Isabella Rossellini's Green Porno and Other Shorts is now showing on MUBI in many countries.
Green Porno: Mantis (Isabella Rossellini and Jody Shapiro, 2008).
Ask any film lover about Isabella Rossellini, and the first image that springs to their mind is most likely to be the star’s iconic performance as songstress Dorothy Vallens, the femme fatale of David Lynch’s Blue Velvet (1986), a glamorous yet tortured vision draped in sensual, shimmering black. Revealing a delightfully eccentric side to her screen image, Rossellini’s directorial career ventures into a very different realm of sexuality: that of the mating and maternal habits seen in the animal kingdom. Rossellini’s playful and educational micro-shorts—divided into three series cheekily titled Green Porno (2006–2008), Seduce Me (2010), and Mammas (2013)—are vaudevillian studies in animal behavior, awash in puppetry, construction-paper sets, and slapstick. In addition to her writing and directing duties, Rossellini also gamely performs these frisky rituals in inventive, eye-catching costumes. In one episode, she is a fearsome lady spider, with three pairs of glasses substituting for eyes. In another, she slides underneath an enormous paper shell while musing on the sadomasochistic sex enjoyed by the humble snails. Such emphasis on the diverse sexual practices that exist in nature profoundly challenges the binaries thrust upon gender and sexuality by the human animal. Out in the wild, anything goes!
Beyond the small screen, these shorts have also blossomed anew in other narrative formats. Most notably, for the 2014 stage version of Green Porno, Rossellini collaborated with another legend: the late, great writer Jean-Claude Carrière (Belle de jour [1967], The Discreet Charm of the Bourgeoisie [1972]). Far from a pastime fancy, the actress’s curiosity—and love for animals—seems to permeate every aspect of her life. In 2013, Rossellini founded Mama Farm, an organic farm in Brookhaven, NY, with a focus on promoting sustainability. In 2019, she graduated from Hunter College with a master’s degree in Animal Behavior and Conservation. It is clear that, in art as in life, Rossellini is quite hands-on with her passions.
On the occasion of MUBI’s platform release of her brilliant shorts, our wide-ranging conversation dives into Rossellini’s cinematic influences, her filmmaking process, and the challenge of making biology fun.
Seduce Me: Duck (Isabella Rossellini, 2010).
NOTEBOOK: The first time I saw your Green Porno shorts, they reminded me of the magic of early silent cinema. Was that era of filmmaking an influence on the series?
ISABELLA ROSSELLINI: It has much to do with it. I'm a big fan of the silent era. In fact, because I don't know much about technology, I looked at Georges Méliès, who was the first filmmaker to really use cinema as magic. He was also a toy maker and a magician. When I made these films, I had to think of how I would move the camera. I looked at Méliès's works where he didn't move the camera because the camera was immense. And yet, you can still make the scene very comical. For every frame, you can have little things crawling in from above or from down below. Like a painter, you have a frame. So I looked at Méliès's films, and he was very much an influence. In fact, every time there is a moon in any of my shorts, it is Méliès's moon from A Trip to the Moon [1902].
NOTEBOOK: On the other hand, the series was ahead of its time in terms of its distribution. It was streaming on the internet. You also won several Webby Awards for it.
ROSSELLINI: It was only for [the internet]. About eighteen years ago, Robert Redford was enthusiastic about YouTube. Back then, YouTube started as a very intimate place where you can upload home movies. I traveled with Redford to Barcelona for our first meeting, where there was a presentation on the iPhone. And they were looking for content. That gave Redford the idea to commission a series of short films. He and his company, Sundance, then produced my series, Green Porno. At that time, people were talking about the fourth screen. The first screen was the movie theater. The second screen was your television. The third screen was the computer, and the fourth screen would have been the phone. And we were just saying, "You can really see a film on your phone? Can you really watch the news?" It was mind-blowing.
But it was Redford who had the foresight to say, This is going to be a place where short films can be relaunched, because they were very popular at the beginning of the century. Because of the industrialization of cinema, nowadays, a film has to be at least half an hour long for it to have professional distribution. I am delighted that we are now on MUBI. It is the first serious streaming service that accepts this format. Otherwise, it was always on the Sundance Channel, which is really dedicated to experimental filmmaking.
NOTEBOOK: Did the fact that people would watch the series on their phone or their laptop influence the look of the films?
ROSSELLINI: It was one of the reasons why we wanted to do paper. When we did the first Green Porno series, there were generally three to four colors, no more, in the background. We thought that, on the smallest screen, you cannot see depth. So the set has to look like a drawing. For example, with the spider set [seen in Mammas], you have a yellow spiderweb. The background is gray, the spider is black, and there is some red to indicate the eye or the blood. We very carefully chose not to have a tree in the background because we thought that, on a small screen, everything became confusing. I remember seeing a John Ford film and saying, "Why is John Ford lingering on the sunset? The scene is so long; it's a sunset!" Then, when I saw it on a bigger screen, there was the sunset, but there was also the cavalry coming from one mountain and the Native Americans coming from the other. But you lose all that on the small screen. So when we chose the aesthetics of Green Porno, we were very conscious that they were meant for the small screen. Nowadays, on YouTube, you see everything from features to shorts. But I think digital shorts will become more popular. The reason why I stopped making them is because there's no money. There was no outlet. Now they are on Criterion and MUBI, so at least there is an outlet. Before, the outlet was just the Sundance Channel.
Mammas: Spider (Isabella Rossellini, 2013).
NOTEBOOK: I'm curious about your collaborative process with production designer Rick Gilbert and paper artist Andy Byers, who have worked with you since the first series.
ROSSELLINI: I knew Rick because he is married to Laura Michalchyshyn, who was a programmer at Sundance. She had bought the film that I had done on my father with Guy Maddin [My Dad Is 100 Years Old, 2005]. Because they knew I was going to university to study animal behavior, they asked if I wanted to do a series of short films. Then, boom, an idea came to mind. Green Porno!
When Laura came to me, I said, "But Laura, I don't even know where to start or who to hire. I'm an actress. I don't have a crew.” And she said, "Oh, my husband can help you." Rick is a set designer, but he does everything now. He takes care of the catering. He even vacuums. He's marvelous. I said to Rick that I had to do things that I understand. I don't want to do special effects using the computer because I can hardly use email. I want to tell the story like I would with my grandchildren, with puppets cut out of paper. But more sophisticated. Rick told me he knew a guy who works with paper. He worked for Victoria's Secret, and he does the most beautiful wings. He also did all the windows for Victoria's Secret. We went to see the windows which were extraordinary. We called him up, and Andy was very young then, only 27 years old. But he worked with everything, including ceramics. With Rick and Andy, that's my team. The three of us created all the work that is now on MUBI.
NOTEBOOK: Would you draw the storyboard yourself and come to them with your sketches?
ROSSELLINI: That is what I do. I thought it was normal. And then when I presented my script, people said, “What is this? We cannot read it.” But that was how my father used to do it. Sometimes he didn't have a script, but he might write a few things and do some little drawings. It was probably a technique from the silent era. You take a page and fold it in half. Then, on one side, you illustrate all your close-ups and your establishing shots. I’d draw everything and then write in the dialogue.
This also forced me to always commit to the visuals. I know that film is a visual art. I didn't want to rely on words, or to overexplain things. Drawing the stories helped me find visual solutions. I also drew the basic costumes, because I graduated from the Roman School of Fashion when I was nineteen as a costume designer. As we have collaborated for eighteen years, nowadays, Rick, Andy, and I would sit down and discuss the costumes together. I will always continue to do the storyboards. But the specific drawing of the costume, it's now done between the three of us.
Green Porno: Worm (Isabella Rossellini and Jody Shapiro, 2008).
NOTEBOOK: You wrote in your memoir that clothes can really change the body language of a person. How did it feel like for you to wear the animal costumes?
ROSSELLINI: Some of them were incredibly uncomfortable. The most uncomfortable one was the worm, because I didn't have hands. When I wore the costume, I could not leave the set, or look at the monitor. So I asked Jody Shapiro, a really good friend who works with Guy Maddin, to help me direct. He is a very good cinematographer, and does beautiful framing. I told him, “Jody, if I'm dressed like a worm, I don't have arms. I don't have anything. I have something that is 25 feet long. I cannot see the camera and pick out the better take. So you do that.” It was also helpful because he had more experience directing. Yes, some of the costumes were incredibly uncomfortable. But I didn't feel like an animal; it was vaudeville.
NOTEBOOK: How about your writing process? It’s incredibly impressive how you balance both humor and scientific facts in under two minutes.
ROSSELLINI: That was the big challenge, right? The writing is the hardest, to translate something that, generally in scientific papers, is said with very complicated words. How do you make it simple yet faithful to the science? So, of course, I take some poetic license. I say, “Oh, the duck's vagina,” but it's not called a vagina. It's called something else. But then if we call it that, audiences won't know what I'm talking about. In the spider short, the mama is eaten by her babies, since they're cannibals. To indicate that I've been eaten, I release my hand, and there is blood. A scientist called me and said, “Spiders don't have blood. It's not that color. They have a liquid, but it's another color.”
You have to choose where you'd take poetic license, and which detail you want to emphasize. [With the spider short,] I wanted to emphasize that there is cannibalism in motherhood. With the duck episode, I wanted to emphasize that vaginas can come in different shapes and forms. The hard thing is to pack in a lot of information. You know what helps? Being in advertisements, because I did a lot of advertisements in my life, working as a model. In advertisements, you have 30 seconds or a minute. You have to pack that time with synthesis and precision. It was really like shooting a bullet. You have to know what you want to say, and everything has to say that. Every frame, every color, every sound, every piece of music.
Green Porno: Elephant Seal (Isabella Rossellini, 2009).
NOTEBOOK: It's interesting that you bring up scientists, because your Green Porno episode on the elephant seal does take a different approach. In this one, you were on location among the seals with biologist Claudio Campagna. Was it difficult to get him involved?
ROSSELLINI: With Claudio, no. With the other scientists, yes. Now, there are a lot of scientists who agree to work with me or to advise me. In the beginning, there were a lot of doubts. Like, What does this model want? But Claudio was an enthusiast. He loved my films. I met him through the Bronx Zoo in New York. Actually, that format of the elephant seal episode is something that I would like to do in the future. I have a friend who studies elephants in Kenya, Iain Douglas-Hamilton. I went to visit Iain, and he had a car that was completely broken. An elephant attacked him. He didn't die, but he could have died. He kept the car as a trophy. "I don't want to throw it away," he said, "because every time I see it, I admire the strength of the elephant." And I thought, Wow, I can photograph Ian, on location, with his Jeep and his encounter with the elephant. But at the moment of the attack, the sequence can become a cartoon. And then we come back to reality. It’s a format that I would like to explore more. The elephant seal episode was an experiment, and Claudio Campagna's wife did the drawings. If I can find money, I will make more episodes in this style, as this is something that I would like to experiment with.
NOTEBOOK: I also really like the Seduce Me episode with the salmon. You wore old-age makeup in this one, and by the end of it, your face was literally rotting away.
ROSSELLINI: It was the only time we had a makeup artist. Usually I do my own makeup, but we didn't know how to do the old age one. So we had a real professional to make me up like a zombie.
NOTEBOOK: Does studying the life cycles of animals make you rethink humans’ own relationship with aging or mortality?
ROSSELLINI: Not really. I mean, I have a farm, and for sure, you see over and over again the cycle of life and death. You see it every season with the plants. You see it with chickens that might live five or six years, sheep that live, like dogs, for twelve to fifteen years. With farming, a lot of people think, Oh, it's idyllic. You can just relax. First of all, farming is not very relaxing. And also there is this very poetic, heartbreaking reminder of mortality. Or a cycle, rather. That is very evident on the farm.
Seduce Me: Salmon (Isabella Rossellini, 2010).
NOTEBOOK: How was it working with Jean-Claude Carrière? He was your co-writer when you adapted Green Porno for the stage. Was he already interested in the project?
ROSSELLINI: So Sundance financed the first two series, Green Porno and Seduce Me. When they didn't finance it anymore, Arte, which is a German-French TV channel, financed Mammas and Sundance came in as a co-producer. After that, there was no more money because, again, still today, fifteen years later, there is not an outlet for short films. My friend, the actress Carole Bouquet, said to me, "But Isabella, you should do theater." With theater, you know how many seats you sell. And then you share the profit with the theater. You take some percentage, the theater takes some percentage, and that's it. And I told Carole that, because I have only written two-minute shorts, how do I write an-hour-and-a-half play? I had never done it. And she said, “I'll call Jean-Claude Carrière.” She sent the films to Jean-Claude, and he loved them. When Jean-Claude worked with me, I couldn't believe it. At the time, I was very sick. I had a major back operation. Because I'm always working, either as an actress or a model, it's hard to sit down and write. You do need, really, six months to write a new monologue. As I was really sick, Jean-Claude and I spoke on the phone every day. It was a fantastic way to be sick because Jean-Claude was adorable, funny, charming, and helped me create a monologue.
The first time we performed, it was in a theater that bears his name in the south of France. Because I don't have much experience in the theater, I got so nervous that I lost my voice. You become so tense here, in your throat. This happens to a lot of actors. You become so tense, that your muscle strains your vocal cord and you lose your voice out of the tension. I said, “We have to cancel the premiere. I can't speak. I don't have any voice.” And Jean-Claude said, “No, you can't.” He went on stage and said to the audience, “Ladies and gentlemen, Isabella has lost her voice. Can you please look into your bag or under your seat to see if you can find it?” It made me laugh. By laughing, I relaxed. Within twenty minutes, my voice came back. It's incredible.
Seduce Me: Deer (Isabella Rossellini, 2010).
NOTEBOOK: What a great anecdote. I also love the story from your memoir about a childhood game you used to play with your mother, Ingrid Bergman. You would ask each other which animal you want to be. Your mother said she'd like to be a horse. Your answer was, and I quote, “I'm afraid I would just be a sheep. I belong so strongly to a herd.” If you were to play the game now, would you still say the same answer?
ROSSELLINI: So the game was that you had to choose two animals. The first one that you say is what you want to be. And the second one is who you are. Mama chose a circus horse with feathers, and a squirrel. In fact, Mama was, you know, saving money and very prudent, so she really was a squirrel. But she was also the horse with the feather plume; she was a famous actress. I said sheep, and I was right about it. Because, if I had to relive my life, I think I would become a director far sooner. For women of my generation, directing or writing or making films was so far away. It was an impossible dream. I think I identified with the sheep because I was following filmmakers, following the people that narrate stories. I follow them, because I was a part of that family. That's where I felt at home and happy. But I wasn't leading. I wasn't using my voice.
There is a beautiful film by a French actress, Delphine Seyrig. It's a documentary called Sois belle et tais-toi [1981], “Be beautiful and shut up.” And it was very much like that. In the film, a lot of actresses said, “I would like to direct,” or, “I would like to tell that story.” But they couldn't. I'm younger than Delphine, so I finally got to direct and tell my stories. But it only happened when I was 60. So if I were to relive my life, I think I would do it earlier. Doesn't mean that I wouldn't model and act. Only that I'd also do my own work.
NOTEBOOK: And you would not pick the sheep anymore?
ROSSELLINI: No, don't think I would. Although—hmm, let me think. The game is you have to choose two animals. Well, I would be a wolf and a sheep. [Laughs.] I would be a herding dog and sheep. Because I still belong to the group into which I was born, where I feel at home and I feel safe. But now I'm also a herding dog, one that tells others where to go.