Todd Solondz

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Todd Solondz (born October 15, 1959) is an American writer/director known for his controversial films. He was born in Newark, New Jersey. While not being a box office giant, Solondz has been critically acclaimed, and has managed to gain a large cult following.

He is well known for exploring the emotional state of various characters in his films (e.g. Palindromes and Welcome to the Dollhouse), or the examination of the underworld of American suburbia, and the dark sides of human nature (e.g. Happiness and Storytelling).

Contents 1 Biography 2 Career 2.1 Early films 2.2 Welcome to the Dollhouse 2.3 Happiness 2.4 Storytelling and Palindromes 2.5 Life During Wartime (New Project) 3 See also 4 Notes 5 External links

[edit] Biography

Solondz was born in Newark, New Jersey on October 15, 1959. Originally, he wanted to be rabbi but, eventually set his sights on writing screenplays. He even wrote several while he had a job as a delivery boy for the Writers' Guild of America.

As a child he was sent to a series of public and private schools by his parents. Solondz received his undergraduate degree in English from Yale and attended New York University's (NYU) Graduate MFA Program in film and television, but did not complete a degree.

Solondz is an atheist. In The A.V. Club's article "Is There A God?", he answered the question "Well, me, I'm an atheist, so I don't really believe there is. But I suppose I could be proven wrong."^[1]

Solondz worked as a teacher of English as a second language to newly arrived Russian immigrants, an experience he has described as deeply rewarding^{[citation needed]} (although the character named "Joy" in his film Happiness finds a similar experience to be traumatic).

[edit] Career

[edit] Early films

One of Solondz's short films was Schatt's Last Shot, made in 1985. The title character is a high schooler who wants to get into Stanford, but his gym teacher hates him and fails him because he can't make a shot in basketball. He also has no luck with the girl of his dreams, but he wishes he was more like the coach, whom he challenges to a game of one-on-one. The short has seldom been seen outside film schools.

In 1989 he wrote and directed Fear, Anxiety & Depression, an episodic comedy about fledgling playwright Ira (played by Solondz himself) and his frustrating interactions with the opposite sex. The film's fractured narrative structure and casual relationship with the "fourth wall" are somewhat reminiscent of Annie Hall, and a far cry from the more astringent and naturalistic surface Solondz has been moving towards ever since. Characterizations are broader than viewers of Solondz's more deadpan later films might expect. The film contains several musical interludes, including three songs written especially for the film. Stanley Tucci is outstanding in an early role as a old, disliked acquaintance of Ira's, who takes up playwriting on a whim and instantly becomes the toast of Off-Broadway. Studio second-guessing soured Solondz on the film and directing in general; the film rarely appears on Solondz's official filmography.

[edit] Welcome to the Dollhouse

The frustrations of his first feature led Solondz to swear off further involvement with the industry. More than five years later, an attorney friend urged Solondz to give filmmaking another go, and promised to partially finance any project Solondz came up with. The end result was 1995's Welcome to the Dollhouse, which went on to win the Grand Jury Prize at the Sundance Film Festival. The dark comedy follows the travails of Dawn Weiner, a bespectacled, toothy, and shy 7th grader who is mercilessly teased at school and treated to alternating contempt and neglect at home. It was a major success among critics, and a moderate success at the box office, paving the way for a film which would occupy a much larger canvas.

[edit] Happiness

Solondz's next piece was Happiness (1998), a highly controversial film due to the themes explored in it, which range from rape, murder and child sexual abuse to a bizarre sexual phone caller. This caused it to be dropped by the original distributor, only to be scooped up by another company. One of the most controversial aspects of the film was the portrayal of a psychologist as a repressed pedophile who molests his son's friend at a sleep-over. The movie received numerous awards and yielded strong critical praise for Solondz.

[edit] Storytelling and Palindromes

In 2001, Solondz released Storytelling. It is a film separated into two parts, entitled "Fiction" and "Nonfiction." The two stories share two thematic elements, but deal with each in an autonomous manner. This format was utilized because the filmmaker wanted to "find a fresh structure, a fresh form and a different way of tackling what may be identical geographical material."^[2] When Solondz initially presented the film to the MPAA, he was told that if he wished to receive a rating other than NC-17, he would have to remove a scene of explicit sex involving a white female and a black male. However, due to a clause in Solondz's contract, the censors were forced to admit the scene with a bright red box covering the actors. "For me it's a great victory to have a big red box, the first red box in any studio feature [...] it's right in your face: You're not allowed to see this in our country." ^[3] Solondz did, however, remove a portion of the film (which has variously been reported as either a subplot of the second story, or a third story entirely) which contained a scene of sensuality involving two male actors (one of whom was James Van Der Beek).^[4]

Solondz's next film was Palindromes (2004), which became highly controversial among the few moviegoers that actually viewed it during its theatrical release. Themes of child molestation, statutory rape and abortion raised the eyebrows of many conservative, as well as liberal, pundits and reviewers. The film was financed largely by the filmmaker. Like all of Solondz's previous films, Palindromes is set in suburban New Jersey. It was released unrated in the US.

[edit] Life During Wartime (New Project)

Life During Wartime is Todd Solondz new film in the production stages, produced by John Hart at Evamere Entertainment. According to IMDB, and http://www.indiewire.com/ots/2006/05/cannes_06_marke_3.html. The new film was said by Todd Solondz in an interview to be a sequel to Happiness and Welcome to the Dollhouse. It has also been described as "A Dark Comedy of Sexual Obsession." It will star Emma Thompson, Demi Moore, Chi McBride, Chane't Johnson, Paul Dano, Renee Taylor, Faye Dunnaway, Dennis Franz and Hope Davis, with a budget of $4.5 million. Production should start May 15, and shoot for 35 days. It is expected to be released around early to mid 2008.

[edit] See also

[edit] Notes

1. ^ The A.V. Club - Is There A God?. Retrieved on September 26, 2006.
2. ^ Interview at Salon.com, 1/30/2002
3. ^ Ibid
4. ^ Interview in The Guardian, 4/15/2005

[edit] External links

• Todd Solondz at the Internet Movie Database
• Gothamist interview - with Todd Solondz, April 2005
• "Oedipus Hipsterus" - A review of Solondz's body of work in general and Palindromes in particular. By Christian Lorentzen, in n+1 magazine.
• Drinks with Tony - Todd Solondz interviewed by Tony DuShane
• Birch Interview by Todd - Todd Solondz interviews Thora Birch