Warnings from the Bathtub

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This is a story about Searcher, a woman who falls in love with a couch.

‏Searcher suffers from four failed marriages. She sublimates her desire for furniture instead of men. Steeped in a hallucination, Searcher communes with her dead mother who passes out warnings from the bathtub where she drinks wine and touches up her bloody wrists.

‏“Settle down, deary, and find a good man,” Mother warns. “Waking up alone is like perpetual winter.”

‏Disregarding her dead mother’s advice, Searcher continues her quest to satisfy her needs. In an antique shop she becomes desperately attracted to Couch, a handsome hunk with big bolsters and muscular arms. She brings him home. Once he (Couch) enters her world, she becomes so obsessed, he consumes her.

‏Moral of the story: Don’t bring home strangers. They can be dangerous!

‏A couch can’t betray a woman like a man can. Don’t be so sure!
— Elizabeth Appell, Screenwriter

Starring Karen Black and Deborah Fink

How the film came about...

Obsession is fine for a four-legged animal who is guided by instinct, but for a two-legged animal with opposing thumbs that can put a man on the moon, it is dangerous.

For a long time I’ve wanted to tackle the subject of obsession, but I didn’t want to portray it in its usual forms: drugs, work, alcohol, food, sex, exercise and success. I wanted to write about it using an uncommon metaphorical image.

One afternoon when we still had our old white wool couch, I passed by it with my glasses on. (I always find it surprising how different the world looks through corrective lenses.) Our wonderful old Lab, Sally, must have been rubbing up against the couch for months as her black hairs were embedded into the fibers.

There in front of me was the metaphor I’d been seeking. The sectional had spouted a beard!

Day after day I passed the couch and each time, not only did the beard grow thicker, but this wooly mammoth took on a personality. In my fiction mind it morphed from a comfy landing on which to read a book to a character that had begun to taunt me. I began to explore who this couch was. IT became HE. I found myself asking what made HIM tick and I became obsessed with the idea that he had power.

And then (from God knows where, a product of my muse I suspect,) a woman entered the story. A pretty woman, an ageing woman filled with angst. Though her name is never spoken on screen, in the script she is called SEARCHER. From the very beginning Searcher emerged eccentric and lonely, sublimating her longings and desires on to furniture. But why?

Muses nudged me. “Because she’d been hurt. Hurt, disappointed, humiliated, and abandoned.”

“Who had hurt her?” I asked.

“Mostly likely a man,” replied Muse. “Her father for one. But understand. Complex, high maintenance women like her likely have been involved with several men.” Muse continued. “Searcher has been married and divorced four times as was her mother.”

“Oh,” I said. And then it came clear. Mother was the voice of caution.

“Go out and find yourself a good man, my love,” cooed Mother. “A female alone is unnatural.”

Old school advice from a woman who lolls in the bathtub drinking Mouton Rothchild while hacking away at her bloody wrists.

The more I lived with Searcher and Mother, the more I realized how small and closed their world was. So closed that Searcher soon traded reality for pretenses. The trade led to a dangerous mindset that conveniently blurred personal truths. She allowed the comfort of her surreal environment to take over and she learned the hard way that obsession consumes.

It is said we write what we know. True. I had become obsessed with the idea of a woman being consumed by a couch. In the process I had become a victim of his massive, masculine traits. But I survived his manly charms. Now with the film made, I have left him behind and I’m free.

When I say this, Muse smiles. “Free for your next obsession!”

Financing Warnings

Two years ago my dear cousin, Betsey Stewart, died and left me enough money to produce two short films. I’ve been writing for years and love movies. I’ve written several scripts which have won awards and been optioned, but none got the green light. I decided I’m not getting any younger. If I’m going to fulfill my dream, I’d better get on with it.

Some people have said, “You must be crazy, go take a trip.”

I replied, “I am taking a trip. Writing and producing a film is a journey unlike one I’ve ever taken.”

Follow Us!

Please join us on my blogs, Facebook and Twitter as we travel the yellow brick road. Trying very hard not to be obsessed with the outcome of this movie making effort, I keep reminding the crew and myself that it’s not getting to the Emerald City that is the goal, but the lessons we learn along the way.

Production Photos

Cast

Karen Black (Mother)

is an Academy Award-nominated actress, screenwriter, singer and songwriter. She is noted for appearing in such films as Easy Rider, Five Easy Pieces (for which she was nominated for an Academy Award,) The Great Gatsby, Robert Alman’s Nashville, John Schlesinger’s Day of the Locust and in Alfred Hitchock’s final film, Family Plot. She also co- starred with Bette Davis in the horor film, Burnt Offerings.
In April 2009, Black reunited with director Steve Balderson for Stuck! – an homage to film noir women-in-prison dramas and also in the 2010 John Landis thriller Some Guy Who Kills People.
Deborah Fink (Searcher)

has been performing since she was 3 years old. Film and TV credits include Happily Even After, Save Me, This Space Between Us, Nine Months, The Princess Diaries, Nash Bridges and the award winning Half-Life. She is an accomplished theater actor as well as teacher, coach, producer and performance artist. She has appeared with The Jewish Theater of San Francisco (TJT-SF), The Magic Theatre, Marin Shakespeare, SF Playhouse, Thick Description, San Jose Stage Company, Seraphim, and Central Works, where she currently serves on the Board of Directors. Deb currently lives in the Bay Area.

Sarah Kliban (Dealer)

has performed nationally and internationally. She is on the faculty of San Francisco’s Academy of Art University’s Motion Picture and Television Department and teaches voice-over at Voice One. In addition to performing and teaching, she is a casting director for film. Projects include Milk, La Mission, and Pursuit of Happyness.
Tom Bullock (Delivery Man #1)

has performed variously in comedic and dramatic productions including Hair, On the Town, Irma La Douce, Under the Yum Yum Tree, Take Me Along, Twlefth Night, Henry IV and Julius Ceasar. Film and TV work include small parts in Sweet November, Play It Again Sam, and West is West. He is the editor and post production supervisor on Warnings from the Bathtub.
James Asher (Delivery Man #2)

is a writer and performer. He appears in the up coming feature US and recently directed his first short, Thin Line.
Warren Zaretsky (Customer in Antique Store)

is a film and TV producer who loaned us his magnetic persona for the day.

Carol Levy

Carol Levy's extraordinary paintings appear as prominent characters in the film. www.carolalevy.com

Crew

Elizabeth Appell

WRITER/PRODUCER/CO-DIRECTOR
Elizabeth Appell is an award winning novelist, playwright, and screenwriter. Several of her screenplays have been optioned, and her play Confessions of a Catholic Child premiered in 2007 in Los Angeles. Her play Moon Walkers was showcased in Los Angeles with James Denton (Desperate Housewives) as the main character. In 2008 she was a semi-finalist in the Eugene O’Neill Playwright’s Conference.
Several of her short stories have been published in literary journals (www.readelizabeth.com).
Her debut film Easy Made Hard (www.easymadehardthemovie.com) became an official selection at over a dozen film festivals, winning the Gold at Houston and was included in the Short Film Corner at Cannes.
Warnings from the Bathtub is her second short film. Presently is she is working on her newest play, Reflecting Incidents and a novel, Elements of Betrayal.
Mickey Freeman

CO-DIRECTOR/DIRECTOR OF PHOTOGRAPHY
Mickey Freeman has been an award-winning director of photography for 25 years. His honors include the Academy Award nomination for the documentary Goodnight Miss Ann. He received an Emmy award for the public affairs promotion of the Oakland Gospel Choir for ABC, an Emmy for his visual portrayal of The Return To Tule Lake and most recently an Accolade Award of Excellence for the feature film, Presque Isle.
His work ranges from numerous Hollywood feature films including Mrs. Doubtfire, Hurly Burly, True Crime, Basic Instinct and many independent features, drama for television, and documentaries.
Mickey’s passion for his work is never-ending and his interaction with people creates a rare and compassionate camaraderie as he establishes an immediate connection between the two. This rapport allows the subjects of his camera and his direction to be more of themselves.
Tom Bullock

EDITOR
Formally trained as a pianist and actor/singer from the age of seven, Tom started professional film work as a film editor on a children's TV comedy series. As owner of Fire/Water Films, a San Francisco based post-production studio, he serves as film & sound editor and post producer on feature films, shorts and trailers in San Francisco and Los Angeles.
Tom, the author of Film Editing Nutz & Boltz, has absolutely no desire to be either a corporate CEO or owner of his own plane.
Marlenee Emigh

PROJECT COORDINATOR / ASSISTANT DIRECTOR