Manuel Muñoz on Psycho, Nashville, and Movies as Inspiration

Interview
The Film Experience doesn't often push books upon you, but it's time for an exception. Manuel Muñoz's debut novel "What You See in the Dark" hits bookstores, virtual and otherwise, this week. While it is a work of fiction, it borrows from reality for its backdrop. The pre-production and eventual release of Alfred Hitchcock's immortal Psycho (1960) figure into the narrative in crucial and evocative ways and both The Actress and The Director in question are characters.

Consider this amazing "double feature"

Full Disclosure (as I always believe in such things): I met Manuel Muñoz at a poetry event about four years  ago and he introduced himself as a reader of The Film Experience. Though predisposed to rooting for him as a result (I'm only human!) we hadn't really kept in good touch. In the intervening years, I bought a copy of his second short story collection. Two months ago his first novel arrived in galley form and I ate it right up.  I think it's quite an amazing read.

Nathaniel: Before your beautiful novel, which we'll get to in a moment, you had two short story collections published. The first piece of yours I ever read was "Skyshot" which had an amazing Robert Altman thread. That really won me over. How did that story come about and has the cinema always inspired you creatively as a writer?

Manuel Muñoz: I was lucky enough to see Nashville on the big screen at the Brattle in Cambridge when I was in college. I was stunned by it, and it remains my favorite film (with The Piano a close second.) Altman's command of multiple character arcs enthralled me--it was the closest I'd seen a film parallel the possibilities of words on the page. He could shift magnificently and I loved that he could suggest interiority with camera movement: I was stunned when I realized the camera had crept up on Lily Tomlin as she listened to "I'm Easy." (He did the same to Ronee when she sings "Dues.")

At the time, I was coming to terms with identity and subject matter, so it confused me to be so attracted to a film like Nashville, which is far outside my experience.

Manuel Muñoz by © Stuart Bernstein

But I eventually thought of how often we use films to narrate our own lives. I've never sat at the back of a bar while in love with a performer on stage, but I've worn that look that Lily has on her face. Know what I mean?

Nathaniel: I think so.  But to the point on identity. I've always believed that specificity -- be it in sharply drawn characterizations or carefully observed milieus -- has a way of inverting itself so it's suddenly universal. I see that in your writing too as you're often dealing with the Chicano experience, which I have little connection to and yet it's totally alive for me.

I'm guessing this has a lot to do with an assured storytelling voice, one that's relaxed about the audience feeling whatever it is they're going to feel without forcing it upon them.

Read the full interview for more on Great Actressing, casting dreams, Psycho and unlikely inspirations.

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New on DVD: Black Swan, Topsy-Turvy and More

Hi everybody. Michael C here again. A quick drop in to remind everybody that Aronofsky’s Black Swan, a film I consider the finest of last year, is hitting DVD shelves.

Having seen the remarkably in-depth behind the scenes featurette on the Swan DVD I can report that the real contribution that got screwed out of recognition was not Portman’s dancing double (igniting recent controversy) but Swan’s special effects team. On a limited budget, the effects of Black Swan are just as skillful as Inception’s. Swan's effects are often invisible (few stop to think how they are able to film in rooms filled with mirrors), but when they are intentionally noticeable they contribute to the film’s artistic vision. Why doesn’t that factor into award recognition? (Although I should point out that small scale f/x are no obstacle to Film Bitch Award recognition)

Though technically flawless I doubt the invasion of killer robots during Iron Man 2's climax is going to linger in anybody’s memory, yet I can confirm that Nina’s legs snapping violently backwards with a sickening crack has lingered since the film first screened. 

So I encourage folks to check out that DVD doc to fully appreciate the craftsmanship that went into this amazing film, although there may be a few points you will want to cover your eyes in order to preserve the magic.  And as long as we're shopping for movies another masterpiece hits Blu-ray today, under the Criterion Collection umbrella: Mike Leigh's Topsy-Turvy. Leigh's ode to the creative process is the staid and dignified white swan to Aronofsky's wild and subjective black.

Also hitting DVD or BluRay today:

• Fair Game (Naomi Watts & Sean Penn)
• Resident Evil (Hilary Swank, straight to DVD)
• Tangled (see previous posts)
• Made in Dagenham (Sally Hawkins, Miranda Richardson & Rosamund Pike)
• All Good Things (TFE's Kirsten Dunst interview)

Reader of the Day: Kyle

March is winding down. Only three more Readers of the Day. Please let us know if you'd like to see future Reader Spotlights, albeit less frequently, in some capacity. Today we're talking to Kyle by way of Ohio and now South Carolina.

Nathaniel: When did you start reading the Film Experience?
KYLE: I started reading in 2004. I appreciated your love for Eternal Sunshine of the Spotless Mind. The Oscar coverage, witty writing, and overall admiration for cinema kept me coming back. I've visited the site at least once, every day, for the past six (almost seven) years.

I love to hear that. Okay, what was your first movie / movie obsession?
KYLE: The first movie I definitely remember seeing in a theater was Jurassic Park and I totally fell asleep! I remember my eyes slowly closing right after the T-Rex attacked the kids in the car.

I had several movie obsessions when I was younger, but two really stick out.  I would watch The Witches EVERY day when I was about four. I would put it in, demand to be left alone, and wouldn't budge until the end credits. My dad learned this the hard way, when after coming to pick me up (divorced parents), I refused to go with him until it was over. Don't come between me and my Anjelica Huston! My next major obsession was with Scream. Random I know, but I could recite the dialogue scene by scene when I was like ten or eleven.

 

Your three favorite classics and three favorite contemporary films. Spill.

Umm...toughest question ever? Okay first thoughts, or I'd stall all day. Classics: Halloween, Rear Window, Suspiria (I realize those are all suspense/horror, and I'm cool with that.) Contemporary: American Beauty, Eternal Sunshine of the Spotless Mind, Interview with the Vampire.

These are a few of Kyle's Favorite Things...

Take away and Oscar and give it to someone else: Who, when, why?
Recently: Sandra Bullock. I'd love to just snatch it out of her hands (gently so not to harm him), and hand it to Abbie Cornish (I will always defend Bright Star, and how excellent every aspect of it was.)  I really do like Sandra, but her winning was so...wrong. Abbie wasn't even nominated but she completely moved me in that film.

 

The biopic of your life. What's it like?
It'd be called Who Am I Trying to Impress?, which is a saying I often use when I'm about to do or say something I know I shouldn't. It would obviously star me, and be directed by Darren Aronofsky.  I'm sure he'd make my nights of sitting on my bed, eating peanut butter, and watching American Idol seem way more interesting.  I just hope he'll make some creative changes and give me orange hair and add my very own lesbian sex scene.

 

First and Last, Wintry

the first and last images from motion pictures.

Can you guess the movie?

The answer is after the jump.

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"Introducing" Winona Ryder. Here's to 25 Years in Movies

Congratulations to our Noni on a quarter century in the movies. Twenty-five years ago yesterday her first film (Lucas) hit movie theaters. Jump forward a quarter century and here she is again; Black Swan hits DVD today as if celebrating that very silver screen anniversary. People will be popping in the Black Swan DVD and Blu-Ray all over the place today and there she'll be, glass raised perversely. On her own behalf?

Oh sure, it's an in-character moment as "Beth", retiring prima ballerina, but don't think for a second that Black Swan's casting wasn't carefully orchestrated for the mirror affect of all those dark pale beauties not to mention the the cruel passing of the stardom and movie goddess batons.

I bring up this unpublicized anniversary because Noni could use a little public love... or at least Hollywood could use a public reminder that she still has many fans. When she's used correctly, as she was in Black Swan, she's really something else.

I fell instantly and madly in love with her the very first second I saw her in Lucas, which is as stated the first time anybody had the opportunity to see her onscreen. She was all of 14 but it wasn't pervy. This was 25 years ago and we were both babies... so age appropriate! Just look at her. This was the thunderous moment, burned forever into my brain.

I was bursting in my seat "who is this?!" Truth: This is the very first time I ever looked for a name in the movie credits. This was four years before IMDb even existed y'all. I memorized her name and hoped against all hope I'd see her again. Beetlejuice rescued me two years later. People kept calling it a "Michael Keaton Movie" and I'm like "WINONA RYDER! Squeeeee!!!" and everyone is like "who?" and after Beetlejuice nobody asked little me that anymore.

Lucas is a sweet movie but it fell apart right then and there because the whole movie is about how 14 year old Lucas (Corey Haim) has a crush on 16 year old Maggie (Kerri Green) and then THIS girl walks in, his friend Rina (Noni) and you immediately realize she loves him and he barely even notices her. So Winona is forced to look at Corey Haim (RIP) longingly for the whole movie. Like SHE is unworthy of him.

Oh, the humanity!

Do you remember the first time you saw Winona? And for those of you old enough to remember movie-watching before the internet (That would be 30somethings on up), did you ever have that "I must find out who this is!" credit scroll moment with anyone?

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Related Posts of Note: Overheard: Black Swan, Sassy Gay Swan, Aronofsky's Favorite Actors