In Berlin with his new film The Commissioner, veteran Dutch filmmaker George Sluizer spoke of his admiration for River Phoenix. "He had a very strong charisma, something very special which touched young audiences in particular." Sluizer directed River Phoenix's last film, Dark Blood. The
23-year-old actor died 11 days before the film was due to be completed.

Sluizer and Phoenix were staying in the same hotel in Los Angeles on the night of Phoenix's death. "I saw him at about 9.30 in the evening. I came back to the hotel and I saw him drive away.
I said to him, have a good night and see you in the morning."

The next day Phoenix and Sluizer were due to meet Terry Gilliam (whose work Phoenix hugely admired).

"I was called at 4.00 in the morning by his agent who told me River had died. I thought I was dreaming. At first, I was too stubborn to believe it. I rejected the idea because I abolutely did not expect it."

Sluizer had been shooting with Phoenix and the rest of the cast and crew for over eight weeks in Utah. They had only just arrived back in LA. "He called LA the bad, bad town. When we went back there, he said we were going back to the bad, bad town."

The negative of Dark Blood is locked away in a safe somewhere. "Until everything is settled between the lawyers and bankers, nobody will see it." Sluizer originally wanted to use the film as part of a documentary, "not about River himself but about his acting, the way he changed from take to take. That, I think, would be of interest to all the acting schools of the world, quite apart from its historic and archival value. Who knows, maybe some day it will happen..." GM
 
 

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