'Tokarev''s secret weapon: daring director Paco Cabezas

NicPic: Nicolas Cage on the set of "Tokarev" in downtown Mobile, Alabama on June 12, 2013. (Lucy Gafford)

MOBILE, Alabama—Last week at The Crescent Theater, the audience got a dizzying dose of the Puckish charm and risqué artistry of "Tokarev" director Paco Cabezas.

On Friday, July 5, Crescent patrons were treated to a screening of Cabezas' totally insane 2010 film "Neon Flesh," followed by a q and a with the Spanish director who has been in Mobile for more than a month working with Nicolas Cage and co.

"Tokarev" is Cabezas' American directorial debut. At Friday's event, he made it abundantly clear that he couldn't be happier with the film's starring city.

"Tokarev" director Paco Cabezas at The Crescent Theater on Friday, July , 2013. (Tamara Ikenberg/tikenberg@al.com)

"I found a great place, a great city. You people are so great," said the 35-year-old director. "You know sometimes when you're shooting a movie in Los Angeles or a city where they shoot a lot of movies, you feel that people are tired of movies; tired of filming blocking the traffic and exploding stuff. But here you're excited; as excited as I am. So that's beautiful."

The friendship Cabezas and Crescent owner Max Morey have developed in the past few weeks is also beautiful.

It was a chance meeting between the director and the theatre owner that resulted in last week's Cabezas experence at the Crescent.

Morey said that two weeks ago, Cabezas was walking past the Crescent and saw a poster for the Cuban film "Juan of the Dead" in the window. As it happens, Cabezas knows some of the folks who made the film.

The poster lured him into the theater.

Morey, who had no idea at that point that the young Spaniard was the director of "Tokarev," responded with Mobile's signature southern hospitality.

"We immediately took the poster off the wall, put it in a tube and handed it to him," Morey said.

When Cabezas, delighted by Morey's generosity, told the theater owner who he was, they worked out a plan to show "Neon Flesh" and have Cabezas interact with the audience.

"We wanted to honor him with this film as a great director," Morey said. "This is our way of saying thanks for your presence in Mobile."

Morey also said that Cabezas assured him he'd do his best to make sure the "Tokarev" world premiere takes place at the Crescent.

Cabezas has become a familiar downtown denizen. He seems to be very comfortable here.

Folks who have stumbled upon or purposely sought out a "Tokarev" filming location have witnessed Cabezas at work.

He exudes excitement and endless positive energy despite the horrid humidity and long hours of shooting. The whirling dervish of a director never slows down, and is totally focused on hist art as he sprints around the set, amicably manages his crew, and genially confers with Cage and the other actors.

Cabezas has also been spotted riding around Royal St. and other downtown areas on his stand up scooter.

The night "Neon Flesh," or "Carne de Neon" as it's known in Spanish, played at the Crescent, Cabezas had an easy, conversational rapport with the crowd.

Before the film started, Cabezas introduced himself and admitted he was kind of frightened to show "Neon Flesh." He said he thought he'd be tarred and feathered for showing the crowd such a deliriously messed-up movie.

He was mostly kidding, but there was a slight sense of apprehension.

"You may not like it, but I'm sure it's going to create a reaction," he said.

It turned out he had nothing to fear. The movie did elicit a fair share of gasps and shocked expressions, but there was no huge outcry or mass exodus from the theater, and viewers were eager to know more about the film.

With its sweet transvestite character Princess, foul language, graphic sex and violence, pop sensibility, pitch black humor and flashy, stylized look, "Neon Flesh" plays a bit like a more intense mix of the films of Pedro Almodovar, Guy Ritchie and Quentin Tarantino.

Cabezas socks the viewer with some seriously disturbing stuff in his wild and raunchy ride through the seedy world of human trafficking and prostitution.

It's not for the faint of heart, and definitely not for kids.

"Neon Flesh" focuses on the ambitions of Ricky, played by Spanish film star and Cabezas' friend Mario Casas.

Ricky is a good-hearted, yet misguided young thug who slithers among the underbelly of society and its resident gangsters, murderers, prostitutes and psychopaths.

He tries to give his low and lonely life meaning by opening a bordello in honor of his own mother, a prostitute who abandoned him on the streets when he was twelve.

To Ricky, owning a whorehouse is something to be proud of. Cabezas weaves strong emotions and family relationships into the film and endows his potentially cartoonish characters with unexpected complexity. As a result, "Neon Flesh" is deeper than a shallow, sexy shoot-'em-up.

"I was thinking if you put the human element in the mix it makes it much more interesting," he said. "I love to see movies like a living work of art. (You should) do something with your art even if it's ugly. Life sometimes is ugly. I think you can find beauty in ugliness sometimes."

Cabezas also told the crowd at The Crescent that "Neon Flesh" was made for a mere $1.5 million, which is outrageously cheap for a feature film. He explained that it was a labor of love, and most of the actors are his friends from film school.

He said "Tokarev" won't be nearly as naughty and wickedly funny as "Neon Flesh." But he added that the two films do share some common themes, including sin, redemption, and the gray area between good and bad guys.

"I think life is made of gray areas. ('Neon Flesh') shows that people are capable of the best and the worst," Cabezas said. "Tokarev" is also very good with (exploring) that."

For instance, In "Tokarev," Nicolas Cage's character Paul Maguire is an upstanding citizen with a criminal past. He's drawn back into the underworld when his daughter gets kidnapped by Russian gangsters.

Cabezas also said that film-goers should dispose any pre-conceived notions that "Tokarev" is just another formulaic action flick.

"It's a very surprising movie. You don't know what to expect. Maybe you think 'I've seen that a thousand times.' Well, I'm going to tell you there are a lot of surprises along the way," he said. "I'm so tired of going to watch a movie when I know everything that's going to happen...You only live once. There is only one chance to tell stories, so you better tell something different."

If it weren't for a near-death experience nearly twenty years ago, Cabezas' vivid visions may have never made it on to the big screen.

When asked about how he got serious about making a career out of filmmaking, Cabezas shared a dramatic personal story.

When he was 17, Cabezas and some of his friends were in a major car crash in Cabezas' hometown of Seville, Spain.

Cabezas, a longtime admirer of Martin Scorsese, Sidney Lumet and Quentin Tarantino, said he had always wanted to make movies. But it took the near-tragedy to propel him from dreaming to doing.

"I remember the car coming from the left and hitting us. It was a slow-motion experience. I was thinking, 'this is it. I'm dead. I' m going to die. I'm 17. I'll never be able to make movies. I'm going to die a virgin,'" he told the audience. "And then the car flipped, I got out of the car, and I remember thinking, 'Dude I've gotta make movies. I need to make movies."

The day after the accident, Cabezas said he left Seville behind and took a train to Spain's bustling capital of Madrid. He started writing screenplays and supported himself by busking in the subway with his guitar and working random cruddy jobs.

"I kept trying until somebody liked my scripts," Cabezas said.

Cabezas has directed and/or written the screenplay for several European films including the 2007 horror flick, "The Appeared," the 2010 romantic comedy "Bon Appetit" and the 2008 crime thriller "Sexykiller, Moriras por Ella."

"Neon Flesh" is the last film he completed before taking on "Tokarev."

Cabezas' brazen body of work attracted the attention of the "Tokarev" producers.

"In Paco Cabezas we found a fresh young director with great visual style and remarkable storytelling ability," said "Tokarev" producer and Hannibal Classics CEO Richard Rionda Del Castro.

Now that he's officially a player in the American movie arena, Cabezas is getting accustomed to film-making on a grander scale.

"It's like a different field to play on," Cabezas said. "The toys are bigger."