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If you can tell a lot about a film maker from their choice of material, then what do we know about Mary Harron? Her debut feature, 'I Shot Andy Warhol,' told the true story of an unhinged feminist who pumped three bullets into Warhol, nearly killing him. Next came 'American Psycho,' staring a pre-Batman Christian Bale as a Wall Street serial killer. The film ignited a fury of anti-violence outrage and feminist protest, but to Mary it was always meant to be a social satire; A comment on the image-obsessed consumer culture. She then told the story of the '50s pin-up queen Bettie Page. Set against a larger backdrop of censorship and artistic freedom.
So Mary's a bit of a provocateur, but that's not at all surprising. In the 70's she worked as a music journalist, covering the emerging punk scene in New York. Would you really expect PG movies from a woman who hung out with the likes of Warhol and the Ramones? Didn't think so.
Mary's latest is a modern-gothic thriller called 'The Moth Diaries.' It premiered at TIFF last year, and despite its blood and gore Mary calls it a portrait of adolescence... with vampires.
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