An Invitation Productions

An Invitation to THE INVITATION: Pages 26–30

October 27, 2020 Jim Penola Season 1 Episode 5
An Invitation Productions
An Invitation to THE INVITATION: Pages 26–30
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Show Notes Transcript

In episode 5 – focusing on pages 26 through 30 of THE INVITATION's screenplay – host Jim Penola highlights the aching, self-destructive, Man-versus-Self conflict on display during this section of the film. | Original Score by John Penola | Additional Audio Production by Brandon Sheer | Follow us on Twitter: @AnInvitation and Instagram: @Invitation2Invitation | Email us: Invitation2Invitation@gmail.com | <3

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•••Shout-out to some of my lovely & amazing patrons: Rupa dasGupta, John Penola, Jane Penola, and Joseph Penola. ⚫ Get early access, extended episodes, and the Patreon-exclusive companion podcast "Ellipsis" only at Patreon.com/jimpenola ⚫ Follow us on Twitter: @AnInvitation and Instagram: @Invitation2Invitation ⚫ Email us: Invitation2Invitation@gmail.com•••

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“ An Invitation to THE INVITATION ” – INTRO.

EPISODE #05.

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LINK TO SCRIPT:

https://drive.google.com/file/d/0B49bAscvFVQ6TTNfOERFSUgwbms/view

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Welcome to episode FIVE of ’An Invitation to THE INVITATION’, a limited, chronological deep-dive of the 2015 SUSPENSE-DRAMA written by Phil Hay & Matt Manfredi and directed by Karyn Kusama.


I am your host, Jim Penola.


On this show, I start by reading a scene or scenes from the original script followed by an analysis of those scenes, subsequently discussing the differences between the screenplay and the final cut of the film. Ideally shedding light on all the unique components that contribute to the movie, and how each of those elements fit into the greater thematic ideas of the story.




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Let’s begin with a reading of pages [26 through 30], – picking up directly after the main character of WILL has been dismissed to grab firewood after a contentious interaction with DAVID, his host for the evening.


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“ An Invitation to THE INVITATION ” – SCRIPT READING.



AS WE FOLLOW HIM...



A loud SCREAM.


GINA

No!


END SCRIPT READ.




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  • “ An Invitation to THE INVITATION ” – ANALYSIS.


.First off – apologies for the cliffhanger, but it was too perfect.


As per usual, let’s start by addressing the quote at the top of the episode and pay attention to how it pertains to these 5 pages of the script specifically.


“I also lost someone… In a way, it’s two bereavements. My beautiful girl, and the person I once was.” 


If you don’t recognize those words, they’re written by Alex Garland, from his film adaptation of the novel ANNIHILATION by author Jeff VanderMeer.


Whereas Garland’s film zeroes in on the nature of self-destruction and the insidious ways we foster it, this quiet & beautiful scene is perhaps the only one that discusses grief directly. But it does so in quick and cutting fashion that relates to THE INVITATION (and today’s scene) very nicely.


“The person I once was...” 


I think a lot of us, if not all of us, can relate to this kind of melancholy introspection: the ways we shed old skin like a snake or relinquish an old shell for a new one like a hermit crab (whatever your metaphor of choice might be). Sometimes it’s very intentional and deliberate, and other times it seems to be forced upon us.


Maybe we physically move from one city to another. Maybe a relationship ends. Maybe we’re thrust into mourning. Maybe it’s all 3 of those things and more. There’s no limit to the ways our lives or The Forces of Our Lives can rip us from comfort. There is a surreal quality to reflecting on our past and its harsh juxtaposition with our present. That past might only be weeks or months old, but despite that relatively close proximity, it can feel like a lifetime ago or like a different life altogether *lived by someone else entirely* simply due to the intense difference in emotional circumstances. 


All of which is to say we’re constantly creating ourselves in the moment whether we know it or not, and that creation can be ruefully informed by our past with dead-end rumination, or it could be created from nothing with no baggage with a firm, forward-facing gaze. 


These are extremes, but it helps establish the character of WILL and where he’s at: this is his constant and immediate dilemma. He is experiencing the anguish of transit. Of being between states. (Where water meets land.)


He is stuck inside trauma and healing. He’s putting the effort into his current relationships: by being with Kira, by showing up, by making amends with his closest friends. But he’s doing so with the grip of post-trauma wrapped around his limbs. It’s his tragic dichotomy:


He is simultaneously Frail AND Stubborn. The interplay and perverse momentum of these traits barely sustaining him – at least for now. 


Which is why he is almost unrecognizable in today’s flashback sequence. The fragile, confrontational attitude we’ve grown accustomed to is now completely absent, replaced with a joyful confidence and, yes, contentment.


What I love about the use of flashback here and in the movie as a whole is that the flashbacks are not merely a contrived cinematic device, (used for exposition). They (Flashbacks) play out directly in front of WILL. They’re almost the literal projection of his mind’s eye because we see his instant reaction to it. Stylistically, it’s very cleverly and organically portrayed. Narratively, it burrows us, the audience, even further into his POV, strengthening our empathic tether to him so that we feel his sadness when he remembers his son, or we feel his maddening distrust when he sees his hosts acting suspicious.


Even if you were to watch the film on mute, you’d be struck by today’s scene – by witnessing WILL’s OLD SELF: with his hair shorter and slicked back, and most notably, his face completely clean-shaven – he simply LOOKS like a different person. But the effect doesn’t fully sink in until we start to observe his body language and listen to his voice. The unhesitant warmth he expresses for his wife with his arms wrapped around her in the bath. His calm baritone joking and flirting. Internally, WILL is completely different.


As KARYN KUSAMA says, “He was a lighter person once.” And giving the audience a tangible sense of that lighter person makes a huge difference because now, for the first time, we see & experience the WILL that his friends long for and miss. Finally, we really understand with our own senses – our own eyes & ears – that he was not always On The Defensive, shunning and alienating others.


Now, we see *why* he’s been so somber and recessive. It’s because Ty – WILL and EDEN’s son – doesn’t exist anymore. Maybe without fully realizing it, their SON was the vital adhesive to their family. Like the guiding quote from ANNIHILATION, the tragedy of Ty’s death bred its own separate & awful tragedy – the dissolution of WILL and EDEN. Which is tragic because the impact of Ty’s death was so great that not even a genuinely strong marriage could weather it. The effect was so corrosive that WILL and EDEN barely stayed in touch after they separated.


But how can any couple know how they’d react to such an unthinkable loss until it happens? We often shame ourselves for taking too much for granted, but that perceived lack of gratitude is often a symptom of daily life and repetition. 


In today’s flashback sequence, WILL and EDEN appropriately shoo Ty away the best they can, given the circumstances. It’s not the most flattering Parent-Child portrait, but that’s kind of the point. The moment between the 3 of them is meant to be normal, realistic, and mundane – a snapshot from their old life. Like I believe I mentioned in a previous episode, it’s the kind of unremarkable memory that illustrates the extinction of normalcy (and shared joy) from their present.


Of course, it’s played for maximum effect. Notably absent from the script is what I can only assume is either an adlib or a line written on set, when WILL says to his son “I love you” before dismissing him. It might seem like a throwaway line, but the fact that WILL still sincerely offers that sentiment when he could have just tried to get his son out of the room as soon as possible speaks volumes. It shows an affection that’s omnipresent, even in the most awkward of scenarios. Ultimately, it simply shows how much this father regularly verbalized his love for his son.


WILL and EDEN were clearly in a loving, healthy relationship and the same could be said about their relationship with Ty. Even in WILL’s lighter exchanges of the present day (like when he’s with BEN), he still seems drained of life, but he *especially* does now when compared to this (not-so-distant) PAST SELF.


In fact, I would argue that this sequence has the single most brutal cut in the whole film. I mentioned earlier how clever the flashbacks are in THE INVITATION, and that’s due in no small part to the Editing (by Plummy Tucker). We see PRESENT WILL step into the doorway of his old bathroom, stopping like he sees something. CUT TO: his PAST SELF in the bath with EDEN. The scene plays out uninterrupted, allowing us to get lost in it and forget how we were introduced to the moment to begin with. Then, after becoming embedded in the playful, loving atmosphere, the film CUTS abruptly to a close-up of a silhouetted PRESENT DAY WILL: Long, shaggy hair. Beard. Face shrouded in darkness. Alone. Staring into the void of his own past. It’s both devastating and devastatingly effective. It’s the very raw power of Editing that can nail an emotion through simple timing and juxtaposition.


If you haven’t seen the movie in a while, or don’t remember this particular detail, I highly encourage you to seek it out. THE INVITATION has more than a couple breathtaking moments that are non-verbal and visually driven, but this might, *might* be my favorite example, because it raises the contrast between PAST and PRESENT tense fully into the foreground.


That contrast is crucial. It only needs one scene, and thankfully, it only gets one because it leaves a lasting impact that will inform & deepen WILL’s (ambiguous) behavior from here on out. We will carry the knowledge of his TWO OPPOSING SELVES from now until the credits roll. 



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> Commercial Break(?) <

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  • WILL vs. WILL


Somewhat paradoxically, WILL is both PROTAGONIST + ANTAGONIST – said another way, THE INVITATION is very much a MAN vs. SELF story, even taking into consideration WILL’s numerous spats with his friends and acquaintances (which will only escalate), and even taking into account how the emotional violence turns very physical.


That’s what’s so great about WILL’s internal flashback in the bathroom: the central conflict is playing out organically AND explicitly (i.e. Current Will observing Past Will) without drawing too much attention to itself or being self-congratulatory.


It *seems* benign because there’s no outright rage, rejection, or collision between the two – there’s only the silent devastation of loss – of somehow having to reconcile that you are no longer the lighter, happier, or more optimistic you. That, though you are closer to yourself than anyone, you are at a permanent, fixed distance as well – like two identical poles of a magnet pushing each other away. We cannot change our past self, but we can influence our current self. Our only self.


We often mourn the death of our old selves. Yet, in a contradictory way, we simultaneously wrestle with the remnants – putting us directly in conflict with who we want to be NOW.


It’s the fine, brittle line between positive self-reflection and pointless rumination: Looking back on the past can quickly become a messy, non-linear, self-destructive action. But why? Why do we retreat into something we *know* is painful? I’d argue because it’s strangely anchoring. Not healthy, but anchoring, in that we know what happened in our past and can take weird comfort in that lack of elasticity. Unlike the future, which is unwritten, and therefore frightening and towering and intimidating.


But that is the pain of transformation.


It is the slow, brutal, often unforgiving friction of making change rather than remaining comfortable and complacent, even in grief.



As DEPECHE MODE sing, “Just give me a pain that I’m used to.”



New pain might as well double our anguish because of its unfamiliarity. Grief, as devastating and pervasive as it is, at least becomes a predictable, reliably horrible companion. Transformation and change, by definition, are usually anything but.


An implicit question, maybe *the* question, THE INVITATION presents to us then (a question that will grow increasingly relevant), is: Will WILL remain static in the familiar but alienating comfort of grief or will he step into the discomfort of trust?


A nice thing about this movie is that it encourages the necessity of grief. It encourages the importance of boundaries. As a result, it ultimately believes in our emotional instincts & health over our social obligations. Refreshingly, it gives audiences the space to feel what WILL feels.


I’ll likely be saying this in every episode, but it’s hard for me to overstate, because it might be the biggest reason I have connected with this movie the way I have…


Seeing WILL act truthfully when he’s expected to be all smiles – when he’s *surrounded* by all smiles – is so deeply cathartic. I would guess that many of us have traveled to Social Situations when we don’t want to because we HOPE that the atmosphere and people will change our internal state. I’ve definitely been rewarded with that outcome at times, but maybe just as often, I have felt like WILL: barely holding it together on the inside, and having to expend even more energy into pretending that that’s NOT the case... around strangers, acquaintances, friends, and family members. 


So, to see someone on screen being himself for better or worse (though thankfully not being actively mean or cruel), it is a surprisingly powerful release. I’m curious how THE INVITATION will age, given how social behaviors are so fickle and can change so quickly. For example, the film hardly touches on the advent of smartphones and social media, but it doesn’t need to. For, as long as people are dying and there are people alive to feel those absences, we’ll be experiencing grief and the way it bleeds into our various communities.



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> Commercial Break (???) <

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  • WILL’S SELF-DESTRUCTIVE IMPULSES.


“Can I ask you something? How has he been handling things? He can be self-destructive.

Play audio clip.


With this quote from EDEN, we get a direct sense of WILL’s unsavory instincts from someone who knew him well, maybe better than anyone. Ironic as it might be coming from EDEN (who tried to kill herself), she’s certainly not inaccurate or wrong. Strikingly, her private moment with KIRA reveals WILL to be more dangerous than he already was.


As a quick refresher, we know WILL is Dangerous because he’s capable of strong violence (you may remember him killing the coyote at the film’s start without hesitating). We also know he’s unconcerned with politeness or manners (like when he called out DAVID for locking the front door of the house). Now we know from his ex-wife that he can be self-destructive. We don’t have specifics, but again, those are strong words coming from someone who we know shares that inclination.


We can safely say that all these characteristics of WILL’s are a potent mix, especially during an evening dominated by caring-but-estranged friends and intensified by the two eccentric party crashers. 


We’re at a rather critical point in the story, where there are all these sensitive, disparate-but-linked characters in play. The principal cast has now been entirely introduced, and through the concise, muscular economy of the script, we have a small but meaningful sense of everyone’s personality.


Now, it’s like they’ve all been tossed into the air – and we’re waiting, nervously, for them to be dragged down by gravity’s indifferent pull. Will they be caught? Will they have their fall broken? Will they be shattered irreparably?


Perhaps most urgently: What will they do to each other on the way down in the moment of freefall?



Grief not only makes you vulnerable (and maybe even makes you prey to some) but it can destroy or weaken your boundaries – make you more willing to put yourself in precarious or potentially lethal situations like it does SHEPPARD and her team members in ANNIHILATION. Like it does for WILL.


Conversely, manners and decorum weaken our boundaries.


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  • “ An Invitation to THE INVITATION ” – OUTRO.


“An Invitation to THE INVITATION” is written, produced, and hosted by me, Jim Penola.

Original Score is by John Penola.


FOLLOW US ON Twitter @AnInvitation (no underscores) 

Again, that’s “Invitation, the number two, Invitation” with no underscores.

Likewise, EMAIL US @Invitation2Invitation@gmail.com with questions or comments.


Special Thanks to the filmmakers,

and to the Penola family for their support.


Please spread the word if you enjoyed this episode, and we’ll see you next time.”



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