern philosophy every phenomenon is emptiness. Ordinary man believes that everything has a substance, a consistency, a tangible value, a stand-alone life. Consequently the ordinary man aims to possess and dominate them. In the Eastern philosophy (according to Kiran) all the objects and every person, consequently also the Tulpa visitors, are empty… like Kiran himself.

So the body of Kiran becomes a ‘mental body’. For example, when Kiran climbs the stairs it is actually only the mind that climbs the stairs. Kiran’s voice becomes a mental voice that doesn’t come out from his vocal cords. The sound of his voice becomes just a mental vibration. When Kiran speaks, he distils every word with his mind, every single word is an essence of his mind; every phrase is an essence of his mind and illuminates the emptiness from different angles.

The nightclub attended by the movie’s main character, Lisa, it is not a common club. It is called TULPA (meaning immaterial entity generated from the mind) and is a place where you can live out sexual fantasies. The owner of the club is not an ordinary character. Kiran is a guru.
The opposite coexists and creates a reality where the moods are abnormal, strange and mysterious or, as you put it, distorted.

FN:
What made you accept to play the part of Kiran, and how did you prepare for the part?

NA:
Federico called me and said: “Nuot, I have a role for you”. I didn’t ask him about the plot but instead decided to follow him - without packing my suitcase - on a long journey. Destination: TULPA. I attended many different worlds, did lots of research like reading books and listening to music, especially Indian music, Serge Gainsbourg, Mozart’s Requiem, Bach (violin concerto in E major) and even Alice Cooper’s ‘Poison’. But at a certain point along the trip, when we decided to work on Kiran’s immaterial aspect, I opened the windows of my mind and threw out everything… only emptiness remained.

FN:
Tell me about Kiran’s look in the movie… It’s a mix of creepy combined with alluring charisma.

NA:
Federico created Kiran’s look twice. The first incarnation of Kiran had an Eastern aspect with dark skin and a beard. Then in Rome, at our costume designer’s office, Federico changed his mind and the second Kiran was born. The hairstyle of the final incarnation of him is akin to that of the Indian God Shiva, while Kiran's third eye is silver.
He is wearing a silver snake amulet around his neck (similar to the cobra snake around Shiva’s neck) and the big silver snake earring amplifies the relationship between Shiva and Kiran. The left part of the body, as well as the silver, represents the oneiric world, the imagination… and it represents the creation of Tulpas too.

You may wonder why Shiva inspired Kiran’s look…. In the Shiva cult, pleasure is a divine aspect. People who do not understand the importance of sexual rituals or consider it unworthy and despicable are deemed to fail. In the Tibetan book of the Dead, the male divinity is inseparably embraced with the female divinity, they are complementary to each other.
Kiran has pale ethereal skin, typical of people who always stay in the dark and avoid daylight. The white leather gloves he is wearing are very tight. They give his hands a strange appearance. Federico cared a lot about this detail because the hand represents the action, while the rest of Kiran is a mental body.

FN:
It’s fair to say that TULPA is a movie with style over content, especially where the dialogue is concerned. How do you feel about the decision to have the most part of the dialogue in English, with some parts not very successfully dubbed?

NA:
The stylistic research for TULPA was an important issue… the movie is very visual. Federico is a great visionary horror painter but his style, his photographical aesthetics, the film transposition, the soundtrack... everything is always at the service of the plot.
The movie portrays the current economic crisis much better than a very expert analyst. It is a geometrical Rome without coliseums or fountains, orphan of a thousands churches and without antiques. It is a deeply depersonalized place where Italian is not frequently used and English is the main language (as this is the common language used amongst the world of finance).

TULPA portrays the current state we live in – it portrays a society that lost its identity - it describes our society. We are all strangers, to others as well as to ourselves. In TULPA the dialogue cannot lead the action, it is not useful to the plot, the sex scenes prevail, joint by a huge sense of horror aesthetics. Shocking murders dominate the daily news but they also become a metaphor, and Federico is a master in transposing horror metaphorically. TULPA is mere madness, full of disaccording sounds, intentionally without any directions.
Unfortunately, for a period of time, some of the dubbed bits did not turn out very well but now the problem has been solved.

FN:
Nuot, your name is intriguing, and little is known about your background. You first had a role in the 2004 movie ‘The Passion Of Christ’ which was followed by an Italian short in 2008. What are you doing in between acting?

NA:
The place I come from is called the Engadin, a long valley in the Swiss Alps. Actually, it is referred to as ‘the Tibet of Europe’. My mother tongue is Romansh (one of the four national languages of Switzerland, along with German, French and Italian). So you see, my heritage is far away from the atmosphere in Club Tulpa… another rhythm, another light, another world…

I studied at Zurich Ballet academy, then I moved to Brussels to study at the Mudra (Maurice Bejart’s school). It was a very intense experience , full of creativity… ten hours evey day. Nearby there was the Cote d'Or chocolate factory and the scent of chocolate was everywhere. Certainly chocolate reminds me of this period. Then I studied at the ‘Civica scuola d'arte drammatica Piccolo Teatro’ here in Milan. When we finished our lessons and stepped outside, fog surrounded us. I love fog – to me it represents emptiness!!
Apart from the Federico Zampaglione films ‘TULPA’ and ‘Shadow’, I also had parts in Mel Gibson’s ‘The Passion Of Christ’ and in Paolo Sorrentino’s ‘Il Divo’. I also appeared in two beautiful short films.

FN:
How do you maintain your gaunt physique?

NA:
I eat a lot of basmati rice (I love India), I devour pounds and pounds of chocolate and I exercise a floor barre every single day!

FN:
What’s the next project you’ll be working on?

NA:
I am involved in a project but please forgive me if I don't talk about it. I don’t talk to anybody about that. Never. I do not force anything… I let time make it work.

FN:
Is there a specific role you dream of playing one day?

NA:
In this life I would like to be a cherry tree that blossoms in the wintertime….

FN:
Nuot, grazie for taking out time to answer my questions. I look forward to see you in plenty more movies.

(Photo of Nuot Arquint by © Emanuela Scarpa)