Noah Baumbach Meet the writer-director of the award-winning drama, Marriage Story
The much lauded Marriage Story tells a deeply personal tale about marital breakdown Donal O’Donoghue talks with the film’s writer and director, Noah Baumbach
Marriage Story, the anatomy of a relationship from rosy beginnings to bitter end, was one of the most praised films of last year. With its luminous leads (Adam Driver, Scarlett Johansson) and stellar support (including Alan Alda, Ray Liotta and Golden Globe winner, Laura Dern), it chronicled the story of a New York theatre director (Driver) and his actress wife (Johansson) as they negotiate the legal jungle of divorce and the custody of their child. It is writer/director Noah Baumbach’s best film and could be seen as a companion piece to The Squid and the Whale (2005), also a tale about divorce, this time from the children’s perspective. Both films suggest reallife events in the New Yorker’s life: the divorce of his parents when he was a child and his own divorce (from actress Jennifer Jason Leigh, with whom he has a son, Rohmer) in 2013. Yet as he has repeatedly stated, his films are personal but never autobiographical.
When did you know that you wanted to make movies?
I grew up going to movie theatres and from a fairly young age the way I played, as in with action figures or LEGO or whatever, in my mind it was a movie and the thoughts I had I would fit into movie scenes. As I got older and the notion of doing anything for a living entered into my consciousness, film-making was something I dreamed of doing, even though I knew nobody who did it. It was both something I wanted to do but also seemed impossible to me.
You’ve said many times that Marriage Story “is not autobiographical; it’s personal.” What do you mean by that?
Any movie made with an individual voice is personal. That is what I most respond to in movies, or you can feel some aspect of the person who made it.
When was the last time you cried at the movies?
I saw Pain and Glory (Pedro Almodóvar) recently and I cried.
“What you are doing is an act of hope” is one of the most resonant lines from Marriage Story. How much was making the film an act of hope for you?
This is about a couple who go through an incredibly challenging, painful, sometimes absurd legal journey, just to list a few adjectives. I wanted to honour them for it in a way. It is essentially the stuff of ordinary life but I feel that they are heroic and I felt a responsibility to the characters, to honour them for what they are going through. So I think that there is hope in that.
It seems that Charlie (Driver) is only truly able to say what he feels, to find his voice as it were, through song, when he sings Being Alive. As someone who expresses himself as a filmmaker, do you empathise with that?
Artists are often more articulate in their art. In my case, when I make a movie, the reason I make it is because this is the expression of the feelings and ideas and thoughts that I have. Then of course I have to talk about it and that can be challenging because you are trying to articulate something that was essentially inarticulate. I thought about that for Charlie, that the song might catch him by surprise. I think we all have that experience with music or a book or a film. It’s like with a Beatles song I will have heard a gazillion times and then I’ll hear a whole new thing in it and be moved as if I’m hearing it for the very first time.
You said recently that you grew up in a way “where there was this idea that you shouldn’t celebrate” for fear that it might fall apart anyway. How have you changed in that respect?
I turned 50 this year and the importance of
celebrating and rituals has become more important to me because now is the time to enjoy it. It’s totally illogical the other way as the other way is death. So you might as well enjoy it now. I also think it’s about being open to the moment and being present. And yes, I did have a big party for my 50th.
How do you think Netflix and other streaming companies will change how we watch and interact with movies?
I don’t think they are changing how we interact with movies; rather, it’s reflecting what is already happening which is that technology has changed. I believe that we are in a transition moment now, but not unlike the music business, it is going to be about choice for people. People who want to see movies in theatres can do that and those who’d rather watch at home can use that choice.
How have you changed as a film-maker, do you think, from the man who made The Squid and the Whale to the man who made Marriage Story?
I always feel like I’m learning when I am making movies. Every movie is its own thing and certainly experience helps in solving problems or challenges that you run into and the longer I have done it, I have a clearer sense of how I like the set to be and the conditions for how I work best and to create an environment in which the actors can do their best work. Yet I feel like an amateur every time I face that blank page. I have to start all over again and that is always daunting.
In a recent interview, Alan Alda said that for him what Marriage Story is really about is what he has spent his life trying to do, and that is to improve communication. Would you agree with that?
Alan Alda is a brilliant actor and communicator, someone who sees the world in a clear-eyed way while also acknowledging its complexities. And yes, I understand that in terms of Marriage Story, because human beings are complicated and communication can be difficult even under the best circumstances, let alone when you have lawyers speaking for you. Part of what the movie is about is still maintaining your humanity and love amid it all.