“COUNTERTRANSFERENCE” INTERVIEW
May 29 | Author: Mike Plante
Madeleine Olnek is a filmmaker, playwright, and author. Her short HOLD UP played at Sundance and the Los Angeles Film Festival; her plays were described by Newsday as “Uproariously Neurotic Comedy.” COUNTERTRANSFERENCE won the jury prize at Outfest, The Adrienne Shelly Award for Best Female Director (CUfilmfest), and played at Sundance 2009.
COUNTERTRANSFERENCE is a comedy about therapy and all its discontents.
Tell us briefly about the film’s story, and what it means to you.
I wanted to tell a story about a therapist who loses her mind and causes the lives of her patients to unravel. I have always been fascinated by the process of therapy: here are two people sitting in a room, attempting to talk about the subtext of a life. But meanwhile the subtext has a subtext, and people’s alleged motives (to help and to get help) are really not as clear-cut as they present themselves to be. It seemed like a great subject matter to mine for comedy.
I also read with some amusement about a therapists’ conference which held a workshop called “Erotic Countertransference.” Transference is the process by which the therapist remains a blank slate and learns from what the patient projects on to them; countertransference is when a therapist projects onto the patient and is something that is NOT supposed to happen in therapy. The organizers of the “Erotic Countertransference” workshop worried that no therapists would attend since the subject matter was so taboo, but apparently it was the most popular workshop at the conference. The therapists read their erotic fantasies about their patients out loud– which ranged from the prosaic to more hard-core scenarios– and it was supposedly very cathartic with a lot of crying and relief; I found the whole description horrifying and hilarious.
Why did you use the short film format to tell your story?
It was actually supposed to be longer, but I ran out of money.
Have you seen your film with an audience yet, and how was the reaction?
I have seen it many times, at many festivals, including Sundance and SXSW. It gets big laughs and then afterwards everyone wants to tell me about their therapist.
What do you think the role of a film festival is?
To connect people with everything that’s vital and exciting and new that’s happening in film.
Do you gamble?
The only gambling I’ve done in Las Vegas is with a machine that’s in the corner of the Casino of, I think, the Tropicana where you use a quarter to try to grab other quarters.
SHORTS PROGRAM 1 screenings:
Thursday, June 11 – 1:00 PM
Saturday June 13 – 4:00 PM
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