Filmmaker Liza Johnson, the Director of “Return”

Just one American film was screened at Cannes’ prestigious Directors Fortnight Series.  The honor went to Liza Johnson, who presented Return; her debut feature tells the story of a woman’s homecoming from War.  Linda Cardellini (from ER and Freaks and Geeks) plays the female Odysseus who craves the normalcy of home, yet experiences a disconnect when finally there. Not yet shown in the US, the film has been sold to four markets already.  Johnson who wrote, directed and produced Return, is a filmmaker, artist and writer.  She’s been a fellow at the Sundance Institute, where she worked on this project. Johnson’s short films have been exhibited internationally at the Museum of Modern Art, and the Centre Pompidou among others, as well as the Berlin, Rotterdam and New York Film Festivals.  Other producers supporting the film were Meredith Vieira (of the View, 60 Minutes)  and Abigail Disney, who produced the documentary and rare peace narrative, Pray the Devil Back to Hell.

What was it like to have your first feature accepted at Cannes?
 
It was really shocking.  I thought I’d be looking at a long summer waiting for the main festivals.  As a matter of fact, I was fighting with the producers who wanted me to finish--saying ‘why do we have to finish so quickly, can’t we give sound guy some more time?’ But it was good that I listened. I finished it Wednesday and screened it in France that Saturday.  The Directors fortnight has a very international selection, which are not all small films, but I thought the program was very intriguing.  There was a lot of really bold filmmaking
 
What made you want to tell this story?

There were two things two things that motivated me:  I wanted to film in a place  like where I grew up in Ohio-- the de-industrialized middle of the country.  Secondly, I had a good talk with a friend of mine, a man who was a marine and very articulate about how he was trying to keep his marriage together after coming home from war.
 
The situation asked questions about the limits of empathy when someone has been in a very extreme situation and the other has been immersed in our banal American life.  
 
Obviously, there are a lot of women coming home from military now. But I started writing this a few years ago when there wasn’t a lot of news about women vets. Through a friend, I met a lot of women marines.
 
The woman in my film is a national guard solider who goes back into a civilian world,  whereas when my Marine friend comes home he’s at a base with people who have been where he has been.  However, my character is around people who have not experienced what she has, so the story asks you to think about the limits of understanding.  
 
Is there a difference in the way that men and women experience their homecomings?

Men’s and women’s stories have a lot in common. Many of the women I talked to did take an interest in their being women and had specific things to say related to gender.  I don’t know if many claimed that it was harder it’s just that they had ways of specific ways of experiencing it.

Do you think your film sets a new standard for a new kind of Bechdel test?
I think the Bechdel test is pretty good: are there more than two women in the film, do they talk about something other than a man?   But I think it’s exciting to have films with big female leads.  That was one of the most exciting things about Cannes was to see so many amazing actresses getting to do their work.  There were also what they consider a large number of films by women. I loved the Lynne Ramsay film-- if that does not pass that test then they should change the test.   
 
How does Return relate to your previous work?
 
There is one through line in my work about everyday life.  I did a film about hurricane Katrina.  I did another about the town I grew up in Ohio.  I just shot something in Australia with a group of people who wanted to do a film about the struggles of their everyday life.  And the one thing these films have in common is their register of everyday life, I think a lot of intense and interesting things take place in the everyday.

How can you explain this success?

I think we worked hard and the film turned out well, and I think people admire the film because the performances are so strong. Linda's performance is really demanding people's attention.  She is a really hard worker and an impressive talent, and Michael Shannon and John Slattery are also fantastic to work with and they do great work in their roles.

So I think it's a credit to them, and a credit to the crew, that people like the film.  There is also an element of good fortune. You can make a film and no one can care about it.  There were a lot of opportunities for the film to collapse in preproduction, but the support from Sundance and Linda and the independent film community that we were able to keep things together.  
 
Linda is awesome and is pretty committed to the project.  She did a lot of research, she did to build her character.  It made her have a commitment to the story.
 
Your film might be the first time the Odysseus story is told with a woman, maybe that gives it special power?  

I do think that even the aspects of Kelli's (the protagonist) experience that are common to men and women feel surprising in the film because people are not as familiar with the stories of women soldiers. People are surprised, for example, to see the protagonist's husband and imagine that he's been taking care of their kids alone for a year. You feel the work of his caretaking in a different way because people don’t expect it in the same.  Plus he’s been taking care of those babies for a year.  Everyone thinks it’s normal when a woman takes care of the babies for a year without a husband.

interview condensed and edited by Amy-Willard Cross