Todd Solondz

Happiness

About the film

Writer/director Todd Solondz describes his new film “Happiness” as “a series of

intertwining love stories, stories of connections missed and made between people, how
people always struggle to make a connection, and to what degree they succeed or don't.”
Written in the fall of 1996, “Happiness” follows a complex storyline woven through the
lives of almost a dozen central characters. Because it does not focus on a single protagonist,
says producer Ted Hope, the screenplay evolved into a much more ambitious undertaking
than Solondz' earlier film, the acclaimed “Welcome to the Dollhouse.”
The two films, however, have several elements in common.
For one, both were set and filmed in the American suburbs ó New Jersey, specifically,
where Solondz grew up, with additional scenes for “Happiness” shot in Boca Raton,
Florida.
Both also explore the “demonic side of our nature,” in Solondz' words, although some of
the subject matter in the new film is “more disturbing, more taboo, than in “Dollhouse.'“
Suburbia is an environment he is drawn to less for the underlying darkness, which many
filmmakers have looked at in recent years, than for the chance to “honestly examine the
appeal of living in this kind of world,” he says, “how it pulls on us and perhaps pushes us
away.”

The Director's Vision

Finally, both works are unmistakably true to the Solondz vision, which Hope characterizes
as “comedic tragedy. Todd knows how to maintain that fine balance between heartbreak
and humor. You're often unsure whether to laugh or cry.”
Solondz himself agrees that “it's hard to separate what I find funny from what I'm moved
by. These are the two currents at work in me: There's a humor in some things that, at the
same time, are disturbing and sadden us.... These characters are interesting not because
they're dysfunctional,' but because they have real problems, crushing hardships, moral
dilemmas, and so forth, and yet they somehow still manage to get up in the morning.”
Producer Christine Vachon says it is precisely the risky nature of Solondz' vision that
attracted her to “Happiness.” “The projects I take on have something provocative about
them that excites me,” says Vachon. “Any time a film stirs up discussion and makes people
think about the status quo, I think it's good. So when I saw “Welcome to the Dollhouse”, I
knew that it was one of the few independent films I wished I had produced. Todd has a take
on the world that is very special. So I met with him to let him know I wanted to work
together. He did not disappoint at all.”

Casting
Casting, says Vachon, is critical to Solondz, and for this film it was “a very meticulous
process. I think it paid off,” she continues. “All his choices were stellar. That's crucial since
this is a very performance-driven film.”
Solondz looked for actors who could “bring authenticity to their performances,” he says.
Jane Adams (Joy), for instance, he describes as having “a wonderfully soft, appealing
quality that was very appropriate for the part, something almost naive she can project. Lara
Flynn Boyle (Helen) is attractive and sexy, as everyone knows, but not until I met her did I
realize how funny she is, in ways that haven't yet been exploited on screen, and I wanted
that acid quality for her role. And it's a real gift to have an actor like Cynthia Stevenson
(Trish) who doesn't work at being funny, but who's just naturally that way while also being
credible in a realistic portrayal of what otherwise could be a June Cleaver caricature.”
The director also cites Dylan Baker (Bill) for “being a very brave actor. He brings true
genius to his performance of a character who's very disturbing and unsympathetic, yet
whom he manages to make sympathetic.”
Although many actors tried to land the role of Allen, Solondz chose Philip Seymour
Hoffman because “he was so real, so in the moment that the decision was a real no-brainer,
as they say. And I wanted my lead characters to be played by people not overly familiar so
audiences would buy into this fictional reality I'm setting up,” he says.
On the other hand, he also supplied “certain flourishes” with actors like Jon Lovitz (Andy),
Marla Maples (Ann Chambeau) and, in larger roles, Ben Gazzara (Lenny), Elizabeth
Ashley (Diane) and Louise Lasser (Mona). “I wanted to exploit qualities of theirs in
unexpected ways,” Solondz explains. “For instance, teaming up the legendary 'Cassavetian'
actor Ben Gazzara with another legend, Elizabeth Ashley, as well as with the inimitable
Louise Lasser made for a very sad, moving and funny sequence.”

Provocative Material
Hope notes that “some of the material in this film is extremely provocative, even taboo.”
But in the hands of Solondz and his unusually gifted team of actors, he adds, “you
recognize the humanity in even the characters who transgress forbidden boundaries, you
can see their humanness despite what they may be doing.”
Since the critical and commercial success of “Welcome to the Dollhouse,” Solondz was
able to stretch beyond the meager production budget of that first, privately funded film,
enjoying both a “much more experienced production team,” he says, “and the lack of doubt
that the film was going to be finished. Add to that the two great indie moguls here in New
York (Vachon and Hope), who were completely supportive and made my job so much more
manageable and pleasurable, and I'm a pretty lucky guy.”

About the filmakers

Production Personnel
Todd Solondz

Writer/director Todd Solondz wrote, produced and directed the feature film “Welcome to
the Dollhouse,” winner of the 1996 Grand Jury Prize at the Sundance Film Festival. A
darkly humorous and disturbing portrait of pre-teenage life in modern suburbia, “Welcome
to the Dollhouse” premiered at the Toronto International Film Festival where it was quickly
picked up for distribution by Sony Picture Classics. The film has been released worldwide
to enormous critical and commercial success.
Solondz was born in Newark, NJ, and grew up in the suburbs. At New York University
Film School, he made three award-winning short films: “Feelings,” “Babysitter” and
“Schatt's Last Shot.” After film school, he made another short film, “How I Became a
Leading Artistic Figure in New York City's East Village Cultural Landscape,” for “Saturday
Night Live.”

Ted Hope
Producer Ted Hope founded Good Machine in 1991 with partner James Schamus, and
together they have produced some of the most notable independent features of recent years,
including Ang Lee's “The Ice Storm,” “The Wedding Banquet,” “Pushing Hands” and “Eat
Drink Man Woman.” The partners also executive produced Todd Haynes' “Safe,” Cindy
Sherman's “Office Killer,” Bart Freundlich's “The Myth of Fingerprints,” John O'Hagan's
“Wonderland” and two Sundance Grand Jury Prize Winners ó Edward Burns' first feature
“The Brothers McMullen” and Tom Noonan's “What Happened Was...”
Hope has also produced Burns' “She's The One,” Nicole Holofcener's “Walking and
Talking” and Hal Hartley's features “Flirt,” “Amateur” and “Simple Men.” Most recently
Hope produced Burns' “No Looking Back” with Burns and Michael Nozik. He is currently
in post-production on Bette Gordon's “Luminous Motion.” Hope is currently producing
Ang Lee's “Ride with the Devil” with Schamus and Bob Colesberry, for Universal Pictures.
In 1996 the partners were honored with the Gotham Producer of the Year Award from the
Independent Feature Project.
Christine Vachon
Christine Vachon recently produced Todd Haynes' “Velvet Goldmine,” which was selected
for official competition in the 1998 Cannes Film Festival. Other film credits include last
year's “Kiss Me, Guido” and Cindy Sherman's “Office Killer,” Todd Haynes' controversial
first feature “Poison,” which was awarded the Grand Jury Prize at the 1991 Sundance Film
Festival, and video artist Tom Kalin's first feature, “Swoon,” which received the coveted
Caligari Award at the 1992 Berlin Film Festival. She produced “I Shot Andy Warhol,” the
BBC production of “Stonewall,” Todd Haynes' second feature, “Safe,” Steve McLean's
“Postcards from America” and executive produced Rose Troche's “Go Fish.”
Partners with Pamela Koffler in the Killer Films production company, Vachon was awarded
the 1994 Frameline Award for Outstanding Achievement in Lesbian and Gay Media and the
1996 Muse Award for Outstanding Vision and Achievement by New York Women in Film
and Television. Vachon and Koffler are currently in post-production on “I'm Losing You,”
written and directed by Bruce Wagner. Vachon's first book, “Shooting to Kill: How an
Independent Producer Blasts through the Barriers to Make Movies that Matter,” will be
published this fall by Avon Books.

About the cast

Principal Players
Jane Adams
Jane Adams' film credits include Lawrence Kasdan's “Mumford,” Robert Altman's “Kansas
City,” Alan Rudolph's “Mrs. Parker and the Vicious Circle” and Barbet Schroeder's “Single
White Female.” On television, she has appeared in “Relativity,” “Life Lessons,” “Rising
Son,” episodes of “Family Ties,” “Tales from the Dark Side” and after-school specials.
For her work in the Broadway production of “I Hate Hamlet,” Adams won the Outer Critics
Circle Award for Outstanding Debut of an actress, the Theatre World Award, Clarene
Derwent Award and a Drama Desk nomination. She earned a Tony Award and a Drama
Desk Award for a featured actress in a play for her role in “An Inspector Calls.” Trained at
the Julliard School, Adams has also appeared in numerous Off-Broadway productions.

Elizabeth Ashley
Award-winning actress Elizabeth Ashley effortlessly traverses the worlds of film, television
and theatre. Her film credits include “Rancho Deluxe” with Jeff Bridges, “Coma” with
Michael Douglas, “Paternity” with Burt Reynolds, “Dragnet” with Tom Hanks and Dan
Aykroyd, as well as “The Carpetbaggers,” “Mall Rats” and “Sleeping Together.” On
television, she received an Emmy nomination for “Evening Shade,” a Cable ACE
nomination for “The Robe,” and has appeared in “The War between the Tates,” “The Two
Mrs. Grenvilles,” “Svengali” and “The Larry Sanders Show,” among others.
A stage veteran, Ashley received a Tony Award for “Take Her She's Mine” with Art Carney,
and Tony nominations for “Cat on a Hot Tin Roof” and “Barefoot in the Park” with Robert
Redford, among many other Broadway and Off-Broadway performances.

Dylan Baker
Dylan Baker will be seen this fall in Woody Allen's “Celebrity.” Other films include “True
Blue, “Disclosure,” “Radioland Murders,” “Life with Mikey,” “Delirious,” “Planes, Trains
and Automobiles” and “Talk Radio.” Baker earned a Theatre World Award for his work in
the Broadway production of “Eastern Standard” and an Obie Award for the Off-Broadway
play “Not About Heroes.” Other theatre credits include “La Bete,” for which he received
both Tony and Drama Desk award nominations, “Pride's Crossing” and “Dearly Departed.”
On television, Baker was a series regular on “Murder One” and “Feds.” Other television
credits include roles in “From the Earth to the Moon,” “Return to Lonesome Dove” and
“Mafia Marriage.”

Lara Flynn Boyle

Lara Flynn Boyle stars as Helen Gamble in the ABC series “The Practice.” Previously, she
starred in David Lynch's hit series “Twin Peaks” and, opposite Billy Baldwin, in the highly
publicized movie of the week “The Preppy Murder.”
Her film work includes Alan Rudolph's “Afterglow,” starring Nick Nolte and Julie Christie,
and “Equinox,” as well as “Red Rock West,” Alan Parker's “The Road to Wellville,” Clint
Eastwood's “The Rookie,” “Wayne's World,” Andrew Fleming's “Threesome” and Mark
Rocco's “Where the Day Takes You.”

Ben Gazzara
Ben Gazzara studied at the City College of New York and Erwin Piscator's Dramatic
Workshop at the New School for Social Research, and was a member of the Actors Studio
in its early years. He has received many awards for his theatre work in Calder
Winningham's “End as A Man,” Elia Kazan's production of “Cat on a Hot Tin Roof,”
Michael Gazzo's “A Hatful of Rain,” Eugene O'Neill's “Strange Interlude” and Edward
Albee's “Who's Afraid of Virginia Woolf?” among others.
His television career has been rich and varied, especially notable for “QB VII,” which was
the first mini-series in television history, and his groundbreaking weekly show “Run for
Your Life.” In film, he worked with John Cassavetes on “Husbands,” “The Killing of a
Chinese Bookie” and “Opening Night,” Peter Bogdanovich on “Saint Jack” and “They All
Laughed,” Otto Preminger on “Anatomy of a Murder” and David Mamet on “The Spanish
Prisoner.” His recent films include the Coen Brothers' “The Big Lebowski,” Vincent Gallo's
“Buffalo 66,” Wonsuk Chin's “Too Tired to Die” and John Turturro's “Illuminata.”

Jared Harris
After completing studies at Duke University and the prestigious Central School in London,
Jared Harris joined the Royal Shakespeare Company where he created bravura
performances in “Hamlet,” “Romeo and Juliet,” “Silent Woman” and “A Clockwork
Orange.” He appeared in New York Public Theater productions of “King Lear” and “'Tis a
Pity She's a Whore,” “Henry IV” at the New York Shakespeare Festival and the off-
Broadway play “Ecstasy,” for which he garnered an Obie Award. He recently formed the
Shinachie Theater Company in New York which premiered its first production last spring.
The son of actor Richard Harris, Jared is quickly becoming one of Hollywood's most
prolific second-generation actors. Recent film credits include: “Lost in Space”; “Father's
Day”; Sundance Film Festival winners “Sunday” (Best Film, Best Screenplay) and
“Hurricane” (Audience Award); “Dead Man”; “I Shot Andy Warhol”; and director Wayne
Wang's films “Smoke” and “Blue in the Face.” Harris can be seen in the upcoming films
“Nora,” starring Alison Elliot and Christopher Walken, “Gold in the Streets” and Michael
Radford's “B. Monkey.”

Philip Seymour Hoffman

Since graduating from NYU's Tisch School of the Arts, Philip Seymour Hoffman has
amassed an impressive list of film and theatre credits. His motion picture work includes:
the Coen Brothers' “The Big Lebowski,” “Montana,” Brad Anderson's “Next Stop
Wonderland,” “Boogie Nights,” “Twister,” “Nobody's Fool,” “When a Man Loves a
Woman,” “The Getaway,” “Money for Nothing,” Martin Brest's “Scent of a Woman,” “Joey
Breaker” and “My New Gun.”
Hoffman's stage highlights include Jane Anderson's “Defying Gravity” at American Place
Theatre, “Merchant of Venice,” directed by Peter Sellars and performed at the Goodman
Theatre in Chicago and throughout Europe, and Williamstown Theatre Festival productions
of “Henry IV” and “Mother Courage.”

Louise Lasser
Accclaimed for her ability to make audiences laugh and cry at the same time, Louise Lasser
became one of the most well known personalities in television when she created the title
character in the innovative sitcom “Mary Hartman, Mary Hartman” in the late 1970s. She
appeared in episodes of “The Mary Tyler Moore Show,” “The Bob Newhart Show,” “Taxi”
and “Empty Next,” and hosted “Saturday Night Live.”
Her film credits include “The Night We Never Met”; three films by Woody Allen (her
former husband): “Bananas,” “Take the Money and Run” and “Everything You Always
Wanted to Know About Sex”; “Slither”; and televised productions of “Isn't It Shocking?”
and Ingmar Bergman's “The Lie.” She contributed to the writing of Allen's “What's Up
Tiger Lily?” and wrote the screenplay for “Just Me and You,” in which she also starred.
Lasser has also appeared in several Broadway productions.

Camryn Manheim
Camryn Manheim's films include “Eraser,” “Romy and Michelle's High School Reunion,”
“You Are Here,” “The Road to Wellville,” “Bonfire of the Vanities” and “Sudden Impact.”
On television, she has been a series regular on “The Practice,” for which she recently
received an Emmy Award, and made guest appearances on “Touched by an Angel,”
“Chicago Hope” and four episodes of “Law & Order.”
Among her theatrical credits are a recent one-woman show “Wake Up, I'm Fat,” an Obie
Award for her work in “Missing Persons,” and a variety of roles in contemporary and
Shakespearean plays ranging from “Two Gents of Verona” with the New York Shakespeare
Festival to “Sin” at Second Stage.

Cynthia Stevenson
Cynthia Stevenson is currently starring in Lifetime Television's original series “Oh, Baby.”
Her film credits include Jodie Foster's “Home for the Holidays” and “Forget Paris,” starring
and directed by Billy Crystal. Other film credits include Juliana Lavin's “Live Nude Girls,”
Alan Moyle's “The Gun in Betty Lou's Handbag,” “Watch It,” directed by Tom Flynn and
Robert Altman's classic “The Player.”
Stevenson has performed as a series regular on “Hope and Gloria,” “Bob,” “Married to the
Mob” and “Off the Wall.” Other television credits include: the movies-of-the-week “From
the Earth to the Moon,” “Crime Diaries,” “A Father's Homecoming” and “Max Headroom”;
guest appearances on “Dream On,” “Major Dad,” “Empty Nest,” “Booker,” “The Famous
Teddy Z,” “Cheers” (recurring), and “We've Got It Made”; and a starring role in the series
“My Talk Show.”

Stills

Jane Adams
Ben Gazzara and Elizabeth Ashley

Dylan Baker

Cynthia Stevenson, Rufus Reed and Justin Elvin

Phillip Seymour Hoffman and Camryn Manheim

Rufus Reed
Phillip Seymour Hoffman

Jon Lovitz and Jane Adams

Jared Harris

Marla Maples and Louise Lasser

Lara Flynn Boyle

Interview
Todd Solondz on “Welcome to the Dollhouse”
by Lisa Nesselson
A year ago I was despondent - now I'm living the dream of any young filmmaker,” says
Todd Solondz, the gifted 36-year-old writer/director of “Welcome to the Dollhouse,” the
unsettling, cruel and perversely entertaining indie film that won the Grand Prize at the 1996
Sundance Film Festival and seems to have a good shot at a prize here in Deauville where it
is the last of ten films to be presented in competition. “The title I wanted was “Faggots and
Retards”,” says Todd, smiling rather sweetly. “This is the language that kids use on a daily
basis.”

At least they don't miss an opportunity to use it whenever Dawn “Wienerdog” Wiener is on
hand, trying desperately to fit in. Dawn, played to earnest, geeky perfection by Heather
Matarazzo, now 13, is the designated all-purpose scapegoat and outcast of her 7th grade
class at a junior high school in suburban New Jersey. “I made this a brutal, acid sort of
movie with a little girl at the center,” says Todd of his film, the merciless yet nuanced
portrait of an ugly duckling who's not going to turn into a swan anytime soon. “Grown-ups
know which things really matter,” Todd adds, “but when you're a kid everything is a matter
of life or death.”

With it's sardonic but tellingly true-to-life episodes of taunting, tattling, teasing and
testiness from peers and the thoughtless workaday favoritism of Dawn's own parents as
they lavish attention on her disgustingly adorable little sister, “Dollhouse” is the kind of
film critics grow extra arms to embrace and the general public sometimes grows extra legs
to flee. Sartre's catchy tag line - Hell is other people - sums up the spiffy socio-comic
undercurrent of “Dollhouse” as it follows Dawn's infernal existence. (Sartre is no longer
with us, but perhaps he would have enjoyed hearing one of the groups the film's composer
Jill Wisoff has performed with: Chocolate Bunnies from Hell.)

“Reviewers keep saying it's obviously autobiographical and if I were to make a Western, I
hope they'd say the same thing,” says Solondz, bemused. “Nothing in the movie actually
happened to me but in a way it's as if it had. But just for the record, “ - Todd pushes up his
oversized glasses as the early afternoon sun hits his Adams apple - “I was not a little girl. I
don't have a little sister and so on and so forth. There is no stand-in for me.”

“Dollhouse” is a concise 87-minute argument against having a family. Does Solondz think
there's any socialization process that's NOT destructive? “Certainly there's a universality of
experience in the farewell to childhood,” Solondz opines. “There's almost a sort of primal
aspect to it. Some cultures foster the behavior more than others - I'm sure America's pretty
high on the list. I imagine Margaret Mead might have found places where they're all very
nice to each other.”
As it turns out, the popular “kids” weren't very nice to “Dollhouse” at first. “Cannes
rejected it, Venice rejected it, Telluride rejected it,” says Todd, reeling off the names of
prominent film festivals. “Toronto was the turning point. “Dollhouse” has a little girl being
picked on, after all - but people bought the movie and it's gonna make money.”

Good, I say. There are far too many movies that try to get at the essential decency of
people. Solondz takes glee in nailing the prevailing cruelty and one-upsmanship at large in
many a cherished institution. “Dollhouse” is the true, equally funny, flip side of “Clueless”
that proves there is indeed more to life than shopping - there's mental anguish, familial and
broader social persecution and the torturous stirrings of pubescent hormones coupled with
the soul-deadeningly cheerful veneer of suburbia.

“In American films, this period of life is not treated seriously,” says Solondz, mentioning
classics of adolescent angst like “Les 400 coups” or “Pixote”. “You have either the cute and
cuddly Disney kid or the evil devil monster. For me it's fertile territory - middle class kids
growing up in the suburbs.” Todd especially relished the chance to capture “that
correctional facility architecture that is endemic to the landscape of American suburbia.”

After a few of his NYU Film School short films drew attention in the 1980s, Solondz was
offered three-picture deals by two major Hollywood studios. But his feature debut, 1989's
“Fear, Anxiety and Depression” went nowhere fast and Solondz dropped out of showbiz.
After a few years of “happily teaching English to recent Russian immigrants,” Todd
decided to jump back into the creative fray when a lawyer friend said she could arrange
financing for a low-budget effort.

Solondz says he took it as a compliment when parents of prospective cast members called
the script “sickening” or “depressing” since that jibes perfectly with the world he was
trying to portray. The film was shot in the summer of 1994 in West Caldwell, New Jersey.

Now go buy a ticket or I'll tell everybody you're a retard and you eat boogers.

Review
“Happiness”
by Jason Gorber
New Jersey has seen the emergence of two extremely quirky filmmakers - Kevin Smith,
auteur of such films as CLERKS and CHASING AMY, and Todd Solondz, bespectacled
brain behind WELCOME TO THE DOLLHOUSE.; His latest film, HAPPINESS, is a
challenging, messed up film about finding happiness in even the most depressing or
depraved of places.
This sentiment, of course, is tied strongly to the locale of Jersey itself.; Finding beauty in
the banal is an art that both NJ directors excel at.; The issues of paedophilia and juvenile
rape get all the press, but in the end Solondz’s film dexterously creates a world where
happiness often covers up great despair.; It is the unravelling of the American suburban
dream, showing that underneath the Tuperware and linoleum sheen lies an ugly mass of
guilt, duplicity, and evil.
The performances are brilliant, skating the thin blade separating disgust from irony.; It is
truly a challenging film, and not for everyone.; However, it is most obviously the mark of
an exceptional filmmaker, one who can confidently probe unnerving elements of the human
psyche while remaining consistent in tone.; The film is disturbing, but rarely gratuitous.; It
is the unhappy side of happiness stretched out, eviscerated, and left out to smell.; Bordering
on the pedagogical, the film definitely exposes some unpalatable elements of the American
psyche.; It its own, sick way, the film remains enjoyable.