What I really like about Promising Younger Ladies and likewise this movie is its darkish, twisted high quality. Typically, you are in comparison with male administrators and artists who shared these qualities, like Bret Easton Ellis and Roald Dahl – I do know that you just personally establish with Alfred Hitchcock as properly. What do you assume {that a} extra feminine perspective has to supply to those darker narratives?

That is so attention-grabbing, as I consider the Gothic as really being an inherently feminine factor, just like the Bronte sisters and Hilary Mantel and Patricia Highsmith [author of The Talented Mr Ripley book]. I feel there is a darkish, particularly feminine factor as properly. As a result of whenever you’re writing about intercourse and energy, these issues are skilled otherwise should you’re a girl. The writers and filmmakers that I really like essentially the most have a tendency to put in writing or make issues which are very, very darkish, however in a really stunning method. Sofia Coppola is a superb instance of the trendy American Gothic. There is not any one darker, however the whole lot she makes is so tactile, stunning and alluring that the darkness is sort of a knife wrapped in satin. The ladies that I love are working in these tremendous darkish locations.

What about violence? I personally discover it troublesome to see plenty of blood and gore on display screen, however in Saltburn, though there’s violence, there is a restrained, clever high quality about it. What would you say your boundaries are with portraying onscreen violence?

I haven’t got any boundaries, I do not assume. In the case of something, it is at all times about what your function is. It is by no means concerning the factor itself, somewhat, what is the function of doing this factor or exhibiting this factor. In Promising Younger Girl, the terrible factor that occurred to Nina isn’t proven, it is solely heard. And I feel it is so devastating. I’d by no means need to present one thing like that. And it could by no means have felt proper. However then generally it is necessary to see the violence, in the identical method nudity can be utilized in essential methods and pointless methods. It is at all times why, somewhat than what. It is ‘Why is that this going to be the easiest way of exhibiting this sense?’ I personally do not assume that there must be something that is off bounds. It is nearly whether or not it is justifiable. It is concerning the function of this movie, no matter it’s. As an example, in Saltburn, there’s Barry Keoghan’s nude dance to Homicide on the Dancefloor, which I labored on with an incredible editor, Victoria Boydell. It is one thing so joyful, post-coital, euphoric and camp – all the issues that tune is. I do not thoughts feeling uncomfortable or somewhat I do thoughts it, however I am all for it. I do not thoughts making any individual deeply uncomfortable. That is an exposing factor.