Tarantino, Tarantulas and Calebe Lopes’ “Copula”

“Wow, I'm so glad you liked it! It’s an honor for me and for the Brazilian independent cinema to be in ROFFEKE! The mention of Tarantino genius will leave me with insomnia! I Just LOVED IT!”

This was the enthusiastic response of 19 year old (Yes only 19!) Calebe Lopes to my message regarding his film “Copula”. My message: ‘Hilarious! I love Joel's (non) acting! We officially accept it :-) My colleague, Luci Döll said: "Entertaining film, like Tarantino but without the dialogue. To be perfectly fair, I'd react exactly like the protagonist in the same situation."’

The protagonist of this film is Joel. Synopsis: “Poor Joel ! He just wanted to see a movie about spiders, not fight them!”

ROFFEKE: What inspired you to make a movie that features spiders?

Calebe Lopes: The initial idea came after I watched “Enemy”, a movie by Dennis Villeneuve. The final scene of that film gave me a huge scare! I have been very afraid of spiders since childhood. They are not reliable and are very, very fast! Surely they are my phobia!

ROFFEKE: Who are your favourite directors and why do you admire them?

Calebe Lopes: My favorite directors in order: Alfred Hitchcock, Quentin Tarantino and Martin Scorsese. I love their movies because above all, they are AUTHORS! They know the art of cinema, they know what they want from the camera and the public, and they all have their own style! I love the suspense and the stories that Hitchcock had, the narrative and shots of Scorsese and love the classic style of Tarantino, full of references laden with humor and pop culture! I tried to pass some of that on to “Copula”! There is the unexplained attack as in Hitchcock's The Birds, there is the camera moves and breaking the fourth wall of Scorsese and the irreverent style, the zoom in and zoom out, the quick cuts and B Movies language from Tarantino.

ROFFEKE: How long did it take you to film “Copula"?

Calebe Lopes: The shooting lasted the whole night and the morning of the next day. 10 hours of footage on average. The home scenes were filmed in my house, in the state called Bahia. The city scenes were filmed in a Brazilian megalopolis, Sao Paulo.

ROFFEKE: What challenges did you have?

Calebe Lopes: The main challenges were filming with no money and no staff. I had no money, had no professional actor. It was all done by friends: a soundtrack composed by a friend, the visual FX by a friend, you know, it's an indie movie.

Well ROFFEKE salutes Calebe Lopes’ indie, do-it-yourself punk ethic!