Thursday, February 19, 1998
Filmmaker Julie Davis does exactly what she has to do
FILM: Director feels few works explore sex lives of heterosexual
women
By Louise Chu
Daily Bruin Contributor
Standing in a freezing cold phone booth in the middle of Sequoia
National Park at night, Julie Davis was getting something done. It
wasn’t necessarily easy for her, but her commitment to doing an
interview with The Bruin was something that she intended to honor.
The weakened phone lines from her room made this the only available
alternative. She did what she had to do. And she always has.
After an unusual film career working as an extra on movie sets,
editing low-budget Korean action movies and working for the Playboy
Channel, Davis realized her dream in the form of "I Love You …
Don’t Touch Me!" a movie that the 28-year-old wrote, produced,
directed and edited.
The film is a comedy about Katie (Marla Schaffel), a 25-year-old
virgin and hopeless romantic in search of Mr. Perfect in the Los
Angeles singles scene.
Before she could actually get the movie made, she ran into
considerable financial difficulty. She invested her life savings
into the project and even sold her grandmother’s antique diamond
ring, which she ultimately felt was the right decision.
"To me, it was just something hidden away in a safe-deposit
box," Davis explains. "The movie was something I could share with
the world, and the ring was something that would just be on my
finger, and there was no comparison."
With a meager budget of $40,000, Davis was forced to spend the
money conservatively, opting to shoot many of the scenes in both
her and her friends’ apartments.
Ironically, of her many jobs preceding the making of "I Love You
… Don’t Touch Me!" her stint as an editor for the Playboy Channel
seemed to directly have the greatest effect on her in making the
movie.
"I think (that Playboy influenced my perspective on love and
sex) a lot because it really helped me get into the male psyche.
And I think it really helped me write men as realistic characters,"
Davis says.
Yet she is quick to admit that working at Playboy was initially
an unsettling experience.
"Oh, it was pretty shocking working at a place like that," Davis
confesses. "In the beginning, I felt like the little girl lost in
the wilderness. It was a very scary place to be working, but the
people were great, and it actually ended up inspiring me to write
the script because every day I was being challenged about what I
believed in and what I thought about sex.
"So it was a good place to be," Davis continues. "I think
anything that challenges you psychologically – what you think about
life, your beliefs, things that are important to you – is a good
thing."
In the movie itself, Davis found a place to directly apply the
insight she had acquired from her Playboy experience.
"I would say that I applied it more in the female perspective of
just being really confused and enraged by the causal attitude that
men have toward sex," Davis explains. "And in the male character,
especially in the character of Jones – he’s a direct voice of
someone I had worked with at Playboy."
The story, which she reveals is "loosely autobiographical,"
concerns a topic that Davis felt needed to be addressed.
"I think virginity is a really important topic that’s totally
neglected that’s a really big deal for women, especially in the
college years," Davis says. "I think women in the ’90s especially
relate to it because we have so much freedom to do whatever we want
that if you don’t take that sexual freedom, then people think
there’s something wrong with you; like we have the freedom to say
‘yes,’ but we don’t have the freedom to say ‘no’ anymore."
With the recent successes of movies like "Swingers" and "The
Brothers McMullen," which examine the romantic lives of young
American men, Davis felt that film audiences were lacking the young
female perspective. She also asserts that the only female group
with a voice was lesbians, who traditionally supported one another
more than in the straight community.
"It’s almost like we don’t have a voice at all," Davis says.
"You see Ed Burns (and) Spike Lee, and they had their voice. Where
is the young woman? Why is it that they have something to say and
we don’t? And if we do, it’s a chick flick, or it’s made by a
lesbian. Women don’t seem to get the chances or have the voice
until they’re in their 40s."
With this movie, Davis has succeeded in addressing those
concerns and, in that, has realized her dreams as a filmmaker.
"I Love You" earned wide acclaim at the Sundance Film Festival,
where Samuel Goldwyn Company, a division of MGM/UA, picked it up
for distribution.
The attention she has generated sparked the interest of others,
several of whom are now working with her on two other screenplays.
Davis, alongside Mitchell Whitfield, one of the stars of "I Love
You," has also just sold the pilot to a television series based on
the film, which they hope will "be the new Seinfeld."
Davis did what she had to do … and it paid off. She
acknowledges the value of determination and sacrifice and
encourages others to do the same.
"I think that right now is when you have to start putting it all
together," Davis says. "And don’t think that you can’t do whatever
it is that you want. It’s always going to be hard, but you can do
it."
FILM: "I Love You … Don’t Touch Me!" opens tomorrow.
Goldwyn Entertainment
Julie Davis’ "I Love You … Don’t Touch Me!" has garnered much
acclaim at the Sundance Film Festival.