Solondz news and links and stuff...

From Fortissimo Films:


FORTISSIMO SELLS SOLONDZ HAPPY RETURN


Fortissimo Films has boarded the as-yet-untitled new film from Todd Solondz, a companion piece to his earlier break-through piece Happiness, and will commence pre-sales immediately in Cannes.

The film, known as The New Todd Solondz Film, will be produced by Ted Hope (21 Grams), Mike Ryan and Derrick Tseng (Chasing Amy) with Fortissimo Films’ co-chairmen Michael J Werner and Wouter Barendrecht serving as executive producers.

“My new movie is a kind of sequel to - or riff on - Happiness and to some extent Welcome To The Dollhouse,” said Solondz.

“Many of the characters from these movies unexpectedly beckoned to me, and so I have explored new ways of developing and enlarging their stories, with the intent to recast them from a fresh perspective.”

Fortissimo has been expanding its involvement in English-language filmmaking in the US with titles such as John Cameron Mitchell’s Shortbus, screening here in official selection, and The Night Listener starring Robin Williams and Toni Collette.

The fast-growing company is also handling high-profile English-language titles from the UK, including Snow Cake and Nina’s Heavenly Delights, and Australia such as Look Both Ways and Suburban Mayhem both also screening in official selection here at Cannes.

The company has also recently secured a string of sales to the US market including the sale of Seven Swords to The Weinstein Company, Candy to THINKFilm and Invisible Waves to Palm Pictures

Screendaily | By Liz Shackleton in Cannes | 21 May 2006


-What?: Did you know that Todd Solondz appeared in both As Good as it Gets (1997)as a man on the bus AND in Married to the Mob (1998)as a reporter?



-Here is a good interview with Solondz by Walter Chaw of Film Freak Central.



-Here is a nice collection of quotes by Solondz about his life and work.



-Here is a nice summary of Solondz's films and discussion about his work.



-You can find interesting production notes for Welcome to the Dollhouse here.



-So everyone has a myspace page, even Dawn Weiners.



-Really?: What would he be doing if he wasn't making movies? Todd Solondz applied for the Peace Corps a couple of years ago and was denied.



-Belle and Sebastian did the soundtrack for Storytelling. You can download a free track off the album here.




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Storytelling and Palindromes

Storytelling hit theaters in 2001 and is two different stories: one of Scooby, an angst filled, upper middle class, white teenage boy. The other is of Vi, a young female college student searching for the ultimate muse as a writer.

Both stories are dark and at times, comedic. Scooby is chosen by a fledgling documentary filmmaker to be the subject on a film about the struggles of suburban high school students. Throughout the part of the film with Scooby, we see him both through the film's lens and through the documentary's lens. Sidenote: Mike Shenk, from the documentary American Movie, plays a bit part as the camera guy for the documentarian. At the end of the film when Scooby sneaks to the premier of his documentary - the sign on the screening door reads "American Scooby." I've tried to find out if this is a comment on how director Chris Smith of American Movie has been charged with exploiting his film subjects - but so far no cigar.
The characters in the Scooby portion include his overbearing parents, favored older brother, and weasley little brother. There is also the maid who is treated so bad by the littlest brother that she eventually gets revenge.

The other story in the movie follows Vi and her struggles with a college creative writing class. Vi is dating a fellow classmate who has cerebral paulsy and neither of them get good responses from their writing teacher - an imposing black man and accomplished writer. Eventually Vi ends up meeting up with her teacher at a bar who takes advantage of the situation and gives Vi some real-life experience to write about.

I particularly like this move because it deals with both a writing class and the subject of exploitation by documentary filmmakers.
Here is the trailer:



Palindromes

From IMBD:
"A fable of innocence: thirteen-year-old Aviva Victor wants to be a 'mom'. She does all she can to make this happen, and comes very close to succeeding, but in the end her plan is thwarted by her sensible parents. So she runs away, still determined to get pregnant one way or another, but instead finds herself lost in another world, a less sensible one, perhaps, but one pregnant itself with all sorts of strange possibility. She takes a road trip from the suburbs of New Jersey, through Ohio to the plains of Kansas and back. Like so many trips, this one is round-trip, and it's hard to say in the end if she can ever be quite the same again, or if she can ever be anything but the same again."

The unique thing about this film is that Aviva actually appears as four different people.


The four girls - all Aviva - mirror the various ways that Aviva is seen by those around her and herself.



Here is a particularly funny clip (my favorite scene):


A palindrome is a word or pattern that instead of developing in different directions it folds in on itself so that the beginning and end mirror each other, that they are the same.
Todd Solondz

Welcome to the Dollhouse and Happiness

"At eleven I was at the peak of my creative powers: I was writing stories and playlets, putting together poetryprojects. I was absorbed by my 'work.' At twelve I was no longer reading or writing, just counting off days and checking them off. I was interested in survival." - Todd Solondz

"Mordantly hilarious suburban comedy... excrutiatingly funny" - Janet Maslin, The New York Times

Welcome to the Dollhouse is one of the first independent films I saw - and my introduction to Todd Solondz. This film is the epitome of cult classics. It didn't herald much at the box office but continues to be a talked-about and re-watched film today.

The protagonist, Dawn Weiners, is an 11 year old girl struggling with the beginning of a long bout with puberty. Like Solondz's other films, it is set in a suburb in New Jersey. Dawn Wieners lives with her parents, older brother, and little sister. Her little sister, much prettier than Dawn, is treated like a princess. Her older brother, good at school and destined for a good school, is ignored by his parents except to praise him for his academics. Dawn is ignored all together. Awkward, lanky, and socially inept, Dawn is still playing in clubhouses and playing make-believe when she enters junior high.
Throughout the film Dawn is facing the challenges of adolescence without much grace. Her young sexual nature is aroused by the high school's rock band god who is tutored by her brother. She is constantly harassed by another school misfit, Brendan, and made fun of at school. In the end, Dawn attempts to rescue her little sister who was kidnapped by traveling to New York alone. Her parents don't even realize that Dawn is gone.
This film, though dark at times, is a humorous look at the most awkward of preteens. I watched this as a freshman in high school and, if anything, it put things into a brighter perspective for myself.
Here is the Wikipedia site for the movie.
For reviews of this movie, check here.

My favorite dialogue of the movie?

DAWN
Brandon, are you still going to rape me?

BRANDON
What time is it?

DAWN
I don’t know. But I guess I don’t have to be home yet.

BRANDON
Nah, there’s not enough time.

DAWN
Thanks, Brandon.

BRANDON
[Affectionately holding her close] Yeah, but just remember, this didn’t happen. I mean no one . . . because if you do, I really will rape you next time.

DAWN
Okay.

Theatrical Release
5/24/1996

Director Credit
Todd Solondz Director
Cast Credit
Heather Matarazzo Dawn Wiener
Victoria Davis Lolita
Christina Brucato Cookie
Christina Vidal Cynthia
Siri Howard Chrissy
Brendan Sexton Brandon McCarthy
Telly Pontidis Jed
Herbie Duarte Lance
Scott Coogan Troy
Daria Kalinina Missy Wiener
Matthew Faber Mark Wiener
Josiah Trager Kenny
Ken Leung Barry
Dimitri Iervolino Ralphy
Rica Martens Mrs Grissom
Angela Pietropinto Mrs Wiener
Bill Buell Mr Wiener
Eric Mabius Steve Rodgers
Stacey Moseley Mary Ellen Moriarty
Will Lyman Mr Edwards
Elizabeth Martin Mrs Iannone
Zsanne Pitta Ginger Friedman
Richard Gould Mr Kasdan
Beverly Hecht Steve's Girlfriend
Teddy Coluca Police Sergeant
Tommy Fager Tommy McCarthy
James O'Donoghue Mr McCarthy
Production Credits Credit
Dan Partland Co-Producer
Donna L Bascom Executive Producer
Todd Solondz Producer
Jason Kliot Associate Producer
Ted Skillman Co-Producer
Joana Vicente Associate Producer
Susan A Stover Associate Producer
Production Companies Credit
Suburban Pictures Production Company
Distribution Companies Credit
Sony Pictures Classics Theatrical Distributor
Columbia TriStar Home Video Video Distributor
ARP Theatrical Distributor (France)
Vertigo Films Theatrical Distributor (Spain)
Kinowelt International Theatrical Distributor (Germany)
Artificial Eye Film Company, Ltd. Theatrical Distributor (United Kingdom)
Writer Credit
Todd Solondz Screenplay

Here is a great scene from the movie. Really touching.

Happiness

Happiness is one of Solondz's most controversial films. John McKelvy, who runs a website dedicated to Solondz's films says of Happiness:

"Happiness, a film at once hilariously sardonic and profoundly unsettling,tells a series of interconnecting love stories set in American suburbia. Award-winning film-maker Todd Solondz explores the sorrows and desires of men and women - as they desperately try to navigate through the uncharted and most intimate aspects of their lives - with the same unremitting glance, and taste of dark humour, that gave his portrait of adolescence in Welcome To the Dollhouse such disturbing power."

You can find his site here.

I have only seen happiness once and remember laughing for awhile and then having to shut it off. I haven't gotten around to watching it again - but am sure that in my older age that I could handle it with more humor. What I do remember is a great performance by Phillip Seymore Hoffman playing an obscene prank phone caller.

For more in-depth information and plenty of reviews, try here.

CAST
Dylan Baker

Philip Seymour Hoffman

Jane Adams

Lara Flynn Boyle

Camryn Manheim

Jared Harris

Cynthia Stevenson

Ben Gazzara

Louise Lasser

Jon Lovitz

Justin Elvin

CREW
Todd Solondz Director
Todd Solondz Screenwriter
Ted Hope Producer
Christine Vachon Producer
Maryse Alberti Director of Photography
Alan Oxman Editor
Therese DePrez Production Designer
John P. Bruce Art Director
Robbie Kondor Composer

And here is the trailer for Happiness:

Todd Solondz: An Introduction and Early films

Born in New Jersey, Todd Solondz started out with aspirations to become a Rabbi. But it was during his job as a delivery boy for the Writers' Guild of America that he began writing screenplays. Solondz was educated in private religious schools as a child and went on to receive an undergraduate degree from Yale in English. He then studied for his MFA in Film and Television at NYU but never completed his degree.

His first film, Schatt's Last Shot, was shot in 1985. Solondz's career is marked by dissecting the emotional components of each of his characters. Schatt's Last Shot introduces us to that by showing the emotional journey of a teenage boy who desperately wants to get into Stanford but, due to an angry gym teacher, can't pass gym class.


In 1989 Solondz wrote and directed Fear, Anxiety, and Depression. This film was more experimental with the fourth-wall, reminiscent of Annie Hall, than any of his other films. This film is about a guy named Ira (played by Solondz), who is a failed playwright and struggling artist, trying to find love and failing at that. He meets a great woman who likes him - but then botches it by trying to be with another woman, weemingly out of his league. For more information about this film, check out this site.