“Precious” Screenwriter Screens New Film at Conn

When Geoffrey Fletcher crept quietly into Film 222 to sit in on a class discussion of Precious, I could feel the hairs on everyone’s neck — including mine — rise. The screenwriter of the 2009 film was visiting us, so the ante had definitely been upped. After a minute or so of adjusting to the presence of our esteemed guest, everyone started to resume normal class discussion behavior, as Fletcher scribbled notes down on a piece of paper but remained silent.
When only a couple of minutes were left, Fletcher finally chimed in. Taking a second to gather his thoughts, he addressed the class: “First of all, I’d like to say you guys are great…way better than the critics.” We laughed, collectively breathing a deep sigh of relief that our visitor not only approved, but also enjoyed, our discourse. Responding to several student comments, Fletcher built upon notions that we’d debated, adding his insider knowledge, remarking that a key scene to understanding a character’s perception of herself was missing, although with no time left in class, Fletcher wasn’t able to communicate why the scene had been cut.
That evening, his new film Violet and Daisy was shown at Evans Hall. As people spilled into the aisles, the native New Londoner took the stage to say a few quick words about the film, which he wrote and directed. Dressed to the nines in an elegant three-piece suit, Fletcher asked the audience how many of us had seen Precious, his screenwriting debut. Most of us raised our hands earnestly; we had been affected by Fletcher’s moving script and eagerly anticipated what was to come.
“This is very different,” Fletcher stated, chuckling softly. The audience, enthralled by his smooth persona, laughed back.
“You’ve got to stay to the end of this one… so, please, don’t leave.”
Violet and Daisy is nothing like the honest and brutal story told in Precious. The tale, in the director’s own words, is a blend of “comic books, crime and coming of age.” This time Fletcher has chosen two female protagonists. Riffing off of the archetypal figure of the ingénue, Violet and Daisy tells the story of two young, materialistic girls with unknown backgrounds who have become partnered assassins — assassins based in Harlem, one might add. Starring a remarkable cast including Saoirse Ronan, Alexis Bledel, James Gandolfini and his Soprano co-star John Ventimiglia, Violet and Daisy is a fantastical concoction that seeks to marry teenage badassery with the somber trials of an abandoned father.
After the credits rolled and the lights came up, Fletcher was courteous enough to take some questions from the curious audience. In keeping with his candid and casual persona, he answered several questions about specific symbols in his film by putting the question back to the audience member: “What do you think that represents?”
Stressing the importance of an individual’s own reading of a film, Fletcher explained his attitude towards the validity of multiple readings of his texts by comparing reading a film to reading song lyrics: “You know when you hear a song one way and then you go back and see that the actual lyrics are different, but you like your version more?” When someone asked him about the budget of his new film, the director acknowledged the question, but replied: “I believe I have the right not to answer that question.”
Fair enough.
Fletcher did, however, discuss some of the details of his film, noting that he shot Violet and Daisy on Anamorphic 35mm film, stating, “There’s nothing like it.” Perhaps his attachment to celluloid comes from his childhood, when he discovered the magic of stop-animation while playing with a camera and his G.I. Joe figurines. The rest of his education followed suit. Commenting on his undergraduate studies, he reflected: “Whenever I had the opportunity, I’d make a film instead of writing a paper.”
It’s difficult to believe that any of Fletcher’s films back then included the black humor of watching a young girl perform an “internal bleeding dance” on her dying adversary’s body, but with just two films under his belt, it’s a thrill to consider what this adventurous director’s next move might be.