3 Lessons from “Scenes from a Marriage,” by Hagai Levi
Probably the best show of 2021
Reading time: 5 min
Intro
Last weekend, just before my (non-English-speaking) mother in law came to visit, my wife and I devoured "Scenes from a Marriage," directed by Hagai Levi and starring Oscar Isaac and Jessica Chastain. We loved it so much, we ended up preparing the spare room in the middle of the night—which, for us, starts at 11 pm.
Credit: HBO
I haven't watched the original miniseries by Ingmar Bergman, but this new adaptation in 5 episodes of "Scenes from a Marriage" is as good as a tv drama you'll ever see. Apart from the first one (and, in lesser measure, the last one), every episode focuses on a single scene in the lives of Jonathan Levy and Mira Phillips (Oscar Isaac and Jessica Chastain). No longer than an hour, both for the viewer and for the characters, it's more than enough to explore the abyss of not only their relationship, but also their individuality.
I was astounded by how much Hagai Levi has been able to transmit with a fight. Two people, one room, one fight. Nothing else.
As you might have picked up reading my blog, I'm not the type of person who stops at writing reviews; oh no. I dissect everything I consume and try to distil useful lessons for my (and everyone's) writing practice, creative outcome or, more simply, life.
1. Know what you can and can't afford to do
Before becoming an Engineer and discovering the pleasures and tortures of writing, I was a professional basketball player. Basketball, more than others, is a sport of choices, and great players must know what they can get away with and what is off the table at all times. I love when a player explodes with arrogance and no one on the court can do anything about it. (Allen Iverson surely knows what I'm talking about. Sorry Ty Lue.)
I don't know if Hagai Levi wanted to be arrogant while shooting this show, but I like to think he did. Every episode begins with a quick shot of the set—apart from the fifth one, which ends with it—where the actors are getting ready for the scene. Before the show starts, they go to great lengths to tell you that what you're watching is fake, and then, thanks to the director and actors' mastery, you forget those are not real people.
Photo by Patrick Fore on Unsplash
What can I say? This choice made me go crazy with admiration. You need to be so incredibly confident to make it work, so promising, and yet exceed expectations so massively that I doubt any other show could pull it off in the same way.
Not everybody appreciated this detail, see this article by Proma Khosla, but I don't care. It was incredible and, if you can do the same in your art, you have a very bright career in front of you.
2. Make your character's development shape around their own actions
Seems obvious, right?
Well, it's not.
Character development, more often than not, follows an agenda too independent from the character's choices to be believable, and, as a consequence, re-shapes the plot in an unsatisfyingly convenient structure.
This doesn't happen in "Scenes from a marriage."
SPOILER ALERT!
During the last episode, when Jon tells Mira about his affairs and unhappy second marriage, my wife, almost in tears, accused Mira of having "ruined" Jon forever. That's the point, I said. Years after the miscarriage of the first episode, the characters have gone through hell and back, and they're no longer the same people they were when the story began. What's more interesting, though, is that they are the consequences of both what the other did to them and how they decided to react to it.
They have accepted the imperfection of their love, they have uncovered the delusion of a successful union and now, for better or worse, they live in pursue of a precarious happiness.
Poetic endings are so much better than happy endings, don't you agree?
3. Talk with your partner
“Easy choices, hard life. Hard choices, easy life.”
In real life, talk with your partner. Don't leave anything untold, as it can eat your relationship from the inside.
In fiction, for the love of God, hide something! When you plan what your characters are going to tell each other, think about what the reader needs to know, and when you've stripped it to the bare minimum, think about what the other characters need to know and what they really shouldn't. Subtext is key. Don't treat fiction like real life.
Real life is boring when it's at its peak. That's why we never expand “happily ever after.”
Nobody cares.
Don't treat fiction like your life.
Alla prossima.
Photo by pan xiaozhen on Unsplash
