director statement.
Kiss Me jUdas
Director Statement
by Ralph Hemecker
“Kiss Me Judas” is the story of Phineas Poe, a grieving and shattered ex-narc on an orphic descent into a dark and dangerous realm where the currency is violence, betrayal is the norm and redemption nothing but a crack-pipe dream. Jude, the eponymous femme fatale of the story is an enigmatic assassin, an apex predator, and a highly intelligent operator. She delivers the near mortal wound to Phineas that puts the story in motion; Jude is either the instrument of his demise or the promise of his salvation, and the entire tale takes place on the razor’s edge between the two outcomes.
Both Phineas and Jude are studies in contradictions. Phineas, paranoid, delusional and violent also has a profound streak of compassion and a keen sense of justice despite the grey in which he operates. Phineas hungers to trust someone . . . even if it kills him. Jude, a killer, literally and metaphorically, exudes danger, intellect and an aura of verboten sensuality. Though well concealed, she is also capable of great humanity and despite her persona, yearns to be trusted. And in the alchemy of this twisted and unique relationship perhaps two irredeemable souls will find redemption.
“Kiss Me Judas” is a Neo-Noir in the truest sense: from the labyrinthine urban underbelly realms to the epically disoriented protagonist, Phineas, to Jude, the most extreme femme fatale perhaps ever portrayed. And at the end of their journey awaits Lucius Gore whose ominous name and persona do him justice. Their main nemesis, Jerome Gage, is a chillingly perceptive and unpredictable reprobate. The secondary and tertiary characters provide a perilous, phantasmagoric human landscape. The fragmented flashbacks, the sardonic dialogue and the unexpected plot twists are vintage noir. In classically noir fashion, Kiss Me, Judas is both a contorted love story and a psychological thriller. The theme is that trust is an act of faith that can kill you or . . . . if you are lucky, gift you with a shot at redemption.
Visually, sonically, cinematically the film will be both grounded and impressionistic as it reflects Phineas’ strange odyssey; what Phineas hears and sees: ambient sounds like wind chimes, tires on wet pavement, the chuffing of a coffee maker; visual details like an extreme close up of a wasp on a bare arm, the warped reflection of a face in a knife blade, a blood droplet mingling with tap water as it goes down the drain in slow motion. The aim is realistic lighting, graphic compositions, and a color palette defined by deep hues and intermittent story driven color pops; evocative panoramas and vistas as well as minute detail; an ambient, floating, almost subliminal score. The overall intent is to create a world embued with a pervasive atmosphere of threat, a world fueled by visceral impulses, a world that is carnal and sensual and lethal.
The overall tone of the movie will be grounded, authentic, and as is the novel, irreverent and layered with dark humor.