Ten years after ‘The Love Witch,’ the director opens up exclusively to Variety about her stunning new film premiering at TIFF. Plus see an exclusive clip from the film. That is how Anna Biller, the auteur behind “The Love Witch,” describes the climax of her arresting new film “The Face of Horror” — a Medieval tale of a chauvinist knight, Edward (Jonah Hauer-King), desiring to leave his hopelessly devoted wife, Eleanor (Kristine Froseth), for Isabel (Bella Heathcote), a glamorous queen who can give him the life he thinks he deserves.
The only things standing in his way are Eleanor’s self-possessed sister, Beatrice (Ellie Bamber), and… Eleanor’s ghost. Written and directed by Biller, and adapted from the Japanese ghost story “Yotsuya Kaidan,” the uproariously entertaining film will make its world premiere at the Toronto International Film Festival, where it’s hoping to attract a distributor. It’s also bursting with color and gleefully fun performances, whilst showcasing Biller’s unique command of mise-en-scène, from its sumptuous sets and dazzling costumes to the jewelry she says she spent two years sourcing.
To capture the vintage look she wanted, Biller opted for sets with high ceilings in order to bathe her troupe in soft overhead lighting, and no wide-angle shots. The result is an old-school epic that still feels refreshingly modern. Biller spoke with Variety about “The Face of Horror” and so much more head of its TIFF debut.
I always try to think about how we talk about this stuff without women objectified and without it being a spectacle of women’s suffering. The movie could have been a lot scarier, but it was a choice to make this movie not about Eleanor’s monstrosity, but a lot about her relationship with her sister. We don’t get to watch the spectacle of an abject, suffering woman for the majority of the screen time, as that’s something I refused to do.
I’m such a huge fan of noir films. The spectacle of a powerful, disruptive woman changed into the spectacle of a woman running, crying and screaming, and the woman isn’t self-possessed in beautiful makeup and clothing but falling down in the mud. Why didn’t we continue with the strong, dangerous woman that was powerful?
Why do we have these women who are either cartoonishly evil or weak and suffering? As a fan of classic movies, I miss all those characters that we don’t have anymore. Barbara Stanwyck would never be dragged through the mud looking awful.
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