The_Film_That_Changed_My_Life

256 Neil LaBute
If I remember right, that’s from a construction site. He’s buying an
apartment that’s not even finished.
LaBute: Exactly. It’s literally exposed to the elements.
How has your perception of this film changed on subsequent
viewings?
LaBute: I’ve seen it at different times of my life and in different stages, and
I think it is fresh each time. But I haven’t lost my initial respect for it. And
it’s true that I probably admire more than love it. I think that’s partly due to
its construction, that kind of distance; there’s sort of Truffaut’s hand on your
chest, he doesn’t let you in completely.
He keeps you, he forces you as an outsider—you don’t choose an allegiance
with one character or get so deeply involved that you can’t see the
whole. If you’ve seen Godard’s My Life to Live, there are thirteen or however
many chapters of that film that chart this woman’s downfall, but it’s always,
it’s quite chilly in that distanced way. And I think there’s a bit of that here. It’s
not as inviting, although it’s so wonderfully juxtaposed with as rich a score
as there could be. I mean it’s such beautiful music, and yet the proceedings
are icy at times. You’re thinking, “Wow, this is really moving, and what I’m
being moved by is the music. It’s kind of inappropriately romantic, what
I’m watching.”
I was interested in how you see this film informing your own work and
if you’ve had any references or homages to it.
LaBute: Turn my own work on and you’ll see the direct influence. I mean
those are almost the same kinds of words used to describe Your Friends &
Neighbors or In the Company of Men—the ones that have come directly from
my own work.
The Mercy Seat, the play, hasn’t been a film, but my theater work is as
much of a part of me as my film. And that’s absolutely the same thing, the
story of a man who has the inability to choose. The themes have directly
influenced my work and that clinical approach of something like Carnal
Knowledge. So it’s hugely influential, as are a number of other things. But
absolutely, this film was.