The events took place in 1978. Single of the week on the popular show The Dating Gameaspiring actress Cheryl Bradshaw had to choose one of three male contestants hidden behind a partition. However, unbeknownst to everyone, “participant number 3”, Rodney Alcala, was a killer then in the midst of a series of feminicides. Inspired by this macabre news item, Woman of the Hour (The woman of the hour) goes beyond the anecdote. Indeed, in her first film as a director, Anna Kendrick parallels the journey of Cheryl Bradshaw and the crimes of Rodney Alcala, in a brilliant deconstruction of systemic misogyny. The main interested party spoke to us exclusively about it.
“Like most people, I only knew the broad outlines of this incredible story,” confides the star of the saga Pitch Perfect (The perfect score), of 50/50of The Accountant (The accountant) andA Simple Favor (A little favor). “That’s among other things why I liked Ian McDonald’s script so much. This was so not what I expected. Ian’s writing is very emotional, and very honest. I was seduced by the different layers of meaning, and also by the presence of passages of astonishing delicacy, given the dark nature of the subject. »
The script that Anna Kendrick read was neither the first nor the last version. There were around twenty in two years of development. At one point, the actress and co-producer (Quebecer Paul Barbeau is also among the producers) began working with the screenwriter to come up with a final version. “I had read them all, and my desire was to keep the best elements of each and thus create my favorite version: a sort of patched version, à la Frankenstein. »
Patching or not, the seams are invisible.
This narrative fluidity is partly attributable to a decision that Anna Kendrick made at the very beginning of filming. Indeed, throughout the film, the actress-director alternates between Cheryl Bradshaw (Kendrick), who suffers daily misogynistic verbal attacks, and the women who have the misfortune of crossing paths with Rodney Alcala (Daniel Zovatto). In doing so, Kendrick illustrates how psychological violence and physical violence against women are intertwined, and systemic.
“Exactly,” agrees Anna Kendrick. There was the germ of that in the script, a kind of connective tissue, and Cheryl’s character was fleshed out in all versions. But I was afraid that the film would be reduced to a series of episodes, that it wouldn’t feel like a complete work. So my team and I really wanted to find visual or audio ways to connect the stories of all these women — Cheryl and the victims; like a spiritual bond between them, even if they have never met. »
Personal touches
A good example of Anna Kendrick’s desire to increase the parallel between the two types of misogynistic violence occurs in the first minutes. We then go from the murder of a young woman at dawn, in a desert area, to Cheryl being bombarded with a litany of derogatory comments during a hearing.
“I asked Ian to add dialogue that would make the audience feel unsettled for a moment during the transition. An exchange between the two men which would make it so that we don’t immediately know where we are, and who they are talking about. »
The two men in question express themselves in an uninhibited manner about a woman’s physique and the latter’s allegedly unsympathetic appearance. Are they referring to the victim we just saw? No, actually, they’re discussing Cheryl… who’s sitting right in front of them. It’s as comical as it is distressing, Kendrick handling black humor well.
But besides, is it always so mortifying for actresses? Anna Kendrick hesitates for a moment, then replies: “The remark about the size of my character’s chest, I had it added on the day of filming. This is something that happened to me in an audition when I was 19. This precise exchange, almost word for word. So, just 20 years ago, this misogyny was still uninhibited. But I think it has really improved. »
To return to this bias of an alternation between the protagonist and the victims, the thing took on a character that was both conscious and intuitive on the part of Anna Kendrick. “As the filming progressed, I secretly began to create small, unforeseen moments which could later, during editing, allow me an intuitive transition, but always favoring this idea of destabilization of the audience, a visual or auditory disorientation. It was a risk because I didn’t know if I would be able to connect everything the way I envisioned it in my head. For example, in the bar scene between Daniel and I, I improvised my character’s reaction by pretending I had just heard someone break a glass off-camera. I did this spontaneously. »
The sound of glass was added in post-production. In the film, this passage showing a nervous Cheryl under the guise of relaxation immediately follows a blow dealt by the killer to one of the victims: since there is almost simultaneity, a pang of the heart and a startle occur at the same time.
As the filming progressed, I secretly began to create small, unforeseen moments that could later, during editing, allow me an intuitive transition.
Finding the right balance
In this regard, the violence in Woman of the Hour is present, it is inherent to the subject, but it is more suggested than shown.
“I knew it would be difficult to find the right balance. I didn’t want to be too explicit, but I felt it was important not to shy away from it either. And it was important for me not to make it too easy for the audience. By this I mean that this violence exists, that it is uncomfortable, and therefore some discomfort must be felt. But the gore and excesses didn’t interest me. The opening sequence is the most explicit, and even there, we detach ourselves from the murder by moving on to the panorama. It wasn’t planned: I had filmed this sunrise while waiting for the actors, but once the sounds were put into this shot, it became extremely anxiety-inducing. What we imagine is always worse than what we can see. »