Katarina Docalovich interviews New Yorker Joanna Arnow about her debut feature, The Feeling That The Time For Doing Something Has Passed.
Joanna Arnow is a lifelong New Yorker who has been examining sex and relationships through her distinctive lens of deadpan humor for her entire independent filmmaking career. In her 2013 hour-long documentary I Hate Myself :), Arnow turned the camera on herself and her provocatively problematic poet boyfriend, closely documenting their dysfunction as a couple, with uncomfortable and hysterical results. Her 2015 short film Bad At Dancing won the Berlinale Silver Bear Jury Prize for its hilariously stark look at a twenty-something couple’s sex life, as it is awkwardly intruded upon by their stubborn third wheel (played by Arnow).
Now, with her debut feature The Feeling That the Time For Doing Something Has Passed, Arnow has made her most vulnerable film yet, without sacrificing an inch of her acerbic wit. Arnow stars as Ann, a mid-thirties New York woman stuck in a middling corporate job and in a low-commitment, long-term BDSM relationship with Allen (Scott Cohen), an older man who doesn’t care if she lives or dies. But maybe Ann likes it like that. I caught up with Arnow in Toronto to discuss the film’s non-sensationalized look at a BDSM lifestyle, her brilliant editing process, her Instagram mindset, and more.
Girls on Tops: You’ve described The Feeling That the Time For Doing Something Has Passed as autofiction, because some of the film’s elements were based on your experiences. What inspired you to write the film?
Joanna Arnow: I was in a slow point of trying to get the previous feature that I was making off the ground and I hadn’t written anything for a while. I was excited to write a lot and find humor and comedy in everyday experience. I was very interested in concise humor – I got the idea to write a lot of very short scenes and once I got started, I wrote as many as I could and took it from there.
I’ve seen your comics on Instagram, did you use some of that when you were writing your script?
Actually, the comics were inspired by the script instead of vice versa. I started writing the script in 2019 and when the pandemic happened, I wasn’t sure how long it would take to make the film and production was much slower. I got excited to do comics, partially because I was thinking that the scenes I had written seemed like they would work well in one-panel comics. I would like to make more.
I was wondering if you could talk about the intimacy of Ann’s sexual relationships, specifically with Alan. Could discuss the banality of your approach to BDSM? Those scenes are shot similarly to Ann making lentil soup, or going to work.
Sex and sexuality and relationships are just really interesting topics for films. It’s funny when you look at it with some distance, so I was interested in looking at it with a long shot, long take aesthetic for that reason, to see the context in which these scenes play out and how these bodies relate to each other in space, with a non-sensational, humorous lens.
You’ve talked about the non-sensational approach to sex, and you yourself are naked in a lot of the film. What was that like on set? Did you hire an intimacy coordinator?
We didn’t hire an intimacy coordinator. I would love to work with one in future projects. We took a lot of care to make sure that it was a safe and respectful environment for all of the actors and crew, including myself. We frequently reminded everyone that they could change their mind whenever they needed anything, we were checking in frequently, talking about expectations and outlining what we were planning to do, seeing their comfort levels, having standard intimacy protections such as closed sets and garments, things like that.
You didn’t just write, direct, and star in the film – you also edited it, which won’t come as a surprise to anyone who is familiar with your previous work. The film has a really specific pacing, what was it like finding that unique rhythm?
With this film, I wanted to take an impressionistic, fragmented look at how this woman subjectively experiences her relationships and events in her life, and the jumble of our days. Sometimes whole months will pass by very fast in a chaotic frenzy, and then sometimes the days drag more slowly. It really depends on who we’re sitting opposite, what we’re doing. I wanted each of the five sections to have their own different topography, instead of formal rules. The editing style through the different sections varies based on the emotional temperature of the relationships and where the character was at the moment.
You know how to cut for comedic timing.
I see the film as a comedy first and foremost, so definitely finding a comically underlining juxtaposition or similarities between the scenes with their different threads of the plot lines interested me.
Your parents are in the film. How was it working with them on set? Did they improvise, or did you write the material for them specifically?
I wrote all of it. I do like people to feel free also to follow their impulses, so they definitely added their touches. Like, my mom throws a shell at one point before her dialogue.
That was her flair?
Yes.
Have your parents seen the film?
They’ve seen their scenes in the film.
Did they have notes?
I’m sure they do.
It is a really a true picture of the real New York. What was it like shooting in the city on a low budget? I know that you were brainstorming locations with your friends, I’m curious what that was like.
There are a number of public pleas for locations on my Instagram, it’s true… I am very grateful to all the friends and friends of friends, who were very generous, about many things, but especially on the locations front. I spent about a year and then with the help of my producers Graham Swon, Pierce Varous, and especially co-producer Daniel Ryniker. It was quite labor intensive.
Did you shoot in the streets?
Sometimes we had permits for the beach and the park, but not everywhere.
The last shot of the film is faithful to the character, but it’s maybe unexpected in other ways.
I wanted the film to show the ways that people both change and don’t change, and how we are all more than one person. I was interested in showing a character arc that subverts some of the traditional story structure, and that the change that happens is a lot smaller, more gradual, kind of jagged in nature. And leave some questions at the end.
How has it been for you to watch the film with an audience?
It’s exciting. I always like hearing where the jokes are landing well for people. I did a lot of rough cut screenings in the edit… I like learning about how it’s working for people, still.
Do you have advice for young, independent filmmakers, especially for those who might want to make autofictional films?
Take it one step at a time, because it’s a daunting process. Try to have fun with it. Try to make it a supportive and welcoming environment to everyone who is working with you, as well.
The Feeling That The Time For Doing Something Has Passed is out in US cinemas now.