Josephine Decker’s “Shirley”

The New Yorker Radio Hour

WNYC Studios and The New Yorker

News, Wnyc, David, Arts, Yorker, Society & Culture, Storytelling, Books, New, Remnick, Politics

4.2 • 6.2K Ratings

🗓️ 9 June 2020

⏱️ 12 minutes

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Summary

The film critic Richard Brody regards Josephine Decker as one of the best directors of her generation, and picked her 2018 film “Madeline’s Madeline” as his favorite of the year. Decker, he says, reinvents “the very stuff of movies—image, sound, performance—with each film.” Decker’s new film is “Shirley,” starring Elisabeth Moss as the unique horror author Shirley Jackson. In it, Decker dives deeper into the themes that have also shaped her previous works: the creative drives and the relationships of women. Decker tells Brody that, though the film may be a step toward mainstream, she remains guided by “poetic logic.”

Transcript

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0:00.0	This is The New Yorker Radio Hour, a co-production of WNYC Studios and The New Yorker.
0:10.4	This is The New Yorker Radio Hour. I'm David Remnick. I've been seeing and talking about movies with the New Yorker film critic Richard Brody for decades. He rarely leads me wrong, and I can't remember the last time that
0:23.4	Richard was as excited about a filmmaker as he is about the director Josephine Decker. In 2014,
0:30.3	he wrote a piece about Decker with the headline, A Star is Born, and her film,
0:34.7	Madeline's Madeline, was Richard's pick, whether you heard of it or not, for the best
0:39.5	movie of 2018. Josephine Decker's new film is called Shirley, and it stars Elizabeth Moss as the writer's
0:47.3	Shirley Jackson.
0:49.3	I have a title. Hangs a man. It's about that girl. The missing one. The Weldon girl.
0:57.0	What do you think? Well, you haven't said much.
1:01.0	It's just an idea. I can try something else.
1:07.0	Disappearing college girl sounds trite and a bit trashy, but, uh, you know, give it a go.
1:12.6	I'll read, of course, before you wade too far in.
1:15.6	It's going to take some time.
1:17.6	Give it to me in a couple of days.
1:19.6	It's a novel.
1:22.6	Oh, no, dear. That's...
1:25.6	You're not... You're just not up to it.
1:32.6	You're wrong.
1:34.6	That was Elizabeth Moss as Shirley Jackson.
1:37.6	And Richard Brody joins me now.
1:39.3	Richard, what is it about Josephine Decker's work that you love so much?
1:45.0	Well, very simply, Josephine Decker is one of the very few filmmakers who seem to be reinventing the very stuff of movies, image, sound, performance with each film.
	...

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