When Joanna Arnow was in the fourth grade, she was cast as a hedgehog in her school play. The hedgehog, it must be noted, was the starring role. "I was like, 'I really must play that one role of the leader of the hedgehog, but what are the chances that of all these kids, I would get that part?" Looking back now, she says that's when she first decided she wanted to be an actor when she grew up. "One of my sisters always reminds me that my career has been all downhill from there."
Arnow briefly put aside her acting ambitions to study filmmaking at Wesleyan University. "I actually wasn't expecting to come back to the acting part, but I'm really excited that I did." After graduating, she helmed the 2013 documentary i hate myself :), about her yearlong relationship with a performance artist provocateur. Her 2015 short film Bad at Dancing, in which Arnow stars, won a Berlinale Silver Bear Jury Prize.
"I wrote my first short not necessarily knowing that I was going to act in it," the filmmaker explains. "But I decided to start casting myself because my films often draw on personal experience in some shape or form, and so I hoped it would add more authenticity. And then I got interested in exploring this deadpan humor, self-deprecating persona."
Her first feature-length film is The Feeling That the Time for Doing Something Has Passed, which Arnow wrote, directed, edited and stars in as Ann, a thirtysomething woman navigating the mundanity of her daily life: A corporate job, a meddlesome family, and a long-term BDSM relationship with an older man. The film is not autobiographical, Arnow makes clear, but it is autofiction.
"I wanted to mine [my life] to create a story that, I hope, resonates with audiences and that I could dig more deeply into the specifics of humor," she says. "I definitely am excited about all the ways that it draws on personal experience as well. I cast my own parents to play the parents, and I cast myself to play a stand-in for myself. It says on LinkedIn that I used to be a clinical e-learning media specialist, which is a title referenced in the film. A lot of the locations we shot in were the places the scenes happened. I did things like record sounds of my upstairs neighbors to use in the sound design. It's just having personal touches throughout."
Here, Arnow shares with A.frame five of the films she is most inspired by, including the Oscar-nominated comedy that she says is the hardest she's ever laughed in a movie theater.
Directed by: Bob Fosse | Written by: Robert Alan Aurthur and Bob Fosse
I saw All That Jazz for the first time in college, and I was just blown away. It is one of the most masterful films of all time. I think what's exciting to me about that film is the way it explores how art and life can become entwined, and the narratives can grow to become like each other. It feels like a movie where things that are joyful and painful are two sides of the same coin, and I really enjoy the beauty of that.
Directed by: Tsai Ming-liang | Written by: Tsai Ming-liang, Yi-chun Tsai, and Pi-ying Yang
Tsai Ming-liang's films have long been a reference for me. I first saw his films in an East Asian cinema class, which was amazing — we saw so much great stuff. And I like how he uses this minimalist style to give the audience space to explore the absurd sexual comedy of his off-kilter worlds.
Written and Directed by: Maren Ade
Toni Erdmann is a realistic film, but the plot has its slight absurdity to it. I like how that absurdity is used to explore this central father-daughter relationship in a very true and exciting way and from this angle you don't expect. The physical comedy is just off the charts. I saw that one at the New York Film Festival, and it's the longest I've ever laughed and the loudest I've laughed in a movie theater.
Directed by: Jane Campion | Written by: Helen Garner
I really love all of Jane Campion's films, including Bright Star, Angel at My Table, The Piano, Sweetie — all of them. But I saw Two Friends recently, and I felt that she puts you so much with the characters. Often, friendships can go through these ebbs and flows, and I really liked her exploration of the dissolution of this friendship. And the very gentle, thoughtful, considerate way that the structure mirrored the story. It really packed a punch.
Directed by: Norman Jewison | Written by: John Patrick Shanley
Moonstruck is one I regularly go back to. I love watching all the actors, but especially Cher and Nic Cage. And the dialogue scenes are incredible. "I lost my hand! I lost my bride!" When I see a scene like that, I want to watch it every morning, because I think it just makes your day better. But Moonstruck shows such a idiosyncratic world with very specifically drawn people. I just think it's a special one. I like that it's a comedy about folks who are slightly older as well, and not your typical rom-com heroines.
