Music Box Films
Amanda Kramer knows what you’re probably thinking.
On its surface, her latest film, By Design — a subversive twist on the body swap genre starring Juliette Lewis as a woman who turns into a beautiful chair — seems a little… out there.
“You have an idea that sounds, I don’t know, to some, maybe goofy, like a woman swaps bodies with the chair,” the Please Baby Please director tells Entertainment Weekly. “But to me, it was never that. It was always like, how can I express so many things I think about myself and sensuality and objectification and objects and coveting and envy and try to get it into this one surreal idea.”
As a chair, Camille enjoys a powerful sensation she rarely experienced as a woman: the intoxicating thrill of being desired. Everyone who looks closely agrees this chair is gorgeous, and its new owner, a pianist named Olivier (Mamoudou Athie), is no exception. Given to him as a parting gift from his ex, the chair casts a spell over the newly single musician. He becomes infatuated with its beauty, sleeping in it, dreaming of it, even bringing it with him to dinner parties. And Camille, in turn, finds a new lease on life, basking in the glow of Olivier’s obsessive admiration.
Courtesy of Music Box Films
“This was an absurd idea that came to me, that excited me and titillated me and made me laugh and made me think and made me feel sad,” Kramer reflects. “I honestly do feel like objectification is not always bad. I am a feminist, but sometimes, we do want to be looked at like beautiful objects of art. We do want to be looked at like Picasso paintings and gorgeous chairs. And it might not be so sad for a woman to think, Please, look at me like a beautiful, beautiful piece of art. And that’s so complex of a need. Getting all these complexities in is really when the script began to take shape.”
Practically, swapping bodies with a chair means Camille’s soul, or consciousness, is transferred into the object, while her body is left behind, completely inert. This meant the actress playing the role would spend much of the film in various states of repose. But Lewis fell in love with the script before she even got to that part.
“When I read this, I literally said, ‘Yes, sign me up,'” she tells EW. “I read it halfway. I did not read where then, in the other half, I am now an object.”
Still, she knew the film’s concept and grew even more excited by the challenge as she continued reading. “When I read the rest of it, I was like, ‘This is fascinating,’ and it became — I think I speak for Amanda and myself — this sort of perverse pleasure, or I would say a subversive pleasure, of how to have me doing nothing.”
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Courtesy of Music Box Films
Not only does Camille enjoy her life better as a chair, but those closest to her, like her mother and best friends, seem to like her better as the chair, too. As Camille’s body lies silent and limp, they carry on full conversations with her, barely aware of her catatonic stupor. At one point, after pouring her heart out, her mother (Betty Buckley) remarks that Camille has become a much better listener. “A chair makes a very good daughter somedays,” notes the film’s narrator, played by Melanie Griffith.
“I have lovely friends. I’m really lucky to be surrounded by them, but there have definitely been times in my life where I’ve thought, You would love it if I just sat here, absorbed everything coming out of your mouth, and gave absolutely no opinion,” Kramer observes. “You just need me as a sounding board. I am a comfort to you, but as a strong human with strong emotions, you definitely don’t want my take on what you’re saying. And I get that. There’s no judgment… It’s just that sometimes we need the person to witness.”
The chair, Kramer says, “is this ultimate witness for everyone.”
By Design is now in theaters.
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