The director of the raunchy 3-hour Dracula movie says the artificial intelligence is rude and annoying. That’s why I use it

Clocking in at nearly three hours and replete with images of actual AI (of Count Dracula, the Romanian warlord Vlad Tepes who inspired the famous vampire, and much more), the film feels almost deliberately depressing. In a climate where many in the film and creative industries see generative AI as an insult to both the medium and their careers, Judd’s use of the technology has proven controversial. Vulgar, sarcastic and obscene images generated by artificial intelligence are, after all, images created by artificial intelligence.

When he appeared via Zoom after a screening at the recent New York Film Festival, framed by an AI-generated background, one skeptical cinephile said Judd himself was officially “under fraud watch.”

Judd finds himself in the knot that his films tend to tighten more and more. His films have previously used mock executions to explore the repression of historical memory, pornography to expose cultural hypocrisy about adult sexuality, and misogynistic attitudes to deal with the appeal of such attitudes. with DraculaIs AI used as a weapon to curse AI? Or is the decline in technology, as some purists believe, a betrayal of cinema and the human creative spirit itself?

To find out, WIRED spoke with Judd, who appeared from France via Zoom, with the background of an AI-generated image of Donald Trump brandishing an AR-15 rifle while riding a cartoon cat.

This interview has been edited for clarity and length.

Wired: Who’s that behind you? President Trump?

Radu Jude: I used this image at a European festival, where I was asked to give an online lecture. Now that I’ve been invited to discuss my film with some American friends, I thought I’d give them something they’d appreciate. This photo was shared by Trump himself when he was campaigning as an advocate for cats and dogs.