sees the dead wife! Nicole’s importance to the dream is not that
she becomes a ghost but that she has the force, the “strength” (as you say, and you use the word well) to become the ghost. It’s because of the impression she has made upon Edmund—who is creating the ghost, which saves the kid and which condemns him. The moment when the ghost appears to protect the child is the moment when Edmund is strangled in the swamp by the dwarf. So Edmund’s respect for his wife’s strength is ultimately his undoing.
Like Kali, Nicole is another cold Mother figure. I could have chosen a much warmer woman,
but I stayed away from that, casting Christina Pickles—a woman of the stage, with an English accent, and a very cold face. I put her in a green dress at one point. She looks prim and proper and has played nun-like roles. She fit ideally into the plan, which is thatshe is the character that explains Edmund’s obsession. In so doing, her honesty is
Oliver Stone today.
also rather frightening because she becomes so detached from him. So cold, so hard. Serge can tell Edmund exactly what’s going on, like a best friend or a psychoanalyst, yet he can do nothing for Edmund. And the honesty that Nicole, his wife, can bring to his life—her summing-up of his motives, his obsession—can do nothing for him. Nothing. It’s a very black film, Tim, saying that no matter
how loved you are, or wanted, no matter how well integrated you are into the world, if you’ve set up that barrier yourself, nothing can help you. Edmund is too weak a character to meet his soul and change his course of action.
SEIZURE was one of the last films to be distributed by Cinerama Releasing. How did you link up with them? We finished the film and were turned down by
several major studios. We went to Cinerama be­ cause they’d done well with horror films in the 72- 73 era and were rather proud ofthat. They seemed the right place to do things. It wasn’t an exploita­ tion house: the advertising was high quality, the theaters were good, the sell was hard. They were a good crackerjack outfit and the grosses on their horror films were enormous. We screened the film for their execs and were called back only five hours later. They said, “Yes, we like your film very much and will distribute it.” We had a deal! We were granted 40% of the gross, without deductions except for cooperative advertising. Unfortunately, it was at this time that Cinerama
began to fall apart. Arthur Metz resigned from Cinerama a month after we signed the contract, so we lost the benefit of his promotional instinct. Joe Sugar became less and less interested in the affairs of the company and went on to join another outfit. The distribution side of the company, which was primarily an ownership of theatres and hotels, shut down almost immediately after our names hit the contract. Cinerama then merged with AIP, the big exploitation horror house, and all physical distribu­ tion was through AIP. When our film hit the market, in November of 1974, it did so as a Cinerama/AIP picture. In other words, we went out second gen­ eration. The sales managers were more concerned with selling AIP product than Cinerama product. Whenever I called AIP to find out where they
were playing my picture or what they were doing with it, they wouldn’t return my phone call. Your best deal with a distributor is always to have them put some money into the film, and AIP does produce their own films. I’m not saying that they’re out to screw all independent pick-ups, because if something made independently per-
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