2020-04-01_Total_Film

I was interested in the machinery around predators,

the system that supports a predator like her boss.”

CITIZEN JANE

In order to help audiences understand what it might

feel like to be at the centre of this toxic culture, Green

asked her casting agent to find an “infinitely

watchable” actor who could engage viewers without

much recourse to dialogue. When Julia Garner was

suggested, Green’s challenge was resolved: having seen

Garner in FX spy series The Americans, Green knew she fulfilled

the remit of “someone interesting to look at, who’s also

a brilliant actress”. Duly, Garner gives a measured and

hugely relatable masterclass in bottled-up emotion.

Green’s stylistic choices further serve the film’s

emphasis on Jane’s inner life. Gus van Sant’s

high-school shooting drama Elephant influenced

the sound mix, which uses manipulated office

sounds to create a near-musical backdrop – a crucial

element in a film that features no music, opening

and closing pieces aside.

Belgian filmmaker Chantal Akerman’s revered 1975

arthouse slow-burner Jeanne Dielman, 23 Quai Du Commerce,

1080 Bruxelles was another influence on The Assistant’s

rhythms. And the way Green’s compositions nudge Garner

to the fringes echoes Todd Haynes’ framing of Julianne

Moore in his chilly illness allegory Safe. “I didn’t want to

do anything flashy with the camera,” says Green. “I wanted

it to be about Jane, not about how cool we were as a film

team. The visual language was simple: it was about the

office slowly swallowing her up, or the way that in the HR

scene she sinks lower and lower into the frame.”

Whereas a documentary treatment of the material

might have kept Jane feeling at arm’s length, Green’s

fictionalised take achieves an emotionally charged

immediacy. “I wanted to put audiences in the shoes of

the person with the least power at a company like this

and to have an authentic experience at being in her shoes.

I didn’t want to montage it, or fill it with music and make

it an easy ride. I wanted the audience to go through what

she went through.”

JANE AND GAINS

One factor that reinforces the difficulties faced by Jane is the

timeframe in which the film takes place. “The Assistant is

technically a period piece,” says Green, “because it almost

takes place before the rise of the #MeToo movement, before

we had the language to speak about this conduct in a way.

The reality of a lot of women who worked in these

environments with predatory men was that there

wasn’t anything you could say. Or you weren’t sure who

you could trust, or where to go to if you had concerns. If it

was set today, hopefully there would be a way for her to

speak up, or a path forward.”

A number of films, TV shows and off-screen decisions

have attempted to find the path forward and nurture the

language required to navigate it. Early changes in the film

industry included actors dropped from films and shows,

Kevin Spacey being a foremost example. The Time’s Up

movement raised money and pressed for gender parity,

pay equity and increased representation. Inclusion riders

have been instated and intimacy coordinators introduced,

the latter on the behest of the actor Emily Meade for HBO’s

The Deuce. The Producers Guild of America established

anti-sexual harassment guidelines, with Wonder Woman 1984

as an early adoptee.

On-screen, recent takes on the post-#MeToo discussion

have proliferated, if not as swiftly as might be hoped. On the

documentary front, Leaving Neverland and Surviving R Kelly

broke ground. More recent examples include HBO Max’s On

The Record, which details former A&R executive Drew

Dixon’s allegations against hip-hop mogul Russell Simmons.

Happy Happy Joy Joy, a film about ’90s cult animation The Ren

& Stimpy Show, addresses allegations about the show’s creator

John Kricfalusi. In fiction, Promising Young Woman explores the

idea of vengeance against self-styled ‘nice guys’. Bombshell

explores the real-life allegations at the heart of a media

giant, a theme also interrogated in HBO’s Succession and Apple

TV+’s The Morning Show. And while films from The Wife to

Hustlers also, arguably, speak loudly to #MeToo-era audiences,

The Invisible Man offers a hugely successful pointer as to how

genre cinema can learn from the movement’s lessons.

For Green, one encouraging result is an environment

in which women can feel supported as filmmakers.

“Almost all the events at [indie film festival] Sundance

I went to were women and film events,” she continues.

“We had time to sit down and talk about our work together.

That felt like the creative support network we need between

female filmmakers.”

As for films being made about #MeToo and women’s

experiences, Green favours a guarded optimism. “Obviously

there’s been a few, although a lot have been directed by men.

I’m not the biggest fan of Bombshell but I’ve seen some great

films by women in the last month, like Eliza Hittman’s Never

Rarely Sometimes Always or Garrett Bradley’s Time.

“I see changes happening slowly. My friends who are

female filmmakers are getting opportunities that I don’t think

they were getting a few years ago. We just need to get more

women making movies and in positions of power at these

companies – all that needs to change. I don’t know how to but

the more conversations we can have about that – and not just

about Harvey Weinstein – the better.” Meanwhile, Jane’s

enforced silence reminds us of the need to keep the

conversation going.

THE ASSISTANT IS COMING SOON.

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