Todd Solondz (went to Omaha one time)

Started by 82, March 29, 2005, 08:44:23 PM

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Reel

I now own every Todd Solondz film on blu ray except for Welcome to The Dollhouse (and Fear, Anxiety, and Depression obviously.) So I was glad to see that the Turner Classic Movies app was hosting WTTD this week, it leaves September 18th.

Fear, Anxiety, and Depression I've never seen and he's said in interviews he'd prefer people don't see it. I think he's more self conscious of his performance than the film really, but I heard a couple guys going through his filmography on a podcast say they really like it. Currently the best quality copy available of it to watch is here on this youtube channel:


wilder

His short films Babysitter (1984) and Schatt's Last Shot (1985) are back online






wilder


wilder

Todd Solondz: "My students are petrified by the fear of offending"

The director of 'Happiness' stars in a retrospective of the Americana Film Fest at the Filmoteca de Catalunya

By Xavi Serra, 2/28/23


Todd Solondz at the Filmoteca de Catalunya

In the 90s, when indie cinema did not embrace all social causes and was still dominated by postmodern irony, Todd Solondz became the most caustic and incorrect voice in American cinema. Three decades later, Solondz is the guest of honor at the tenth edition of the Americana Film Fest, which a week before the start of its official program opens this Tuesday a retrospective dedicated to the director at the Filmoteca de Catalunya which reviews titles such as the brutal Happiness, Storytelling, Welcome to the Dollhouse or his latest work released, Wiener-Dog, which he released seven years ago.

"I was to shoot a film with Penélope Cruz and Edgar Ramírez in Spain, but despite having two big stars we didn't get the money," he explains resignedly, adding that for a few years now he has been "very happy" dedicating himself to the teaching "I love to teach, I have a good time - he confesses -. I suppose I could direct episodes of some popular TV series, but I have no interest in doing that, it would destroy me. I am too sensitive to depression. On the other hand, teaching is a pleasure and, as you can see, they even let me come to Spain." Among his students are directors such as Charlotte Wells (Aftersun) and Chloé Zhao, who won the Oscar with Nomadland. "I'm very happy for her - says Solondz - but the truth is that all the credit is hers, I have no credit or fault for her success."

Fear of being cancelled
Solondz's films are often held up as an example of a type of cinema that would be very difficult to produce today. He doesn't deny it. "Happiness couldn't be shot today, no way. No one would give me the money. Neither would Storytelling. There have always been restrictions, but today they are more severe. People are very afraid of being canceled. In the United States, the Comedians have stopped performing on college campuses because they're afraid of hurting sensibilities. Today it's just as easy to get attacked from the left as it is from the right." The point, he concludes, is that "in life you have to be polite and kind, but as a director it's important to be rude."

Solondz does not envy the new generations of directors. "My students are petrified by the fear of offending, and that's not a healthy state when it comes to art." And he remembers that he, too, was concerned about offending women when he released Welcome to the Dollhouse, about an eleven-year-old girl victim of bullying and sexual harassment. "But I wanted to be true to the truth of the character and I was lucky, the women embraced the film and didn't attack me," she says. So Todd Solondz never self-censors? Not quite, as he has just written his memoirs, but has decided not to publish them while his parents are alive: "The problem is that they might end up being posthumous memoirs, as my parents are in better shape than me. I'll have to get someone to publish them if I die first."

Awkward vignettes
Despite the picture of restrictions he paints, Solondz believes that good films are still being made. "The thing is that it costs more to find them, you have to scratch and look more," he says. Above all, he misses irony and humor: "Without irony, it makes no sense to me to make a film." A recent film he recommends is Owen Kline's Funny Pages, an indie comedy about the world of underground comics. Solondz's cinema seems very close to this world in terms of aesthetics and subject matter, but he claims that he discovered it as an adult. "I was very isolated as a child, I couldn't go to the cinema unless the film was Disney-branded, so I didn't hear about Robert Crumb until I was older. The comics I read, like Archie's, were absurd and stupid". The first comic author who had "a big impact" on Solondz was the underground cartoonist Lynda Barry, and the director admits to being a fan of Joan Cornellà from Barcelona and Molg H from Madrid, two authors who share their jokes on the internet dark humor "My son discovered them for me," he confesses.

Solondz's cinema has always had the ability to provoke as much laughter as discomfort and pain, and many times at the same time. "For me it's not one thing or the other, but both - says the director -. But it's not an effect I'm looking for, but an expression of my sensibility, I suppose." In fact, it doesn't always look good for the audience to laugh at one of his films. "Laughter is not a monolithic force, it depends on the context. Years ago I screened Happiness at the Telluride Festival, and afterwards a young man in his 20s said to me, 'I really liked it, it's very funny, and the 'the scene where they rape that kid is so funny...' I realized at that moment that you just don't have control over these things."

Translated from here

ono

Solondz has always been one of my favorites.  Very inspirational.  It kinda bums me out he's written memoirs but won't publish them until his parents pass.  But honestly, I get it.

Jeremy Blackman

Solondz's "you can't do comedy anymore" take is a bit cringe, but I have to support his argument that great art (some of it, at least) should be confrontational. When Solondz does that, it comes from a place of empathy or obvious trolling or some charming combination. Maybe the trick is to be "rude" without hatred.


Alexandro

Quote from: Jeremy Blackman on March 03, 2023, 12:13:47 AMSolondz's "you can't do comedy anymore" take is a bit cringe, but I have to support his argument that great art (some of it, at least) should be confrontational. When Solondz does that, it comes from a place of empathy or obvious trolling or some charming combination. Maybe the trick is to be "rude" without hatred.

At some point in time I might have found it "cringe" as well, but not anymore. What he says is totally true. My experience is certainly limited, but in the "industry" (mexican, and some others) everyone is saying the same thing. They won't say it in interviews, but anyone who works in comedy in some shape is having that conversation and same complaint behind the scene. Everyone is practicing self censorship, which is worst that censorship in my opinion. As your comment makes clear, no one really knows what joke, observation, line, character trait or POV is going to ring the bells of the sanctimonious comedy police, so the solution is to get anything remotely provocative out of the way before it does. That's the conversation that's actually happening, usually with some resignation laughs accompanying a "we can't do that anymore, can we?".  I don't know how we are pretending that this is somehow a healthy environment, or for the greater good. Having "safety" instructions on comedy (or anything) is not stoping bigotry at all, while everyone agrees a film as great as Happiness couldn't be made today. So, not at all "cringe". In fact, the only people who are not expressing similar views as Solondz about comedy and art are those that don't have to actually do it themselves and get the work out there.