Porn Valley- Paul Interlandi, the man singularly responsible for the physical rejuvenation of the film, Deep Throat, is back from an international film festival in Rio www.adultfyi.com/read.aspx?ID=11261. Deep Throat, www.xxxdeepthroat.com, was one of the main attractions there, and Interlandi was a guest speaker in a festival that played something like 400 films. In the native language, Deep Throat was billed as Garganta Profunda but played in English with Portuguese subtitles.
“Deep Throat sold out all three days at the festival,” Interlandi was happy to report. “On the opening day they let so many people in, they were sitting in the aisle ways which would have violated every known fire code in the U.S. We sold out every seat plus people were standing in the back and sitting on the walkways. I don’t have an idea of how many people actually showed up and paid.”
Such was the attendance, that subsequent screenings had to be moved to a larger theater. Interlandi also shot a documentary featuring Eric Edwards which is included in present DVD copies of Deep Throat. That was shown first before the movie. Reasons being, said Interlandi, prints of Inside Deep Throat which was also scheduled to play during the festival, was lost because of the hurricanes. A follow-up print was shipped but never made it to the festival in time.
“Which means we sold out with anyone even seeing the Inside Deep Throat documentary,” says Interlandi. “Because our film sold out we paid for some independent features to be shown. A lot of them don’t sell out every day. They tend to get a small audience.” According to Interlandi, every theater in Rio participates in the festival. “That’s the only way they can show 400 films. Every night they had cocktail parties and after my film played, everybody wanted their pictures taken with me.” Interlandi chuckles at the thought of being asked for an autograph. “It was crazy. You don’t get that kind of treatment in the U.S. Not as a pornographer.” It’s kind of nice not to be looked down on.”
While Deep Throat enjoyed a pretty successful premiere in L.A., Interlandi’s inclined to think that it got an even better reception in Rio. “The audience was definitely more into it. It was a younger, college-student level crowd. They thought the jokes were funny. They were laughing and there was huge applause at the end. It was pretty exciting. A lot of the people that went were film students.”
As opposed to the U.S., Interlandi said media attention was more rapt and extensive. “At the premieres in New York and Los Angeles we were totally dissed by the mainstream press.”
The way the film festival was advertised and presented, it appeared that Rio is trying to strike a chord similarity to the Cannes Film Festival.
“They had huge tents on the Copacabana Beach,” says Interlandi. “Part of it was turned into a disco, bar and lounge area. Twice a day there were parties in the tents. It was great. Most of the films were Latin American-oriented but they did have some mainstream films there as well.”