Interview: Amanda Kramer on Ladyworld
Amanda Kramer’s film, Ladyworld, plays at this year’s Sydney Film Festival. Addy Fong asked her to tell us all about it:
Hi Amanda. Firstly, congratulations on Ladyworld, a film that is daring, disturbing and nothing like I’ve seen before. I think you’re very brave presenting such a daring film and wondered if you had any fears regarding how this film would be received?
Thank you for calling it brave and daring and disturbing. I know that I make divisive work that’s meant to challenge my audience. Love and hate are equal in the sense that they’re extreme ends of the feelings spectrum – so I welcome both equally, striving for the A or the F. What I don’t want is a tepid “meh” response. In order to be a memorable filmmaker creating indelible imagery you must be bold and not fear reactions. There was a man at Fantastic Fest who saw the film and then commented online that it was the worst film he’d ever seen. The worst film he’d ever seen! I mean how cool is that. I own that guy’s life, ha.
Teenage years are often the formative period of an individual’s identity and sense of place in the world. Did this inform why you choose to write a script involving teenage girls?
I feel confident writing about the female teenage experience without having to rely on immediate, easy cliche. It’s far more complex than most of the material we’re being offered. Because I’m not a realist I don’t portray those years through a strictly relatable lens. I’m never trying to emulate life. The film is surreal in tone so I can intensify the emotional and psychological journey, spiralling the characters out fast – keen manipulation, supremacy through comparison and fear, covert and overt actions taken in order to be liked. Children plays games. Adults play games. Teenage girls play some of the freakiest games… and that’s fascinating to me.
How did you come to casting the eight women into their respective roles?
I’m not a fan of auditions. I don’t think that scenario puts the actor in the best position to win the role. I’d much rather sit with actors and discuss the text/character and see how they feel about the part and the film as a whole. Plus it’s a chance for them to suss me out as well – I’m a very specific, stylistic writer/director who requires a particular theatricality bordering sometimes on camp. I want to be able to say Gena Rowlands or Sandy Dennis and see a look of understanding and excitement. But I also want to hear what inspires actors outside of film and what draws them to projects. That’s how I handled casting Ladyworld. I would ask for recommendations from other filmmakers and then ask those actors for recommendations amongst their friends. Then meet up or call. One girl led to the next. And each young woman added to the radness of the previous one cast until we had our eight.
What were the challenges of filming in one location? Was this informed by your theatre background or more-so informed by your script as perhaps a metaphor about the girls being trapped within the confines of their own thoughts/patterns of behaviour?
I love single locations probably because of my theatre background but also because they force your gaze to move toward the actors’ faces and bodies. Nowhere else to roam really! I suppose the main challenge is keeping an audience “interested” in looking at the same house for 95 minutes but I never thought of it that way while filming. The girls need to be trapped and the sense of claustrophobia needs to be felt. One house we could wreck was obviously the way to go.
The soundscape throughout the film adds to the build-up of tension. Did you have the sound design in mind prior to filming as part of the script or was this done in post?
I always knew I wanted Callie Ryan to be the vocalist and that I wanted her voice only to be the score. I hear multitudes in the sounds she’s able to make and those sounds are as much our guide through the film as the performances are. Though unseen, she is my ninth actress without a doubt. My editor Ben worked closely with our post sound team Bryan and Guilio to craft the most thrilling, hypnotic, tense journey for Callie’s voice. It was an intense back and forth of perfecting, asking Callie to get more guttural or sensual or lulling and on. Ben/Bryan/Guilio had an innate sense of the sonic odyssey and then meticulously matched image to intonation.
The girls have a discussion during the film about social expectations and the need for the approval of others, especially men, ‘but my stepfather always says that pretty girls always just wanna be told that they’re smart’ ‘and smart girls just wanna be told that they’re pretty and that’s why we’re never happy.’ It’s difficult because as a woman it feels like you can never win. Being a female writer-director, have you had to face any challenges regarding this?
In art I try to let the work speak above/ahead of my gender. If I feel as though I can “never win” in my art practice then that’s because I don’t have the commercial bones or the mainstream appeal I fear might be needed for further funding. That’s a for sure frustrating feeling that’s not worth giving much credit to. But if I do end up with that nagging in my mind I never think it’s because I’m a woman. Being a woman, especially a woman artist, is amazing and I’ve been fortunate to work with people who agree.
Social media brings an immediacy of connectivity with others but also the threat of social exclusivity and segregation. In a scene where the girls search for signals on their phones which are all running low on battery it seems to mirror their desire for connectivity and connection. What are your thoughts on social media?
I’m not on it. I have a Facebook account that I’ve posted on like twice in seven years and an Instagram account I never post on – I don’t even have the app on my phone. I simply do not care. At all. This isn’t a brag though I feel like it should be? I don’t want my anxiety to be exacerbated but also my brain doesn’t go to “posting” fast enough. Like if I’m experiencing something the last thing I think about is taking a photo, and if I’m feeling intensely about something the last thing I want to do is share that with strangers. Or even the orbiters in my periphery. I’m far more obsessed with touch than anything else and there’s no app for that. Yettttttt…
Could you please talk about the line, ‘Don’t you think you need a little ugliness, some beauty’s empty it’s like oppressive. People think that everything needs to be beautiful but beauty is our baggage.’ The film is quite confronting to see and seems to comment on both society’s expectation that everything we see needs to be beautiful in order to be validated.
Honestly that’s just a direct line read to the audience. It has far less to do with physical beauty than it does with perfection. I’d love for people to consider watching more messterpieces than masterpieces. Auteurs without slickness, like Cassavetes and Fassbinder. The hi-def-ifying of our imagery has gotten so gross and dull and expected. As far as actual “beauty” is concerned I do believe it’s our baggage. I think we’re feeling the first wave of people being legitimately exhausted by the standards of it and that’s finally leading to some punk attitudes in fashion (always ahead of the curve, always getting there before film/tv).
The colour palate of the film is quite flat and subdued and this contrasts strongly with the girls’ performances, seen more as the film progresses. Was this a planned early on in pre-production and did you make changes to the set to reflect this?
Palette is one of the first decisions made. That informs my entire art team (production design, lighting, make-up, costumes) and needs to be communicated at the start so we can have one symbiotic look. I love rules and restrictions. In my films no one can ever wear black and set pieces/props can never be black. For Ladyworld specifically my production designer Noel and I discussed exactly what you mentioned – creating a placid, lovely, milky color scheme so that the girls’ wildness would feel more extreme and brash.
Let’s talk about the girl’s fear of The Man and what he means as a figure of sexual threat which drives much of the plot. Sometimes it seems as if the potential of a threat is even more fear-inducing then the enactment of a threat because it plays with one’s psyche. Do you have any comments regarding this?
The Man is definitely a central part of Ladyworld’s tragedy. He was never a threat. He’s injured and his moans are cries for help, not sexual in nature. But this possibility – the idea that he could be a pervert who wants to touch/hurt/rape them – is introduced into their minds and then can never leave. With every sound he makes the girls become more certain that he’s dangerous. Really he’s just dying, gasping his last breaths. Our fear consumes us and I deeply understand why.
In Ladyworld, The Man is rarely seen but the girls mention him or seem to be performing in order to please him. The line ‘He’s a pervert who wants a peep show so we’ll give him one’ made me think about the idea of voyeurism and the objectification of women in film. Thoughts?
I never really thought of the film as an act of voyeurism. But film IS voyeurism, right? It’s looking through a lens, staring at actors in various states of emotional and physical undress, watching as they unravel and succumb…
What was the most challenging thing about being on set and directing such an intense film?
Wanting more time. Always more time, even just another day.
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Ladyworld plays at Sydney Film Festival on 10th and 15th June. Details here: https://www.sff.org.au/program/browse/ladyworld
Interview by Addy Fong.
