Goodnight, Los Angeles: Diana Cignoni on JUICE 

Part of the Diana Cignoni Short Film Collection 

In memory of Harry Hains and Baz Phillips 

Just in time for Halloween, the Diana Cignoni Short Film Collection continues with JUICE, a dark, funny short film about the vampires who walk among us in Los Angeles. After SNOW CHILD, where Cignoni turned the stone over, the award-winning director, screenwriter and actor invites us in for Christmas Eve with the oddest vampires in Los Angeles. We spoke to her about vampires, remembering Harry and Baz, and the thriller she’s about to shoot on the English coast. 

An aging vampire navigates the dark undercurrents of life in Los Angeles, where desire, survival and the search for connection collide. Through dark, unconventional storytelling, JUICE explores the haunting reality of immortality in a modern world. 

Watch JUICE here:

What is JUICE? 

It’s Christmas Eve dinner with a family of vampires in the city of angels: Vlac, the head of the house; the young Snow White and Dorian; a Grandma wearing so much jewelry she looks like a Christmas tree; and Igor, the family retainer. They’re the oddest group of vampires you’ll ever meet: quirky, cynical and down to earth. JUICE dispels all the bollocks written about vampires. Not a punctured neck to be seen, nobody hanging upside down from the ceiling, and the only reason to avoid flowing water is so you don’t get your shoes wet. 

Why is it called JUICE? 

Because that’s what they call blood. When a guest arrives on Christmas Eve, Vlac offers him a “Glass of… juice?” 

So these aren’t gothic vampires. 

No. Take away the cape and the castle, and what’s left is something very human: tired, wry creatures getting through Christmas Eve in Los Angeles like the rest of us. Come revisit and taste the claret. 

“Behave you two and drink your soup before it clots.” — Vlac, JUICE 

JUICE stars Harry Hains and Baz Phillips, who have both since died. What did they mean to you?

Harry was a muse to many people, and he was mine too. He’s in my films LULU and GHOSTS, and after he died I made SIX in his memory, which was selected for the Viewpoint Documentary Film Festival in Ghent. In JUICE he plays Dorian. Baz plays Vlac. We wrote the film together, and Baz loved acting. The film is a chance to see them both again, doing what they loved, and I want people to remember them that way. 

Do you relate to your vampires? 

Honestly, I feel like a vampire myself. I love dark rooms, dark stories, candlelight and atmosphere. The bright day blinds me. Snow White is really me. She even complains there’s too much bloody daylight and too much bloody sun in Los Angeles. 

You came to directing through modelling and acting. How did that shape you?

I modelled for Armani, Trussardi and Dior across Milan, London and Paris, then trained as a method actor at HB Studio in New York. My mentor there was Charlie Laughton, and together we made short films from his poetry. I also studied with Geraldine Baron of the Actors Studio, Martin Landau and Mark Rydell, and I sit on the board of the Odyssey Theatre. I performed in a dozen plays there, from Brecht and Beckett to Pinter and Friel, all directed by the late Ron Sossi, the Odyssey’s artistic director, including Elephant Shavings. For me filmmaking, acting, writing and art aren’t separate careers. It’s one practice. 

Your company is called Ground Hero Productions. Why that name?

Because everything I’ve made, I’ve built from the ground up. 

What’s next? 

This December I’m filming the teaser for my new feature, RAT, a psychological thriller I wrote and will direct, starring Frances Broudie. It’s produced by Ground Hero Productions in association with AUTEUR+PR LTD, with cinematography by Colin Tofts, and we’re shooting on location on the English coast in Fairlight and Hastings, East Sussex. 

Any last words for readers this Halloween? 

Goodnight. 

About Diana Cignoni 

Diana Cignoni is a Los Angeles-based director, screenwriter and actor whose films have won more than 60 international awards. She has made documentaries and fashion films for Cosmopolitan, Port Magazine, FHM Collections, Playboy and the Goethe-Institut, and was selected for the Panavision New Filmmaker Program Grant for her film BLOOD WOLF. She is German-American. 

Festivals

Official Selection 

• Topanga Film Festival, Los Angeles 

• Filmmaker Sessions, Volume 12, Pinewood Studios, UK 

• UK Web Fest, London 

Semi-Finalist 

• Motion For Pictures, North Carolina 

Credits 

• Directed by Diana Cignoni 

• Written by Diana Cignoni and Baz Phillips 

• Produced by Diana Cignoni, Baz Phillips and Andria Chamberlin 

• Music and sound design by Pete Kneser 

• Starring Harry Hains, Megan Nison, Baz Phillips, Peter Frankland, Denise Blasor and Ron Bottitta 

More: www.dianacignoni.com · www.groundhero.com 

photo by jenna putnam · poster by themysteryparade