For actor-filmmaker Maggie Gyllenhaal, the resounding reception to her 2021 debut directorial The Lost Daughter — an intimate story about filial ties touching upon love, loss and memories, starring Olivia Colman and Jessie Buckley — is what propelled her to think of making something which was an antithesis in many ways, but like The Lost Daughter, “told the truth, but in a big, pop way.” That is how The Bride! — her sophomore directorial which she has also written and produced — was born.
“In the case of The Bride!, I wanted to explore the monstrous aspects inside all of us. I see it in myself, I see it in other people, and I thought that what if we really got down to it and told the truth about that, but did it in a way that was big and hot,” smiled the actor of films like The Dark Knight and Confessions of a Dangerous Mind. This was at a virtual interaction earlier this week in which Gyllenhaal shared details about her much-talked-about film, releasing globally in cinemas on March 6, with a select group of journalists from around the world, including t2.
The Bride!, with which Gyllenhaal self-confessedly, takes big swings in style and storytelling, is set in 1930s Chicago where a murdered young woman is brought back to life to be a companion to Frankenstein’s monster. What happens next is beyond what one could have ever imagined.
So what was that one big idea that prompted Gyllenhaal, part of the famed Gyllenhaal family with roots firmly in cinema, to zero in on the story of the Bride for, well, The Bride?
“I was at a party and I saw a man with a tattoo on his whole forearm — it was the ‘Bride of Frankenstein’. It hooked me and I was like: ‘Have we really explored this character?’ I looked her up online and realised that Elsa Lanchester, who played the original Bride of Frankenstein, had huge impact. Something about her is formidable. And then I watched the movie (Bride of Frankenstein, 1935), I realised she doesn’t speak. What was interesting was that here is this movie called Bride of Frankenstein, which is not in any way about the Bride of Frankenstein, and yet Lanchester makes this impact, even though she is in the movie for just three minutes and doesn’t speak!”
THE BRIDE IS BORN
That not only spurred curiosity in Gyllenhaal but also compelled her to ask pertinent questions about an important, albeit neglected, character. Frankenstein is a monster who does awful things, but he is also lonely. So his ask for a mate, which is part of the book and of the mythology, is understandable. At the same time, what about the mate? He is asking for someone to be brought back from the dead to be his girlfriend. What if she comes back and has her own needs, her own agenda, her own wants and her own terrors? That is what this movie really gets into.”
The Bride! stars Jessie Buckley in the titular role, along with Christian Bale, Annette Bening, Penelope Cruz, Maggie’s brother Jake Gyllenhaal and her husband Peter Saarsgard. The film draws inspiration from the 1935 film Bride of Frankenstein, directed by James Whale, which was inspired by the 1818 novel Frankenstein; or, The Modern Prometheus by Mary Shelley.
The trailer, which released this week, illustrates a moodboard that blends classic gothic elements with neo-noir mystery. When asked where she drew her inspirations from, Gyllenhaal shared: “I was interested in subverting the classic movie style. Bonnie and Clyde, Badlands and even Metropolis were inspirations. Stylistically, I let my mind open up and roam.”
Gyllenhaal had initially decided to set The Bride! in the 1860s-1870s. “At that time, there was a big thing about people speaking to the dead. There was the Spiritualist Movement, there had been the Civil War. Lots of women were losing children at birth, and there were people who were speaking to the dead for them. I thought: ‘In a movie about people who have come back from the dead, maybe that is an interesting time to set it.’ But as I was writing, I realised Frankenstein is lonely, he doesn’t have anyone to talk to, and his primary relationship, before we meet him, is with a movie star. A movie star is someone you can imagine you have a relationship with, but they don’t know you at all. And also Frankenstein, whose face is so scary and who people run away from screaming when they see him, is safe in the dark,” said the director.
She added: “So once I realised I wanted him to have a relationship with a movie star, I thought it had to be set in a time where movies were present. I chose the 1930s because I love it aesthetically. A lot about The Bride! is about fantasy love, fantasy looks, fantasy sex, fantasy versus reality.... But it is also a 1930s that comes out of my imagination.”
Would it be fair to call the film “punk?” Jessie Buckley has gone on record to say that she believes it is, and Maggie agrees: “Is punk a celebration of something that doesn’t fit easily into a box? If so, the movie’s totally punk. I remember when I first started working with Christian (Bale), he sent me images and even videos of (rock star) Sid Vicious and that is what you can definitely and classically call punk.”
So many people ask me: “You made Frankenstein, right?” And I say, as gently and nicely as I can: “No, I didn’t. I made ‘The Bride of Frankenstein’.” And I think even that, in some way, has a punk aspect to it.
MAIN CHARACTER ENERGY
In Gyllenhaal’s reimagination, The Bride! is not just a decorative companion, but a true main character. When asked what motivates and drives The Bride!, the director said: “She had been someone who couldn’t express, who had her mouth shut. And she comes back as someone with a lot to say, and I think that there are a lot of people in the world that I imagine — myself included, which is part of why I made this — that can relate to that feeling.”
So what made Jessie Buckley — who has been garnering accolades and awards for her stirring portrayal of a grieving mother in Hamnet — the perfect embodiment of The Bride’s independence and chaotic energy?
Gyllenhaal pitched in with: “One of my favourite things about being a director is figuring out what language you have to speak to each actor in. But with Jessie, I talked to her like I talked to myself. I had to keep myself from writing this part for her because I thought if I write it for her, maybe I would limit what it could be. But I wrote it and I was like: ‘Okay, it’s only Jessie!’ I still don’t know who else could have played this part... it has to do with her wisdom in knowing that every human holds the whole spectrum of feelings... fierce and powerful, and right next to that is the deepest vulnerability. So smart, also totally irrational, sexy, and also sometimes ugly. All of it, put together, makes a person. What is so extraordinary about her as an actress is that she really allows all those things to be a part of her work,” Gyllenhaal said about Buckley, who earned a Best Actor Golden Globe award a few days ago.
With Christian Bale, Gyllenhaal felt a certain comfort in “handing over her heart”. “Frankenstein, in the book, just hangs out in a barn and listens to people and learns French. Also, he does some pretty f*** up stuff, as monsters do... like we all do. So I needed someone who could hold the monstrous in a way that lets us look at it and go: ‘Yeah, okay, I don’t bash people’s heads in, but there are parts of me that have that kind of rage.’”
She also spoke about the other principal members of the cast, describing Penelope Cruz as “a brilliant actress” and how Annette Bening fit right into the part of “an iconoclastic, brilliant, mad scientist.” Her brother Jake, according to the filmmaker, was one of the last people she approached for the film. “He plays a matinee idol. I asked him at the last minute because I wanted to make sure it was right for our relationship. I spent a lot of time thinking about it, and I came to realise it absolutely was.” And what about husband Peter Saarsgard as Wiles? “I just knew I wanted Wiles to be super, super hot... so I had to ask my husband!”
Finally, why the exclamation mark at the end of the title? Gyllenhaal shared: “It happened very naturally. I almost felt a little naughty when I put it on the title page. I thought that if you are a woman in the ’30s who died not having got to express herself, then when you come back to life, you would have a backlog of what you wanted to say. When it finally gets to come out, there is an exclamation point to it.”
Or more simply: “I also think it has something to do with the way both my teenage daughters text!”
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