Written Interview: Todd Solondz

An interview with writer-director Todd Solodnz in Anthem magazine. Excerpt:

Born in 1959, writer/director Todd Solondz grew up in the suburbs of Newark, New Jersey. After enrolling in NYU’s Tisch School of the Arts to study film, he made several shorts, one of which caught the attention of Twentieth Century Fox and a three-picture deal soon followed. Unfortunately, the experience of making his first feature film, Fear, Anxiety and Depression, proved traumatic and Solondz turned his back on filmmaking for years. During that time, he had taken a job teaching English to Russian immigrants. It would take three years for Solondz to return to filmmaking with a certain low-budget production called Welcome to the Dollhouse, which picked up the coveted Grand Jury Prize at Sundance in 1996. With the release of his subsequent films — Happiness, Storytelling, Palindromes and Life During Wartime — Solondz has continued to provoke and challenge viewers with offerings that are fated to divide audiences and critics alike.

Dark Horse is Solondz’s newest film, which premiered at the Venice Film Festival in 2011. The story follows Abe (Jordan Gelber), a thirty-something with arrested development, who falls for another thirty-something (Selma Blair) facing similar problems. It’s when Abe finally decides to move out of his middle school bedroom — in a household run by Christopher Walken and Mia Farrow — that tragedy ensues. Critics, not surprisingly, have described it variously: “his gentlest triumph,” “a hilariously pitch-black exploration of human behavior,” “conditioned to his cruel ironies,” “loaded with trademark negativity,” and “Solondz’s most upbeat film”. Go figure.

Dark Horse opens June 8th in New York City at the Angelika Film Center with a national roll-out to follow.

Does it ever work against you that you’re a cult filmmaker?

I’m happy if people call me a cult filmmaker. It would be nice to continue to be one because I need my movies to be more profitable so I can continue to make movies. Then again, if I make movies that are more profitable, I don’t think I’ll be a cult filmmaker anymore because of too much success at the box office. In that respect, I don’t want to call myself a cult filmmaker. Not to say that I ever was, but I don’t want to be so pessimistic about the future.

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Where do your films begin? Do you start with ideas for characters or themes that you’re interested in exploring?

It’s not as calculated as that. I’ve been writing as long as I’ve been reading, so it’s just something that comes more naturally. In general, I just start on something and keep writing. If I hit a dead end, I start over and keep at it. I don’t really have a recipe for any of this. Writing is a process of self-discovery. You work alone and try to understand why you’re putting pen to paper. These are questions that you may never be able to fully answer, but I think that’s what propels me.

For the rest of the interview, go here.

Here is the trailer for Solondz’s latest movie Dark Horse: