Shutter To Think! Our Chat With Writer Laeta Kalogridis

A woman with a writing credit for the Vikings vs. Native Americans bloodbath-picture Pathfinder on their resume is someone I want to talk to.

Screenwriter Laeta Kalogridis' star is certainly rising, though, as her newest collaborators include James Cameron (she's working on Avatar 2, but can't say a damned thing) and Martin Scorsese.  Maybe you've heard of these guys.

I had the good fortune to schmooze with her recently - here's part one.  I promised I wouldn't print the SPOILERY stuff until after the movie was out a few days.  When you see Shutter Island, you'll know what I mean.

Jordan Hoffman:  What movies did Martin Scorsese make you watch before you got cookin' on this project? 

Laeta Kalogridis:  Every movie that Val Lewton ever made, the producer from the 1950s.  That's the original Cat People and I Walked With a Zombie and Isle of the Dead and Bedlam.  Bedlam is a phenomenal film.  He was known for having very little money but making these amazingly intense films.  There's a wonderful scene in (I think) Leopard Man where there's this monster stalking the streets and you don't see it, and there's this woman locked outside of her house and she's banging on the door and her family's inside.  Then, from the point of view of the family inside, you hear a thump!  And then blood under the door.  The imagination makes it far worse than anything you could have seen.

We also watched Laura, Otto Preminger's film, and many other 1940s thrillers, but I am blanking on titles now.

Jordan Hoffman:  No Hitchcock, though?

Laeta Kalogridis:  No.  Part of that might be, though, because so many of us have seen those movie already.  I think Marty was more interested in showing us stuff we might not have heard of.  I had never seen Laura projected before.

Jordan Hoffman:  So cool.  So, who's at these screenings?  You, DP Robert Richardson, editor Thelma Schoonmaker, Marty, if I may call him that., who else?

Laeta Kalogridis:  [Longtime Production Designer] Dante Ferretti, producer Brad Fischer and the cast.

Jordan Hoffman:  That's a DVD bonus feature right there.  This crew munching popcorn watching Cat People.

Laeta Kalogridis:  There was popcorn!  Always popcorn.

Jordan Hoffman:  Of course there was popcorn.  Marty knows what he's doing.

Laeta Kalogridis:  You are in a theater with Mark Ruffalo and Sir Ben eating popcorn, and Max von Sydow was there and, wow.

Jordan Hoffman:  You got to hang with MvS?  We love MvS!!!  My main complaint, Laeta, seriously - not enough dialogue for MvS.  I can listen to his voice all day.

Laeta Kalogridis:  I know.  I know.

Jordan Hoffman:  Okay - one thing that is bound to piss people off about Shutter Island is the scene in the cave - now, no Spoilers here - but Leonardo DiCaprio and Patricia Clarkson are in the cave and they have a very lengthy back and forth in front of a fire.  And it is shot in such a way that the flames are between them.  And it becomes a real, visual thing.  It practically hurts the eye.  It has an almost narcotic effect.  Was that in the script or did that happen "on the day."

Laeta Kalogridis:  Why? Is it polarizing, the visual effect?

Jordan Hoffman:  Yes.  I think it will drive some people crazy.  I dug it.  I think it has a purpose - which I can't give away, but I want your take on it. And it is great to go so avant-garde in the middle of a thriller like this.

Laeta Kalogridis:  It is written in the script that they are looking through the flames and he is seeing her through the fire as she is speaking.  Marty plans every element so carefully and thinks about the visual ramifications of every moment, so, even though I wasn't in the meeting when they discussed this, I know it is very deliberate.  And I love it.

Jordan Hoffman:  It's chancy stuff.  I suspect film students will be arguing about this for a while.

Laeta and I then discuss some heavy SPOILER TERRITORY, but I promised her I would not print it until after the movie was out for a few days.  Check back next week!