"Wisconsin Death Trip" - James Marsh

"Writer/Director James Marsh's first feature, WISCONSIN DEATH TRIP, is an intimate, shocking and sometimes hilarious account of the disasters that befell one small town in Wisconsin during the final decade of the 19th century. The film is inspired by Michael Lesy’s book of the same name which was first published in 1973. Lesy discovered a striking archive of black and white photographs in the town of Black River Falls dating from the 1890’s and married a selection of these images to extracts from the town’s newspaper from the same decade. The effect was surprising and disturbing. The town of Black River Falls seems gripped by some peculiar malaise and the weekly news is dominated by bizarre tales of madness, eccentricity and violence amongst the local population. Suicide and murder are commonplace. People in the town are haunted by ghosts, possessed by devils and terrorized by teenage outlaws and arsonists.

Like the book, the film is constructed entirely from authentic news reports from the Black River Falls’ newspaper with occasional excerpts from the records of the nearby Mendota Asylum for the Insane. The film also makes use of the haunting black and white photographs taken by the resident portrait photographer of Black River Falls at the end of the 19th century. The film unfolds over four seasons and certain characters feature throughout the film as their criminal behavior lands them in the newspaper again and again. Jo Vukelich portrays Mary Sweeney, a cocaine snorting school mistress with a compulsion to smash windows, who frequently runs amok in the area. Another eccentric is Pauline L'Allemand (played by Marilyn White), a mildly famous opera singer who gets washed up in the town with no money and ends up going more and more crazy. A 13 year old boy (Marcus Monroe) murders an old man for kicks and then engages in sporadic gun battles with a pursuing posse. All the while, buildings are being torched by a bored teenage girl, a diptheria epidemic devastates the town’s infant population and all manner of strange suicides are being reported in great detail.

Presiding over the chaos of the newspaper stories and providing a linking device for the intricate screenplay is the character of the newspaper editor who is portrayed by actor Jeffrey Gordon. The stories from the newspaper are narrated by award-winning actor Ian Holm (recently seen in THE SWEET HEREAFTER). Director James Marsh notes “the newspaper was run at the time by an Englishman called Frank Cooper, so Ian was a perfect choice for us - his voice conveys an incredible range of moods - incredulity, moral indignation, sly humour - while remaining both authoritative and soothing."

BBC Arena and Cinemax presents a Hands On Production of WISCONSIN DEATH TRIP, starring Jo Vukelich, Marilyn White, Jeff Golden, Marcus Monroe, John Schneider and narration by Ian Holm. The film is written and directed by James Marsh and produced by Maureen A. Ryan. The editor is Jinx Godfrey and the director of photography is Eigil Bryld. The score includes music by John Cale, DJ Shadow and various other composers. Also starring are John Baltes, Raeleen McMillion and Krista Grambow.

The making of this film began over five years ago when Marsh happened upon an out of print copy of the book WISCONSIN DEATH TRIP by Michael Lesy. “The title immediately intrigued me. And it certainly lived up to its promise - the book is a catalogue of strange, disturbing and darkly humorous vignettes of real life tragedy, from a forgotten place and a forgotten time. As you read it, the photographs begin to resemble these weird apparitions from the past, staring right into your eyes. I wanted to convey in the film the real pathos contained in a four line newspaper report that simultaneously records and dismisses the end of someone’s life. I also sifted through hundreds of newspapers from the town as well. Certain themes began to emerge which the film was structured around - the anxieties of the time focus on suicide and madness - that is what the people of the town seem most afraid of - and if the film has an abundance of these stories, that’s because the newspaper of the time reported little else. The main challenge in writing the script was to respect the chaos and randomness of the newspaper stories whilst creating themes and underlying filmic rhythms that could hold it all together.” Marsh had first taken the idea to Anthony Wall, executive producer of BBC's award-winning arts series Arena. "When James suggested the idea I thought it was ambitious and off the wall, even by our standards, but James had done some outstanding work for Arena. He had complete conviction that the idea could be turned into a film, so we all made an act of faith and went with it.We'd co-produced James' previous film for Arena with Cinemax so we offered WISCONSIN DEATH TRIP to Sheila Nevins and Nancy Abraham to see if they wanted to co-produce it for their Reel Life series."

Producer Maureen Ryan was introduced to Marsh through their mutual friend British film director Benjamin Ross (YOUNG POISONER'S HANDBOOK) in the winter of 1997 and at that point the decision was made to create an independent coproduction with the BBC and Ryan's Hands On Productions. "When James first mentioned this project to me, I was immediately attracted to it. It was a very different film from the kind of features we were seeing on the screen at the time. His vision was so chilling and yet oddly humorous - like an Edward Gorey poem. I couldn't resist the opportunity to produce this film."

The black and white cinematography is one of the most haunting elements about the film. Marsh and director of photography Eigil Bryld spent much time discussing and experimenting with the way the film would be photographed. As Bryld recalls: “The photographs - and the challenge of replicating their look in live-action sequences - is what drew me to the project. We ended up doing some fairly unusual and reckless things whilst shooting which mercifully paid off. More than any other film I’ve shot, this film is completely driven by its visuals and of course, that shifts more responsibility onto the DP but is also more rewarding.” Marsh notes “Before shooting, we did take a look at a lot of silent movies and one or two visually inspiring black and white films (NIGHT OF THE HUNTER, MAN WITH A MOVIE CAMERA, REBECCA) but our principal influence were still images from the early history of photography - notably Lewis Hine and Andre Kertez - you can learn everything you need to know about black and white composition from those two masters.”

The unusual black and white cinematography caught the attention of the Digital Film Lab in Copenhagen and Philips in France who agreed to sponsor a digital blow up of the film using prototype technology. The film is thus the first black and white film to be fully mastered to 35mm using a digital process and the results were deemed very satisfactory by all concerned.

WISCONSIN DEATH TRIP was made over the course of two years by a small documentary crew working with a very tight budget. The film was shot on location in Wisconsin, in each of the four seasons, using existing historical sites across the state. All the actors in the film were recruited from open casting sessions in Wisconsin - most are non-professional and many had never acted at all before their appearance in the film. A great many scenes in the film were improvised, often in sub-zero temperatures, and so the discomfort and bewilderment shown by the actors is usually genuine - and shared by those behind the camera!"