“Madeline’s Madeline” (2018). Image: Courtesy of Brigade.
Described by Indiewire as a “mind-scrambling masterpiece,” “Madeline’s Madeline” has redefined the limits of storytelling on the silver screen, simultaneously exploring both the process of filmmaking and the inner processes that hold our darkest thoughts to ransom. What’s perhaps most astonishing of all, though, is that “Madeline’s Madeline” is only Josephine Decker’s fourth feature film, somehow combining the raw intensity of a first-time production with the technical skill of a life-long auteur who’s working at the top of their game.
In reality, Decker has been impressing critics for a number of years now, working as both an actor and director on the American indie scene ever since she helmed her first short film “Naked Princeton” in 2005. Following the success of her debut feature, “Butter on the Latch”, and her follow up, the erotic thriller “Thou Wast Mild and Lovely”, Decker’s latest project is an experimental film that revolves around an acting student called Madeline and the troubling relationship that she shares with her mother.
Sleek sat down with Decker during 2018’s Berlinale festival to explore the overwhelming success of “Madeline’s Madeline” thus far, discussing everything from her regrets and aspirations, to the surprising parallels that the film shares with “mother!”. Unlike Darren Aronofsky’s latest venture though, “Madeline’s Madeline” has received unanimous praise after screening at both Sundance and Berlin, despite it not being easy to film. “I worked on the first 30 minutes for like eight months,” she tells us, “and I don’t know if I ever cracked them. I still feel like there’s eight minutes that could have come out of the first half hour. Every time I took them out, I ended up putting them back in… I was never going to be satisfied with it.”
“Butter on the Latch” (2013) dir. by Josephine Decker, cinematography Ashley Connor
According to Decker, “Madeline’s Madeline” was “a really hard film to make,” yet that’s exactly what makes it such a unique and powerful project. Unlike most filmmakers who strive to conceal the difficulties that they encounter on set, Decker embraced the problems that she faced head on, channeling them into the final cut on screen. As Decker puts it, “You can see it was hard” – and it’s this reflexive quality that imbues “Madeline’s Madeline” with a kinetic energy born from the improvisatory exercises that formed the backbone of the project. By being deliberately self conscious in her filmmaking, Decker invites the audience to immerse themselves in the narrative while simultaneously reflecting on how the film was made.
But this directorial process isn’t always something Decker has been able to achieve. She describes the experience of co-directing her first feature, a documentary called “Bi The Way”, as “toxically cursed”. Decker jokes that the film was akin to serving in the military — her clashes with co-director Brittany Blockman were so upsetting she had to seek therapy. “I was just so disappointed in every aspect of making that film… I felt that the ethics behind those storytelling choices were really fucked.” However, Decker’s unbridled positivity helps her to reevaluate that period with hindsight. Despite feeling that people she cared about “came out terribly in the film,” Decker also notes how this time in her life was extremely “formative,” and continued to influence her even recently during the making of “Madeline’s Madeline”. “When you have a really bad experience, especially a long term bad experience, I think it makes waves that are positive.” Much like Madeline herself, Decker takes hold of her insecurities and shapes them into something both extraordinary and visionary. A discourse on the ethics of storytelling, a blistering condemnation of maternal instincts, a theatrical expansion of what cinema is even capable of — “Madeline’s Madeline” is a film that critics will continue to discuss years from now as the moment when Decker truly came into her own.
“Thou Wast Mild and Lovely” (2014). Image: Cinelicious
This innovative approach helped make “Madeline’s Madeline” such a cinematic stand-out, but it almost proved to be its undoing too. When asked what she’s most proud of, Decker explained that she was happy to complete the film “because there were so many times where I thought I wouldn’t. It took four years and you don’t make a movie saying ‘I’m going to sign up for 4 four years of my life’”. In fact, Decker confessed that she thought about giving up on the project entirely and more than once, but her deep relationship with star Helena Howard convinced her to keep going. “Even if I thought I wasn’t good enough or the film isn’t good enough, I already knew that [Helena’s] performance was fucking stunning… and this young woman’s life would be very different if we didn’t release the film, because she’s luminous and amazing.” Whether Decker does eventually return to Madeline’s world or not in a future project, it seems certain that Howard will remain a key fixture in her life, both personally and professionally. “I would definitely love to work with [Howard] again. She brings so much energy to the set.”
While we can’t help but disagree with Decker’s humble assessment of her own talents, what she says about Howard’s star quality is undeniable. Throughout “Madeline’s Madeline”, the young actor’s portrayal of the title character is searing in its intensity, dominating every scene with a raw talent that we haven’t seen since Timothée Chalamet broke our hearts at the end of “Call Me By Your Name”. Just like 2017’s breakout star, Howard will also impress audiences and critics alike with one particular sequence towards that end of her film that will be studied in acting classes long after her work is recognised by the Academy and Hollywood alike.
“mother!” (2017). Image: Paramount Pictures
Though Decker confesses that scary movies actually “scare the shit” out of her, “Madeline’s Madeline” owes a surprising debt to horror. Inspired more by the psychological horror of “Rosemary’s Baby” than things that go bump in the night, Decker explained her love of “emotional tension and suspense. I think those are things that are really important to me as an artist… Holding the audience’s attention for a long time, creating tension or a sense of impending horror, even if the impending horror is just of your Mom.”
Decker’s references for the film include everything from minimalist painting and George Gershwin’s “Rhapsody In Blue” to the movie “Eternal Sunshine of the Spotless Mind”. In terms of fellow filmmakers though, Decker told us that she herself has noticed some surprising parallels between her work and that of Darren Aronofsky, who also “tries to turn you into a character in his movies.” “Madeline’s Madeline” is a wholly unique creation, but the influence of Aronofksy’s vision is most clear in the tension that Decker builds through the film’s strained relationships, climaxing in an explosive scene that makes extensive use of its setting. Much like “mother!”, the safety of the home is inverted at the end of “Madeline’s Madeline”, as the theatre troupe tease and provoke their leader Evangeline (Molly Parker) on each floor of the house.
Strangely enough, the bare bones of this unforgettable scene were carved out during a Sundance workshop two years ago when Decker developed a VR piece that was site-specific to a similar location. Decker described to us how the house came to represent a brain where “the bottom storey is anxiety, the top storey is depression” and the guests attend a “dinner party on the top floor.” A year later, Decker was surprised to see something similar included in “mother!” around the midway point, and joked with us that Aronofsky “stole” her idea. Of course, Decker’s own version of that moment obviously turned out very different, but it would still be fascinating to compare “mother!” and “Madeline’s Madeline” as part of a double-bill screening.
“Madeline’s Madeline” (2018). Image: Courtesy of Brigade.
Looking to the future, Decker’s next project is a movie based on the life and work of author Shirley Jackson, a reclusive figure most known for horror and mystery stories exposing the dark shadows of life (and American life, in particular). Although Decker didn’t pen this particular script, her enthusiasm for the writer comes through, even though production is still “in the early phases”. After all, it only takes a quick glance at the body of Jackson’s work to see how the intensity of “Madeline’s Madeline” is the perfect springboard into the psychologically turbulent world of Shirley Jackson.
Towards the end of our interview, Decker shared some advice with us that continues to inspire her still: “Play a game until the end and then when it gets boring, play the next game.” With “Madeline’s Madeline”, Decker may have just mastered her unique brand of filmmaking, but we hope that she keeps playing for a long time to come, continuing to change the rules and create bold new forms of cinema.