Maggie Gyllenhaal’s new film The Bride has an absolutely star-studded cast, with the actor-turned-director’s movie being led by her The Dark Knight co-star Christian Bale, Oscar nominee Jessie Buckley, and her brother Jake.
If this incredible cast of celebrity faces was not enough to turn heads however, the film’s shocking content might cause viewers to perk up their ears.
Gyllenhaal has spoken out about how the film went through extensive test screenings, with many of the viewers being left uncomfortable by its sexual violence, and one Warner Bros executive giving her a major warning about the movie.
The Bride! is a reimagined version of the story of Frankenstein. Set in 1930s Chicago it sees Annette Benning’s Dr. Euphronious attempting to bring a murder young woman back to life in order to be a companion for Frankenstein’s monster.
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With Christian Bale playing Frankenstein’s monster and Jessie Buckley playing his bride, and first reactions following the premiere have been unanimously positive.
Rachel Leishman, the Editor-in-Chief of Mary Sue, said: “The Bride is a love letter to storytelling, science fiction, movies, and so much more. A breathtaking look at Frankenstein and his love and a truly brilliant performance from both Jessie Buckley and Christian Bale. Maggie Gyllenhaal made something so special.”
Despite this though Gyllenhaal seemed to imply that attempts were made to tone the film down.
Speaking on The New York Times’ The Interview podcast she spoke about the experience of screen testing the movie.
She said: “There’s sexual violence. There’s violence. Because it’s a big studio movie, we tested and tested it.
“We had big screenings in malls, where people came to see it, which I had never been a part of as an actress or a director before.
“One of the things that they brought up was the violence: Is it too violent?”
Gyllenhaal said she spoke to a girlfriend of hers who said: “I wonder if you had been a man making this movie, if you would have had the same response.”
She added that Warner Bros had request certain scenes of violence be taken out, saying that ‘so you’re seeing is even a little bit pulled back from what was originally in the movie’.
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The director said: “I [also] want to talk about the sexual violence, because that’s another thing that I have been taken to task for… in the test screenings.
“I had a couple of women say, ‘I don’t want to see a woman being violated.’ And I think, I also don’t want to see that.
“Yet that is a major reality in the culture that we’re living in — just in the time I was cutting this movie, how much wildly disturbing brutality against women there has been in the world.
“So if we’re going to see it, we need to see it in a way that is very hard to watch, because it is very awful.”
She stated that she was warned by Warner Bros executive Pam Abdy: “Maggie, you cannot have Frankenstein lick black vomit off the Bride’s neck. It’s just too much. You can’t do it.”
The Bride! releases in cinemas 6 March.
Topics: Christian Bale, Warner Bros, TV and Film, Film, Sex and Relationships
Michael Slavin