Dressed in black, fine wavy hair cut in a bob, bangs and rectangular glasses, Joanna Arnow appears, except for the dress, as in her film, Life According to Ann. Her first feature film, presented in May at the Quinzaine des filmmakers in Cannes, now in competition at the Deauville American Film Festival and in which she played the leading role. That of a young woman whose portrait (largely autobiographical) takes shape through her romantic and sexual encounters. Which all respond to the codes and rites of submission.
A consented practice that Ann has chosen to experience as a new adventure, a new exploration of her body and the relationship with others. The film is bloated, confusing, disturbing and funny. On this last point, the director insists: first and foremost, she wanted to write and direct a BDSM comedy. His method: a minimalist production, made of long sequence shots filmed by a static camera placed at a distance, a slightly dissonant frame which reveals, to the right or left of the image, a detail as incongruous as it is revealing.
Absence of artifice
Interspersed between sex scenes are moments of ordinary life – visits and lunches with parents (played by her own father and mother), monotonous days at work where the young woman appears almost invisible behind her desk. The irreverence of the film, the solitude of the characters are revealed by these moments of rupture, these changes of rhythm which suddenly break the routine of submission, this spreading even in the family and the professional environment. Ann doesn’t care, she remains discreet, calm, diligent. To the point that it becomes irresistible. Funnyness catches us without seeming to, behind the face of a serious young woman and a good student in all situations.
The absence of artifice, getting more with less: this is how Joanna Arnow presents herself to us, responding concisely, this is also how she approaches her cinema. Before Life According to Annshe has directed several documentaries and short films (Laying Out2019, I Hate Myself, 2013). A work of observation that she applied here, in her first feature, by drawing inspiration from herself and the experiences of others, by listening to everyday conversations, by remembering some of them , older. The material collected fed her film, to which she gave the simplest possible form. ” Long Live Love, by Tsai Ming-liang [1994], influenced me a lot, because he also has very long shots and a very refined staging which leaves the spectator the opportunity to absorb himself, to see the elements placed in the image according to his own rhythm. »
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