This Week at IFP: Jeremy Saulnier and Macon Blair Talk ‘Blue Ruin’
by Erik Luers on April 27, 2014 in Uncategorized
One of the many perks of being an IFP member comes from the personal access to advanced screenings and visiting filmmakers making their presence known on a monthly basis. With Blue Ruin, a brutally haunting new feature from director Jeremy Saulnier, this past Monday served as a great example of the riveting, cutting-edge programming we feature.
The latest in our Screen Savers series, the film, a 2013 Cannes Film Festival winner (FIPRESCI International Critics Prize), follows a troubled loner named Dwight (Macon Blair) who loses control upon the announcement that the person who murdered his parents is being released from prison. Determined to seek vengeance, Dwight makes one daring decision after another, and is forced to deal (or rather, come to terms) with the consequences after the fact. Part road trip, part home invasion movie, Blue Ruin features a Shakespearean-like battle between two families who spill more blood than the Montagues and Capulets combined.
Jeremy Saulnier and Macon Blair, longtime friends who previously collaborated on the 2007 Slamdance winner, Murder Party, were the subject of a recent New York Times article that documented their friendship and the difficult path it took to get their latest feature on screen. “[Saulnier] found gratifying work,” the piece revealed, “as a cinematographer on well-reviewed indie films, including Putty Hill and Septien, but he held on to his goal of directing a film with his best friend in the lead role.” Putty Hill director Matthew Porterfield (also of the recent I Used to Be Darker) is currently the Media Center Artist in Residence and an IFP alum. Both Saulnier and Blair were on hand for the exclusive IFP member screening, partaking in an intimate Q&A after the event. When asked about the shocking, at times hard to watch violence in the film, Saulnier explained his reasons for going all out. “I wanted to make sure that if I do a genre film and there [would be] blood and guts, it would be troubling, awkward, blunt and stark,” Saulnier noted. One audience member stated that Blue Ruin brought to mind the film output of Joel and Ethan Coen. “The Coen brothers are, stylistically, my main influence when I make movies,” Saulnier admitted, “and the film was pitched as No Country For Old Men with a dipshit at the helm,” before also recalling that on the festival circuit, his film had been compared to Blood Simple.
Director Jeremy Saulnier and actor Macon Blair after a screening of Blue Ruin exclusive for IFP members.
Were there any problems on set? “The first day,” Blair remembered, “we rented a location via Craigslist and it wasn’t there. It forced Jeremy to make [the film] cleaner, quicker and I think it ended up working better in the end…No subsequent locations were booked through Craigslist!” As well as serving as Blue Ruin’s director, Saulnier also wrote the screenplay and shot the film himself; his leading man took on Executive Producer duties. “It’s tough wearing multiple hats,” said Saulnier, “and I don’t know what my process is due to most of my decisions being made under duress. The film was primarily done one-and-one, one gaffer, one grip….We grew up making films and there was no division of labor there.”
Blue Ruin is now playing in theaters and is available on Itunes and On Demand. It is being distributed by RADiUS TWC.