A favorite on these pages for her clever 08′ SXSW hit My Effortless Brilliance, a sort of comedic cousin to fellow Northwesterner Kelly Reichardt’s Old Joy featuring former Harvey Danger frontman Sean Nelson (not the kid in Fresh and American Buffalo), Lynn Shelton will be back on the fest circuit in 09′. Her new film Humpday, which will bow at next month’s Sundance Film Festival, goes right back into the breach of examining the follies of male companionship. We caught up with Lynn to discuss stealing techniques from Kira Muratova, finding kindred a kindred spirit in Sherman Alexie and just how much KEXP in Seattle has shaped her musical tastes.
What films and TV shows have you watched recently?
I just gobbled up the first season of Mad Men (always late to the party!) and watched Robinson Devor’s Zoo on my laptop during an airplane ride recently. I have a kid and don’t get the theater as often as I would like to, so I tend to see films on DVD months after their release. I just saw The Savages and Margot at the Wedding that way.
Which ones, if any, had any lasting significance for you? Why?
Actually all the ones I just mentioned were pretty amazing. The last two felt most directly relatable to what I am trying to do as a filmmaker… they made me feel like I’d found kindred spirits in their directors. That level of naturalism and humor in the acting and writing is totally what I aspire to.
How do your viewing habits effect your work as a film director?
I can be pretty impressionable, so at times it can be quite direct. I remember seeing A Long Goodbye by Kira Muratova at the Northwest Film Forum while I was in the middle of editing my first feature film. I found it incredibly inspiring and I shamelessly borrowed some of her techniques in the very next scene that I edited. It was a pseudo-rape scene and I utilized jumpcuts and repeated shots to create a dream-like and vaguely horrifying sense of helplessness in the main character.
What have you been reading lately?
I’ve recently made friends with Sherman Alexie so I’m reading all of his work for the first time… it’s pretty astounding. My love for poetry has also been re-ignited through that friendship… we’ve been trading favorite poems back and forth. Oh, and I read a totally mind-blowing book of short stories recently, Willful Creatures by Aimee Bender. She’s incredible—I LOVE her!
What would be your ideal literary adaptation? Why?
Probably a story by Alice Munro. The emotional interplay between her characters is astoundingly sharp. I would love to make a movie that felt as nuanced and resonant as her work does.
What are some of the books you’ve always wanted to read that you haven’t gotten around to?
That list is literally endless. I’ve been way too busy the last few years to read anywhere near what I would like to have. My editor Nat Sanders has informed me that he will not work with me again until I read The Book of Laughter and Forgetting by Milan Kundera, so I guess that’s at the top of my list.
What’s been coming out of your stereo recently?
I listen to this nonprofit Seattle radio station called KEXP a lot…I’ve discovered a bunch of favorite bands through them…everyone from The Ponys to Sigur Ros to Cut Chemist. My own playlists lately have included old Elvis Costello, the Scissor Sisters, The Pogues, The Long Winters, M. Ward, Jolie Holland…
Is music an essential part of your process for conceiving and writing films?
The right music has a real power over me, emotionally, so I find that it can carry me to places mentally that are good for tapping into my subconscious, creative center. I can’t usually listen to it while I’m actually writing because the lyrics fight with the words that I’m trying to come up with…but to get the creative juices flowing, to bring images and feelings and connections up from the deep, yeah, it’s fantastic.
What would be your ideal pairing of director and musician for a concert film? Why?
Fritz Lang and Carl Orff.
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