Todd Solondz
Todd Solondz
Todd Solondzis an American independent film screenwriter and director known for his style of dark, thought-provoking, socially conscious satire. Solondz has been critically acclaimed for his examination of the "dark underbelly of middle class American suburbia," a reflection of his own background in New Jersey. His work includes Welcome to the Dollhouse, Happiness, Storytelling, Palindromes, Life During Wartime, and Dark Horse...
NationalityAmerican
ProfessionDirector
Date of Birth15 October 1959
CountryUnited States of America
I mean, I don't want to sound - of course it's very nice, people come up and say appreciative things about my work. But the loss, in terms of privacy and anonymity, is no small thing to me.
As Mark Weiner puts it, whether you gain 50 pounds or lose 50 pounds, whether you have a sex change operation for that matter, that it doesn't matter, that there is some part of ourselves that we cannot escape.
There can be a blurry line between laughing at the expense of a character and laughing at the recognition of something painful and true. But blurry as it may be, it is nevertheless unmistakable, and sometimes the laughter I hear makes me wince.
Like everything, what compels one to put pen to paper is a great question.
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.
Artwork can be a portal, a kind of rethinking and reseeing of the world as we live it.
I don't make movies with the idea that people are going to walk out of them feeling comfortable or better about themselves or more secure in their own biases or opinions.
I've always said that I myself am not the best audience for my own work, because I'm just not that receptive to comedy.
What makes me angry is the idea that people would be going to a movie because of what I said about it. It makes me feel, I don't know, arrogant, self-important, self-aggrandizing, whatever. Like I'm being used.
I can't please everybody and I don't try to. If I can please myself that's enough. For the rest, I just hope for the best.
To be honest, I am often unsettled by the responses some people have had to my movies, and that includes many people who like them.
When I was making Storytelling, I couldn't watch while the violent sex scene between the student and the professor was being shot. It was too intense.
I don't like telling people where I stand on this, although I'm surprised anybody wonders. I suppose if I say I'm pro-choice, if I make that clear, it let's the audience off the hook, then they can sort of relax. Okay, it's alright he's pro-choice then I can enjoy this.
Well, so far, at least, my own ideas always take priority over those of other writers. As long as the well doesn't run dry, I imagine this will be the case.