Unpublished documents, photos, meetings… The book by Breton Melvin Zed, entitled Mad Max, ultraviolence in cinema, was awarded. Volumes 2 and 3 are in preparation while Furiosa, the 5th film in the George Miller saga, is released on May 22.
He was 13 when he saw his first Mad Max. “It was in the Paris region, a night dedicated to the trilogy in my local cinema, six hours of films, three Mad MaxI was fascinated”, remembers Melvin Zed, 49 years old, now based in Bain-de-Bretagne, in Ille-et-Vilaine.
Yet closer to the cinema of Stanley Kubrick, he was impressed, and this screening remained in his memory. Also, when in 2008, a fanzine asked him for an article on a film of his choice, naturally, he chose the first Mad MaxAustralian dystopian action film directed by George Miller, released in 1979, with the very young Mel Gibson.
Rare and unpublished photos
Melvin Zed begins to write, three pages, then 50 pages, which become a book, three books… The first volume came out two years ago, Mad Max, ultraviolence in cinema, illustrated with hundreds of photos including many extremely rare or previously unpublished photos. The book was immediately praised, awarded the Critics’ Union Prize, best album 2022. Volume two will soon be released, the third volume is 70% written.
In 2013, Melvin, Zed decided to go to Australia, see the film sets, immerse himself, dig into the archives in Canberra and Melbourne, meet witnesses who spoke to him about George Miller’s flagship work… “I’ve been going back every year since then. » Because in his book, Melvin Zed also talks about Australian society, at the cultural, political and historical level.
“Masculinity and the cult of the car”
The first Mad Max remains his favorite, “it is the most Australian, which speaks in the 1970s, of masculinity and the cult of the car, in a locked down Australian society, hit by the crisis. The car is an instrument of emancipation to get out of your hometown. » Melvin Zed tells the incredible story, the youth of its authors until the incredible release of the film, deemed too violent. Mad Maxreleased in France in January 1982 in a version cut by six minutes after a three-year censorship, took second place at the box office the week of its release with 496,356 admissions.
Melvin Zed has conducted more than a hundred interviews around the three films, and the director’s postapocalyptic universe, “I had the chance, during a convention in 2015, to have dinner with George Miller and the actors of the film. » Melvin Zed has already sold 1,500 copies of his book, while Furiosa, 5e film from the saga which has spanned four decades of cinema, will be released on May 22, 2024, on the heels of the Cannes premiere on May 15.
