Marley Shelton's Madeleine, the young gallerist in "(Untitled)" who comes between two brothers in the contemporary arts and music scene of New York, is full of surprises.
Madeleine appears a tightly wrapped package: She's a sexy femme fatale with reined-back hair ("Hitchcock blond," Shelton says) and black vinyl, a shark swimming through artist-infested waters. She's obsessed with appearances, with her bizarre haute couture and fashion-only glasses, but sees deeply into the work. She champions way-out-there paintings, sculptures and music but sells schlock on the side. Is she good, bad or a mixed palette?
"There's a purity to her. As driven as she is to find the 'get,' the next hot commodity, she also has a pure passion for art," says Shelton, taking a moment to chat at Lamill, an appropriately upscale "coffee boutique" in Silver Lake. "There really is not one character in the film who's a villain. Each one is totally justified in their plight."
Adrian (Adam Goldberg) is an unpopular avant-garde composer, as uncompromising as he is unpleasant, who says, "Harmony is a capitalist plot to sell pianos." His brother Josh (Eion Bailey) is a commercially successful hack whose paintings are akin to visual Muzak. But Madeleine may be the smartest person in a very smart satire, the only one who understands and accepts the balance between art and commerce.
"I think the quintessential moment for her, when she's completely revealed, is when she's alone in her studio" after she has had to hang art she doesn't believe in, says Shelton, "and she breaks down in genuine tears. It's her most authentic moment on screen, I think, and, of course, she has to cover it up immediately because her buyer's there."
Adrian's dour performances of his atonal opuses are a comedic highlight. Without spoiling anything, let's just say there are buckets of leitmotifs in his work.
"The music was a riot. Adam had a huge hand in creating that. It was nonstop, the amusement factor. And these guys were really flying by the seat of their pants. . . . We did ruin many takes, laughing," she confesses.
"Adam has this ability to make me laugh at any time. I was like, 'I wish I had a Pocket Adam that I could bring out at will and talk to, and say, "Make me laugh," and put him away when goes on too long on a tirade.' So I nicknamed him 'Pocket Adam.' But he's so brilliant and so funny."
