by James Mottram
“To me, it’s what we call in the trans community an ‘egg crack’ film,” says writer-director Jane Schoenbrun of their new sci-fi/horror romp. I saw the TV shining.
Schoenbrun, the non-binary American filmmaker who uses the pronouns “they/them”, tags this film for the second part of their “Screen” trilogy. The first, their debut feature, was from 2021 We’re all going to the World’s Fair, a coming-of-age psychological horror that deals with gender identity.
Schoenbrun realized they were transgender during a mushroom trip while writing the script.
“I did We all go to the world of the world Correct while I’m going out,” says Schoenbrun, when we meet at the Berlin Film Festival. “I wrote it while realizing I was trans. There was a lot of repression we were working on. And when I started that movie, I had no words for it. I didn’t have the word “dysphoria” to describe this alienation I felt as a teenager, from my own body, from my own identity, and the thing that had sent me to the Internet on my quest through fiction and through fiction. the exploration that a screen can give you; which can be safe in a way that the real world is not.”
Right after Schoenbrun was done Of the world Correctthe pandemic occurred and the filmmaker began his “physical transition”. They also extended the idea for TV glowthe story of what happens to two queer teenagers (Justice Smith, Brigette Lundy-Paine) when the sci-fi series they love is mysteriously canceled.
“I always knew this was a film about dysphoria or a film about feeling like your world or your identity is not your own. But I think it was really after I started the transition process, which is a wonderful process in many ways … but in its early stages it’s quite traumatic.”
A rich allegory for transition, in the film Owen and Maddy’s characters watch a show called “The Pink Opaque,” a mid-1990s sci-fi about two teenagers battling an adversary called Mr. Melancholy. “The film is so much about my own youth, my youth spent wrong, watching myself on the screen Are you afraid of the dark? Or Buffy the Vampire Slayer or The X-Files or video tapes that I would rent from the video store. This was my mythology as a child; here I find a richness and a magic that felt more like real life than the drudgery of the suburbs I grew up in.”
Born in 1987, Schoenbrun grew up in Westchester County, about 40 minutes from New York. As a teenager, Schoenbrun worked in a local movie theater before eventually heading to Boston University. After graduating from the film program in 2009, they later became production assistants for the directors behind the scenes. Uncut stonesthe Safdie brothers, before working on their own material.
Now they can look back on their youth – and a devotion to shows like Buffy – with distance. “I think on a personal level, I’m fascinated by the way those TV shows could be such a place to hide, a place that felt warm and a place that gave me a glimpse of something beautiful. But [I was also interested in] the way it can become almost desperate and habitual and another means of repression if it becomes too much of your identity.”
Nor is it limited to those who bury themselves in TV shows. Following this and We’re all going to the World’s FairSchoenbrun admits they are intrigued by the impact a world of screens has on us now. “It’s always fascinated me that we don’t work on it more, because it’s the dominant moment; at least in the Western world right now, it’s a moment defined by screens.”
Looking around the hotel room, with its obligatory flat screens on the walls, they add: “How many screens are in this room now?”
In I saw the TV shiningOwen becomes so obsessed with “The Pink Opaque” that reality and fantasy merge in an increasingly unsettling way as the screen becomes a “very personal metaphor” for the transition. “Even for Owen’s journey in the film, it’s not necessarily linear or straightforward. I think as the movie goes to this – for me – iconic moment when he smashes his head through the screen… it’s almost too simple a metaphor for it. He is desperate for a relationship that is not mediated by that glass and that distance. That says it all.”
With that in mind, you might think Schoenbrun is paying homage to David Cronenberg’s legendary 1983 film Videodromewhen James Woods’ Max becomes something like a human VCR. But in fact, “the most influential is [Cronenberg’s 1999 virtual reality tale] existence“, says the director. “This movie is really underrated. It is almost a shy continuation of Videodrome in some ways… the way that movie layers reality until you completely forget what layer of reality you’re in is brilliant and something I strive to do in my own work. I think Cronenberg is a huge influence and I think he’s become a patron saint of a lot of younger trans filmmakers. His view of the body is one that feels both fascinated and horrified by sexuality, which is something many trans people can relate to.”
Among the most important moments of I saw the TV shining is played by Justice Smith, the actor known for playing Franklin Webb in the film Jurassic World Series. “I love Justice,” says Schoenbrun. “I think the thing that drew me to Justice is how chameleon he is in every role. I’ve seen him in four or five things and I felt like he was a different person each time, which for me is… if you watch movies that aren’t necessarily going to be my favorite movies, I can recognize when an actor commits in a way that seems rigorous. And I think his performances are exactly that.”
As for what’s next, Schoenbrun is now working on a trilogy of books, Afterworld Public Accessa blend of fantasy, sci-fi, horror and maturity that will hopefully be the basis for the third part of their ‘Screen’ trilogy. The first of these is due to be published next year. “I had this idea that kept growing and growing until part of it took place in World War II, and part of it took place in space, and part of it took place in another dimension,” they explain . “It’s kind of like mine Dune or mine game of thrones.” An epic volume from an epic mind.
I saw the TV shining is in theaters from August 29, 2024
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