The Black List Interview: Marianna Palka on BITCH
Marianna Palka returns to cinemas with a satirical family dramedy well-suited for our current cultural moment — BITCH, which premiered at the 2017 Sundance Film Festival, is a critical look at the breakdown and rebirth of an American family after their matriarch (Palka) begins behaving like a dog. We spoke to Palka about writing roles for specific actors, the importance of artistic passion, and who she made BITCH for.
What was the genesis of this idea? What did your process look like as you were writing?
Well, I kind of just made it out of an instinct, because I really wanted to make sure that there was a wild female archetype in the mainstream. That was basically the instinct that I had, and then everything else came out of that.
Was it always the idea of the dog within the wild female archetype, or did you go through a couple of other concepts before settling on that idea?
It was always a dog.
Do you ever consider how audiences are going to receive a film when writing, or are you just serving your own personal creative path?
The only thing I think about is what the audience is gonna think and feel every single moment, and what the movie is saying in society as a whole. My films are alchemy — they all go from dark to light, never just fluff, and they’re never, like, dark that goes darker. I take, really, one-hundred percent responsibility for what my films are saying in this society and the culture, and I think that each movie that I’ve made is saying something different, but it’s saying something very important. It’s not just that they’re saying stuff, it’s that they’re a feeling. Like when you go see a movie that I’ve done in the theater, it’s a healing experience — everybody has this kind of mass healing that happens because of the emotion of the way that the story is told. I think that it’s really important to take responsibility as an artist for what you’re saying on that level, because you have an influence. And you can change people for the better — you can make them better people, just from watching a film.
You’re working with Jason Ritter once again in BITCH. When you’re writing, are you letting the character speak for itself, or are you writing specifically for folks you know? Once you’re on set, how does that relationship evolve, working with someone who’s been a frequent collaborator for you?
I always write parts for specific actors — that means that the part and the role is so specific because they’re for each person that I’ve written them for. That’s why it’s just really potent, and comes across on screen — I don’t think that you can write for one actor, and then have a different actor play that role and have it be as good as if that one actor did it. It would be different, but I don’t know that it would be as good. My thing is that I give actors jobs, like I like to say to an actor, “Hey, here’s a job,” as opposed to, “Will you audition for me?” [laughs.] I’ve always, from the beginning, just gone up to Martin Starr and been like, “This is a job I have for you, do you wanna do it?” And he’s always like, “Yeah!” Martin Starr’s a collaborator as much as anyone else is, and he always says yes because I think that he looks at the role specifically, and it’s never just like, “Oh my god, will you please do it because no one else will do it?” — it’s always very thoughtful and careful. I really take a lot of care, I think that’s what it is. I love my movies as if they were a love letter, you know, to the world.
You spoke of this idea of moving from the darkness into the light, and that’s absolutely true within your work. I was wondering if you could speak to the idea of juggling tone on page — taking the audience through this journey where we’re starting in a place that’s very dark, but is still filled with a lot of comedic moments, and getting them through to this endpoint that concludes the film on a really hopeful, sort of spiritual note.
I think that there’s so much to be said for helping people through life, and I think that when you make a film that feels like life to people, then it makes their life a little bit easier. I think that there’s nothing funnier than the first joke at a funeral — that’s the funniest thing any of us will ever hear because of the potent necessity of that laughter. The togetherness of laughter and the way that it’s healing — I think that’s really valid.
I wanted to talk about the sound design and the score of the film, which is really, really singular and fantastic. What was your process like in terms of building a soundscape for the world of BITCH, particularly since the film moves through a lot of different emotional moods. How do you work with your sound designer and your composer to create that world?
We just used one-hundred percent of our capacity as artists when we were making this movie — everyone just brought everything one-hundred percent, and I think you can feel that when you’re watching it. With the sound and the score specifically, it was a meticulous process. There was a day in the sound mix, the last day — we just stayed up ’til the next morning. We all were really just so committed — Jeff, the sound designer, was just so committed to making it as incredible as it could be.
It was just kind of insane, the devotional quality of everybody’s work on the film is very palpable when you watch it — when you have passion for a project, nothing else is equal to that passion. I think it’s really important to work with people who are very good at what they do, but are passionate, you know? I think enthusiasm is everything, and I think it gets the job done. I love Nancy Meyers movies, for example, I love her, and I think that you could say she did as much as we did, but she just did it differently. There’s this interesting funnel that happens when you’re directing a movie where you have to let it speak to you — you have to just listen, in a way, you know? On some level you have to kind of be patient, and I think that there’s something really special about when you see a movie where you know that the filmmaker has been patient with it. You know, for example, Nancy Meyers — she’s patient as all hell [laughs]. You can tell she’s waiting for it, and waiting for it, and waiting for it, and allowing it, and allowing it, and I dig that about her, man. I think she’s the best.
Now I’m gonna have to get really into the sound design of these Nancy Meyers movies.
I mean…can we talk about the production design of the Nancy Meyers movies?
The prop situation is always so good.
I feel like I am her— I care about production design as much as she does, I just think I’m funneled through the Scottish filmmaking and Scottish directors that I was kind of raised by, and Polish cinema that I was kind of raised with. I don’t know if you listen to Biffy Clyro, but they’re a Scottish, like, wonder band and they’re amazing.
They’re kind of the national band of Scotland, right? I know quite a few fans.
Biffy Clyro will play a show as if it’s the last show of their whole life, and then they’ll make you feel like, “Oh my god, how come they’re not dead after that show?” They’re kind of angelic on that level, because you’re like, “How did they not die doing that?” And on a certain level, that’s the feeling that you get when you watch BITCH, it’s like, “Oh, fuck, how did these people…” — we gave it our all. With the movie EGG I directed this summer with Christina Hendricks, Anna Camp, Alysia Reiner and David Basche, I just feel like we took it to another level, a more intense level.
On that same note, what was your experience like at Sundance with BITCH this year?
I go to Sundance every year, whether I have a movie there or not just because I need it, it’s like a medicine for me as a filmmaker — the community of people. I want to see what’s going on with the Native [Filmmakers] Program, and I want to know every year the women who are there — I just really care a lot about female filmmakers, and about the voices that are coming out of Sundance right now. Robert Redford kind of started it as this idea, it was sort of like, “let’s have more Native American filmmakers making more Native American films.” That thing that he held so tightly about the Native voice in America, I take that very seriously as well — I want to make sure that that is as promoted as much as possible every year. There’s so much going on there in terms of artists supporting one another that’s really kind of necessary. America as a whole could learn a lot from it — there’s so much beauty there.
What do you hope that audiences take away from BITCH?
BITCH is for the American male who is white and voted for Trump and feels alone, and feels he has to sleep with women who are not his wife to figure out his manhood when actually, his manhood is at home with his wife and his kids. That’s who the movie is for. The movie makes a lot of guys who voted for Trump cry for the first time in a while, and they come up and they’re like, “Oh my god, I don’t know why your movie made me cry, or why it fucking affected me so much.” They really care about the film. I made the film for them on purpose, I didn’t make it for feminists who are already feminists — I made it for guys who are becoming feminists as we speak. It’s a medicine and a band-aid and a healing lotion for everything that’s going on between right-wing and left-wing America right now.
BITCH defines what a wild woman is, but it also defines what a really wild man is. There’s this one word that I love so much: “complex.” “Complex” is a bunch of different things in a tapestry existing together, but there are things that should not be together, together. That’s the definition of that word, and “complicated” is the opposite of that — it’s like all those things that are opposing in opposing places never to be connected — and I want America to be a complex place. I want people to watch the movie and reflect on their complex family life, as opposed to their complicated family life. And that’s what has really happened — it’s a very family-friendly film on that level, and I think it’s just vital to make movies about this stuff right now. And I hope, also, if you’ve called someone a “bitch,” you call them and you say, “Sorry, I’m never going to use that word again,” after you see the movie. Also, if you’ve never called anyone a “bitch,” don’t ever call anyone a “bitch.”
BITCH is now playing in select theaters! You can also check it out on iTunes! Thanks to Marianna!
This interview has been edited and condensed.
