Girl, Interrupted

Set in the changing world of the 1960s, the motion picture Girl Interrupted is the searing story of Susanna, a young woman who finds herself at a mental institution for troubled young women. Susanna's 'short rest', prescribed by a psychiatrist she had met just once, becomes a strange journey into Alice's Wonderland, as she spends nearly a year both struggling and flirting with the thin line between 'normal' and 'crazy'. Susanna soon realizes how hard it is to get out once she's been committed, and ultimately she has to choose between the world of those who belong on the inside - such as the seductive and dangerous Lisa - and those who can engage with the reality of the outside world. This volume includes storyboards and a discussion by the film's director James Mangold about the film-making process by which this screenplay by James Mangold and Lisa Loomer and Anna Hamilton Phelan was transferred to the screen.