Noah Baumbach scratched every film lover’s itch when he stopped by The Contenders 2019 series at the Museum of Modern Art on Friday night for a screening of Marriage Story. During a Q&A following the film, he discussed casting, Sondheim, deleted scenes, and more. This kind of director dishing is one of the many attractions of The Contenders. If you missed this screening event, there are plenty more on the way.

Now in its 12th year of letting audiences join in on awards season fun, The Contenders is a compilation of this year’s most noteworthy films as determined by MoMA’s film curators. It includes an eclectic mix of sneak previews and encore screenings. But what really fuels the series’ popularity is the special guests who drop in for post-screening conversations. For filmmakers and actors, The Contenders is a campaign stop on the road to Oscar.

In years past, The Contenders guests have included John Krasinski (A Quiet Place), Yorgos Lanthimos (The Favourite), Willem Dafoe (At Eternity’s Gate), Saoirse Ronan (Lady Bird), Josh and Benny Safdie (Good Times), Robert Eggers (The Witch), Kenneth Lonergan (Manchester By the Sea), Lupita Nyong’o (12 Years a Slave), Alfonso Cuarón (Gravity), and Bong Joon-ho (Snowpiercer).

For 2019, the series launched with a sneak preview of Agnès Varda’s last film Varda by Agnès. Marriage Story, Martin Scorsese’s The Irishman, and Oliver Assayas’ Non-Fiction all played the first weekend. Coming up are Petra Costa’s documentary about the political situation in Brazil, Edge of Democracy, Olivia Wilde’s directorial debut Booksmart, and Pedro Almodóvar’s Pain and Glory. Other highlights include Jojo Rabbit, The Farewell, Portrait of a Lady on Fire, Little Women, and Uncut Gems. In terms of special guests, Boon Joon-ho (Parasite), Alfre Woodard (Clemency), and Marielle Heller (A Beautiful Day in the Neighborhood) are among those expected.

Noah Baumbach’s Marriage Story

As for Friday’s event, Baumbach’s heartbreaking, faintly autobiographical, two-sided divorce saga took center stage. Marriage Story stars Adam Driver and Scarlett Johansson as a couple with a young son in the process of a messy uncoupling. Driver plays Charlie, a New York City experimental theater director who has a play headed to Broadway and a MacArthur “genius” grant burning a hole in his pocket. Johansson is Nicole, an actress who has lost herself in the role of dutiful wife and mother. Taking the first steps towards dissolving the marriage, Nicole moves to Los Angeles with their son Henry and hires Nora, a high-power divorce lawyer played by Laura Dern. Things then take an ugly turn.

Marriage Story boasts a strong supporting cast. Besides Dern, it includes Alan Alda, Ray Liotta, Merritt Wever, and Julie Hagerty. Dean Wareham of Luna also makes a cameo as the cinematographer on Nicole’s pilot. And Randy Newman is behind the music.

Baumbach was candid when fielding questions after the MoMA screening. Out of the gate, MoMA film curator Josh Siegel requested Baumbach finish the joke Alan Alda’s character tells in the film. We don’t want to spoil it, but Baumbach reluctantly finished it, remarking, “it’s best when Alan tells it.”

Noah Baumbach on Casting Merritt Wever in Marriage Story

The consensus is overwhelming that Merritt Wever is terrific as Nicole’s sister Cassie. Despite having worked with Wever on Greenberg, where she played Florence’s friend, Gina, the actress read for the Marriage Story part. Baumbach referred to her reading as “maybe the best audition I have ever witnessed.” He recommends that everyone watch her 2013 Emmy Awards acceptance speech for her role in Nurse Jackie. You can see it here.

Noah Baumbach on Sondheim in Marriage Story

Baumbach worked two musical numbers from Sondheim’s Company into the film. Charlie belts out “Being Alive,” while Nicole sings, “You Could Drive a Person Crazy.” Apparently, Baumbach and Driver have been talking about doing something with Company for a while. They’ve considered making it into a movie, and that might not yet be off the table. Baumbach explained, “In that discussion, I kind of got it in my head, ‘well, Adam has to sing ‘Being Alive’ in something.’ If I couldn’t have it worked in this movie, it would be in my next movie. There’s a version of answering this question where I tell you I just reverse-engineered the whole movie to get Adam to sing that song, which is partially true.”

The Sondheim songs fit seamlessly into the film and serve the story. Baumbach also set out to and achieves something characteristic of a great musical number; the character singing is in a different place at the end of the song than they were at the beginning.

Baumbach also pointed out that he shot Charlie’s singing scene at the Knickerbocker, which is downtown on University Place in Manhattan.

Noah Baumbach on Camera Movement in Marriage Story

The camera’s movement dictates the physical action of the characters in Marriage Story, with two very purposeful exceptions. Baumbach elaborated, “The thing I always look for when making a movie is when the rules break themselves. A sense of something has shifted. Something emotionally is changing inside, and the camera can’t help but push in, and you feel it at the time.”

Baumbach upends the camera’s usual behavior when Nicole is telling Nora her side of the marriage story. And it happens again in the scene when Charlie sings “Being Alive.”

Noah Baumbach on Nicole’s TV Show, Deleted Scenes

One of the more bizarre sequences in Marriage Story involves the pilot that Nicole moves to Los Angeles to shoot. The show is far-out and has a sci-fi nature theme to it. In the film, she’s wearing a nightgown and holding an object that represents a baby while the crew quibbles over the staging.

When pressed for more details about the series, Baumbach said there was a vague notion of a plant invasion. He also revealed they shot a scene of Nicole directing an episode that ended up on the cutting-room floor. For the scene, they designed a set inspired by photographer Gregory Crewdson, who is known for his eerie and elaborately staged images of suburbia. The set featured a cross-section of a house that had vines coming up.

Baumbach shared that Tony Award-nominated choreographer David Neumann, who worked on the choreography for Marriage Story, played an actor in the series. They filmed Neumann doing a movement of coming alive, but in post-production, the scene would be reversed. So instead, a plant would appear to be sucking Neumann down. Baumbach compared the technique to something you’d find in David Lynch’s Twin Peaks.

We’re on board for seeing more of the plant-forward series. It sounds Emmy-worthy. If Netflix, Marriage Story‘s distributor, takes a pass, perhaps Quibi would be interested. Or, at least give us the deleted scenes on the DVD.

Marriage Story is in theaters in limited release. The film premieres on Netflix on December 6, 2019.

The Contenders 2019 continues through January 8, 2020. For more information, visit MoMa’s website.

UPDATE 2/6: The Museum of Modern Art has posted a video of the complete conversation with Baumbach. You can watch it here.