MARTHA MARCY MAY MARLENE are all aspects of the character played by Elizabeth Olsen in a transcendent performance. When I spoke to her and the film's writer/director Sean Durkin on September 1, 2011, I started by asking about the choice to have Olsen's character be mostly silent throughout the film. What followed was a discussion about trust between actor and director, how Durkin wanted his film to be different from others about cults, and, whether or not the sort of emotional manipulation used by the cult's leader, played by John Hawkes, was part and parcel of a director's toolbox. We finished with Durkin philosophizing about the relationship between music and the art of filmmaking.