Next Fest is in LA in August, and Sundance is bringing some of their best,
including the witty relationship comedy, 'LA Times'.
Today, we're talking to Michelle Morgan, writer, director, and star of the film,
about what inspired it.
>From the dialog, to the look and
everything in between, these are the top ten influences on the film, 'LA Times'.
(Music)
- Hi, my name is Michelle Morgan, my film is 'LA Times'.
And it's a comedy of manners about people in Los Angeles
that are trying to figure out their relationships.
(Sound) My writer-director-performer combo is 'Tiny Furniture' by Lena Dunham.
I saw this film, a friend of mine sent it to me very early on.
Because they thought that the film reminded them of my experience
moving back in with my mother after I was an adult for several years.
It was like she created almost her own language, she was so
unapologetically herself.
I feel like it's a great example of making a film with what you have
accessable to you.
She shot it with her friends and her family, and it's just really homegrown,
and I love that aspect of it, cuz I did a lot of those things in my film as well.
She was so refreshing, and
it really was an inspiration to me as a writer at the time.
(Sound) My influence that has to do with a film about creativity or
creative people is the film 'Daydream Believer' by Debra Eisenstadt.
It was made in 2001, I believe it won Slam Dance.
It's this really, really sort of ahead of its time
comedy about this girl who seemingly has a good life.
She lives in Vermont, she has a nice fiance with lofty ambitions.
But somebody who had moved on to New York City returns back
to sort of show her what a provincial life she's living.
And encourages her to leave it all behind and try her luck in New York City.
And it doesn't really work out for her, and
she has to deal with the ramifications of that.
For anybody who has attempted acting, or
really any sort of endeavor in this industry, it's just a very real,
very uncomfortable, very hilarious story.
Honestly, 'Daydream Believer' is so funny, I think, I will watch it alone and
laugh hysterically.
Yeah, I'm a big fan.
(Sound) The film about relationships that inspired 'LA
Times' was 'Husbands & Wives' by Woody Allen.
And it's a really stark, embarrassing, and comfortable look at relationships.
And specifically, Judy Davis' character,
who is really unhinged and really all over the place.
And I feel like she was definitely an inspiration for
the character of Annette in my film.
It's just a film about adults sort of behaving like children and
trying to figure out if they're happy or not.
And I would like to say that they figured it out, but I don't think they did.
Also, I guess while they were making the film, there was a lot of all this stuff
sort of going on with Mia and Woody behind the scenes.
So it does I think lend an interesting energy.
It's a fascinating film, I highly recommend it.
(Sound) 'The Graduate' by Mike Nichols.
I love the aesthetic of this film, and
especially the way that it shows Los Angeles in the late 60s.
That whole world that was created, I mean, obviously, the story and the acting and
everything else is amazing.
But just the pure mastery that went into composing the shots in the film.
For me, it was a huge inspiration, because we were shooting in Los Angeles,
and we wanted it to feel a little bit different.
We didn't want to feel contemporary, and so
that was definitely a place where we drew a lot of inspiration.
(Sound) Soundtrack would be 'The Royal Tenenbaums' by Wes Anderson.
I think that there's nobody better than Wes when it comes
to marrying all different types of sounds into one cohesive tone.
Whether it's the score that was composed by Mark Mothersbaugh,
or it was the amazing classical pieces that
are hundreds of years old, or some vintage rock.
It just all sort of blends together into this extremely seamless sound.
For me, music was a huge part of making my film.
And I feel like my goal was to try and put as many different
things in without you noticing how different they are.
(Sound) Dialogue, for me, would definitely be 'Metropolitan' by Whit Stillman.
I have been a longtime fan of Whit, I was introduced to 'Metropolitan'
in the early 2000s, and I really just fell in love with this film.
It was a film about conversations, the way he uses dialogue, it's like music.
Without sounding really corny, at least it is to me, he's such a master with words.
And it's so fun to watch the characters battle it out.
- What's wrong with a novel having a virtuous heroine?
- His point is that the novel's premise, that there's something immoral in a group
of young people putting on a play, is simply absurd.
- You found Fanny Price unlikable?
- She sounds pretty unbearable, but I haven't read the book.
- What?
- You don't have to have read a book to have an opinion on it.
I haven't read The Bible either.
- What Jane Austen novels have you read?
- None, I don't read novels.
I prefer good literary criticism.
That way, you get both the novelist's idea as well as the critic's thinking.
- 'Metropolitan' goes into that "Woody Allen" conversational comedy world,
the meat of the film are the conversations.
I would actually recommend watching it five times.
You don't have to watch it five times in one day, but
you should over the course of like three years watch it five times.
(Sound) A movie with a great ensemble is 'Last Days of Disco' by Whit Stillman.
I'm gonna talk about Whit Stillman again.
I felt weird because they're like right next to each other, but I think it's okay.
The cast is just phenomenal, it's Chloë Sevigny, Kate Beckinsale, Chris Eigeman.
The way they play off each other really, really works, it's really, really funny.
I also like the choice to cast sometimes dramatic seeming actors for comedic arts.
There's a charm and an authenticity to humor, I think,
sometimes when people aren't really going for it, trying to be funny.
These actors just really embodied these characters, and
they really brought this world to life.
Once again, Whit Stillman.
(Sound) A romantic comedy, that would be 'Modern Romance' by Albert Brooks.
It really inspired me because I'm very drawn to the idea of
people romanticizing other people.
And also romanticizing the idea of happiness, more or less.
The idea that you're only happy with something that you don't have, and
then you have it, you are sort of missing what you had before you had it.
Then you just keep on repeating the cycle over and over again,
like he does to sort of maddening effect in this film so brilliantly.
It's a really smart, really unsentimental look
at how neurotic people try to find love.
So yeah, I kind of wonder often if there's a certain personality
type that thrives in sort of emotional disarray.
Like when things are too calm, then they inflict a lot of misery on themselves, and
when things are crazy outside of themselves, they feel strangely more calm.
I guess that's, yeah,
that's one of my theories.
That movie that I am choosing from a different genre is something that nobody
really has ever heard of.
It's this film called 'The Wilder Summer' that was on HBO, I'm pretty sure,
exclusively during the summer of, I don't know, it was like 84, 84, it was the 80s.
Me and my sister watched this movie because they would just play it over and
over and over again.
It was like this, 'The Legend of Billie Jean', that movie is also so good, I
wish I had a way to relate it to this, but it doesn't relate to this film in any way.
But, 'The Wilder Summer', I think,
had this very almost subconscious impact on me.
There was something about the way that they spoke, which was very mannered,
and the shots, though I didn't exactly recognize it at the time, were so
elegantly composed.
It's very short, I think it's like 38 minutes, maybe like 40 minutes.
And it's just about sort of these kids go to camp, and there's some love triangles,
and there's some nonsense, and then there's a resolution.
It sort of has to do with class, and it just also has a lot to do with
unrequited love, and those themes are also reflected in my film.
I was obsessed with this movie as a child, and then when the Internet came along,
I was able to go deeper into my obsession with this film, and
I uncovered some things which I think are truly remarkable.
The director of this film is a woman named "Debra Reinish" and I had come to find
out that she was actually the "Coen Brothers'" AD on 'Blood Simple' and
'Raising Arizona'.
And the DP of this film, 'The Wilder Summer' was also the "Coen Brothers"' DP,
who then subsequently went on to become a film maker in his own right.
So it's a very interesting film in the sense that there were these
genius minds behind it.
But, I mean,
how could I have known who the "Coen Brothers" were when I was seven years old?
And I think you can watch 'The Wilder Summer' on YouTube, but obviously they're
going to show a clip right now, but you can watch it on YouTube.
- Remember, camp is a great place to make friends.
(Sound) Number one, that would be 'Manhattan' by "Woody Allen" again.
The marriage of this sort of very dramatic sound and
the dramatic cinematography in this film.
And adults behaving badly, comedy, it just plays so
well, the look of the film, the actors.
I mean, "Dree Hemingway" stars in my film and her mother,
"Mariel Hemingway", is in 'Manhattan', and it's not entirely coincidental.
It's so elegant, it's so simple, it's so clean, I think it's a perfect movie.
I'm Michelle Morgan, this has been my top ten list of influences for "LA Times'.
Please, if you're in LA, come and watch 'LA Times' at Next Fest.
It's playing on Sunday, August 13th,
I think it starts at seven PM at the Ace Theater downtown.
And if you haven't seen Cloak & Dagger,
you should watch it, but it has nothing to
do with my movie, an honorable mention.
(Music)