Review: La Misma Luna (Under the Same Moon)

La Misma Luna was, suffice it to say, an unexpected pleasure. While I do like my share of foreign films, I sometimes walk into them expecting something overly serious and sometimes difficult to relate to. This film was nothing like that. La Misma Luna (Under the Same Moon) is a beautiful and touching film which tells the incredibly relevant story of a mother and son separated by the US border each trying to survive the best they can without one another.

Rosario (Kate Del Catillo) has crossed the US border from Mexico in order to provide for her son Carlitos (Adrian Alonso) who she left with her mother. She tells him that when he misses her he should look up at the moon because they would both be looking at the same moon (La Misma Luna) and would feel closer together. When Carlitos' grandmother dies unexpectedly, the 9-year-old sets off on the perilous journey to find his mother just as she is struggling with the decision about whether to return to Mexico to be with him.

The film was written by Ligiah Villalobos and was directed and produced by first time feature director Patricia Riggen. Riggen takes the hot political issue of immigration and humanizes it in a profound way. It never gets preachy, is extremely moving, and has an amazingly breathtaking performance from a talented young actor, Adrian Alonso.

La Misma Luna opens today in 250 theatres in over 150 cities across the country.

Go see this film!

La Misma Luna

Interview with Patricia Riggen, director of La Misma Luna

Patricia Riggen's first feature film La Misma Luna opens on 250 screens across the country today. She answered a few questions about the film and being a female director.

Women & Hollywood: The issue of immigration is so highly charged and you were able to humanize it and also to show that it is a women's issue.

Patricia Riggen: Women are now crossing the border. It used to be men. Now, there are 4 million women in this country who have left a child behind. When people ask me if this is a true story, I tell them that it is based on 4 million true stories. These women have no other options and make the most difficult sacrifice of all because no mother would leave her child unless she was desperate. That was something I wanted to explore. Rosario has a huge dilemma having made this decision in order to provide for her child because she loves him, while at the same time feeling like she's sacrificing that love. It's not just a statistic to me. These are human beings and that's what I wanted to show.

W&H: This film feels very female -- it's from a woman's eye. It's no coincidence that both the director and screenwriter are women. These films are few and far between in Hollywood these days.

PR: It's something that I have struggled with in my career. I'm Mexican, and I never could have become a director in Mexico. I moved here and that allowed me to do this work.

W&H: In Mexico, you didn't have an opportunity to work as a director?

PR: In Mexico, I never gave myself the chance to imagine myself in the director's shoes. It took me a while to discover what I wanted to do. I was already working in the business doing different jobs and feeling unhappy. When I was growing up in Mexico there weren't any women directors around for me to see that it was something I could do. Funny enough I wrote my college thesis on women directors in Mexico when I didn't even know I was going to be a director. There were four, and I interviewed them feeling like being a director was equivalent to being an astronaut -- the hardest most strange thing to be. Completely unaccessible, and it shouldn't be like that.

W&H: Women feel that it is so difficult to be a director here.

PR: That's what my friends tell me and I feel it is so easy here.

W&H: Have the Fox Searchlight people (the film distributor) been supporting your vision?

PR: Fox Searchlight has been wonderful and I'll tell you why- they're all women. There's one guy at the top and then it's all women. Their sensibility is very feminine and it makes it really wonderful for a women's movie. They totally get it and care about the film.

W&H: Adrian Alonso performance as Carlitos really astounded me. Talk a little bit about how you directed him and how you were able to elicit his spectacular performance.

PR: Thank you, nobody ever asks me about this. They always say, where did you find him. It's not the finding, it's the directing. It's all about the directing. I think most kids can act and it's a matter of directing them properly. In this case, Adrian is very talented but he's also a child and has no criteria to understand if he is doing something good or not. Older actors know what they are doing, kids don't.

W&H: The whole movie rests of his shoulders -- if he wouldn't have been good, the movie wouldn't have been good.

PR: I basically knew that if I didn't find the right kid I shouldn't even attempt to make this movie. But the truth is that I worked with him very closely and my eyes were always on him to protect and help him.

W&H: How did you get the script?

PR: I made a documentary called Family Portraits and Ligiah saw it and loved it and sent me the screenplay. I immediately connected with it. We started working together , and when we had the script ready to shoot the financing was there. She was great to work with, she's very smart and she always stood by me. When I felt that the movie wasn't going to happen she came and worked for no money. She did all the drafts and revisions and waited and waited for the movie to happen.

W&H: You are also the film's producer.

PR: This is an important aspect. I did have a way to make this at a studio, and I started working with them but felt I was losing creative control and the decisions being made were wrong and it wasn't going to be a good movie. I was thinking that I was a director for hire, but it was a project that I brought and realized this is not a way I wanted to make my first feature. Fortunately, it was a very low budget so I decided to raise the money myself to keep control which enabled me to make every single decision which allowed me to make the best movie I could.

W&H: What do you want the audience to feel after seeing the film?

PR: I want them to have a good time, and to feel engaged and moved. I want people to see the humanity of those who surround us that we don't necessarily notice like the waiter or gardener and think about their lives.

W&H: What's next for you?

PR: I have several offers from Hollywood. I am keeping my feet on the ground knowing that my fellow female directors have taken a long time to shoot again. They have made successful first films and then it has taken them a long time to shoot their second. I don't want to take 10 years to make another film. I am developing some projects for Hollywood including a romantic comedy and a period drama. But I also have a project of my own that I control in case the Hollywood films don't happen.

Leslie Mann Takes the Bait

Leslie Mann is Judd Apatow's wife. She's been in his last several movies and this week opens as the female foil to the Apatow produced Drillbit Taylor starring Owen Wilson (film looks really, really bad.) She had some success early in her career and then after she co-starred with Jim Carrey in The Cable Guy she couldn't get a job. (Funny though that Jim Carrey the actual star of the film still got work.) Lucky for her she hooked up with Apatow and for a while she focused on her family.

This week EW gives her their "spotlight" and she really gives it to Katherine Heigl about her comments regarding Knocked Up.

Having emerged in the last couple of years as a compelling female voice in what's often perceived as the Apatowian boys' club, Mann strongly defends her turf. She says she was surprised when Knocked Up costar Katherine Heigl publicly critiqued the film as being 'a little sexist,' saying it paints the women as shrews, as humorless and uptight. Mann retorts, I didn't think I was a humorless shrew in Knocked Up. I think the women are just as funny as the men in that movie. 'Humorless shrews'- who even says that? I just think its an odd choice of words.

Here's what I think Leslie, you took the bait. Katherine Heigl told the truth. Knocked Up was more than a little bit sexist. It was very sexist, but it was also funny, that's why we're (OK, me) are so uncomfortable with it.

If Judd Apatow is as close to god as Hollywood thinks he is, he should be able to make films that are less demeaning to women.

I'm standing up for Katherine Heigl all the way.

The Anti-Choicers Are At It Again

Now that abortion issues are pretty much off the the national radar for the moment, leave it to the antis to find another way to get some press. This time they erupted during the premiere of Dr. Seuss' Horton Hears a Who after Horton's most infamous line "a person's a person no matter how small" was uttered.

Guess that they are so desperate for attention that they think that going into a Hollywood premiere will help their cause. Doubt it cause I'm sure that episode pissed off some Hollywood biggies who had brought their kids to the premiere.
Slate- Kim Masters

TV Tonight

Miss Guided starring the always perfect sidekick who finally gets the spotlight to herself Judy Greer premieres tonight at 10:30 on ABC. Premise is that a former geeky girl returns to her high school as the guidance counselor. Show is created by Caroline Williams.
High School Geek to Hollywood Chic (LA Times)

Iron Ladies Of Liberia
Documentary by Siatta Johnson and Daniel Junge on the first year of Ellen Johnson-Sirleaf, the first freely elected female head of state in Africa. The resulting film is a joyous, inspirational testimony of the political power of women's leadership and diplomacy.
10pm on PBS

Voice of the Next Generation: The Fusion Film Festival

Women & Hollywood is dedicated to get a diverse group of voices out to the community. Today marks our first guest post by Rebecca Bellotto, who with Grettel Batoon was the co-directors of the Fusion Film Festival, a student-run film festival dedicated to the work of female filmmakers.

The Fusion Film Festival, New York University and Tisch School of the Arts’ only student-run film festival dedicated to the work of women, wrapped its three-day schedule of events on Saturday, March 1 with a retrospective on the work of the late writer, director, and actress Adrienne Shelly. The event was led by Shelly’s husband and Executive Director of the Adrienne Shelly Foundation Andy Ostroy and featured producer Peter Newman and actors Lara Harris, Ally Sheedy, and Paul Rudd as guest speakers – each spoke about Shelly’s life and work before playing a selected clip from one of her shorts or features.

As this year’s Festival’s co-directors, Grettel Batoon and I could not have been more pleased with the Adrienne Shelly Retrospective as Fusion’s closing event. The speakers’ messages were all resoundingly positive, paying loving tribute to the late artist and reminding the packed audience that Ms. Shelly’s example as a woman who gave all of herself in her work and never let the label of gender get in her way is one that should inspire and encourage all other women filmmakers. Fusion’s goals have always been to support aspiring female filmmakers and promote the work of established women – as well as to encourage artistic collaboration between the sexes – so we were incredibly proud that our closing event communicated such a strong message in support of our mission.

The Fusion Film Festival was founded in 2003 by then-students Gina Abatemarco and Emma Mason Heald, women who wanted to create an event that would celebrate the work of female student filmmakers and women in the industry at large. They were also interested in putting together a film festival that would be completely student-run. Fusion has gone through a different set of leaders each year since then, but each program has done a spectacular job of continuing the mission of promoting and encouraging women and collaboration as well as putting together an amazing line-up events through the sheer hard work and determination of undergraduate, graduate, and even some alumni students.

This year's events included a Master Class with uber-producer Denise Di Novi; a sneak preview screening of Kimberly Peirce’s upcoming film Stop-Loss; a day devoted to the winners of our student documentary pitch, screenplay, and short film competitions; panels on Women in Television and How to Get an Agent; and the Adrienne Shelly Retrospective.

In my opinion, Fusion has grown so strongly in the last five years mainly because of its incredible importance and relevance to students - especially the women - at Tisch. Though women have certainly made and will continue to make gains in the film industry especially as producers and executives, there are still far fewer women working as directors, cinematographers, screenwriters, and other on-set positions. It is vital that we spotlight women who are filling these roles as a way to set examples for the many female students who might be anxious about their chances in the industry.

As an aspiring screenwriter, I have found the atmosphere at Tisch to be very supportive, but it can be disheartening at times to see that men write the overwhelming majority of major movies. But as Grettel says, one of the greatest things about Fusion is the fact that so many successful, inspiring women from all fields come to speak and encourage female students at Tisch to keep working towards their dreams.

We are incredibly proud of what we believe was Fusion’s most successful year yet – we can’t wait to see what next year’s co-directors come up with for Fusion’s sixth year!

Rebecca Bellotto and Grettel Batoon, Fusion Film Festival Co-Directors and undergraduate students at New York University’s Tisch School of the Arts

More info Fusion Film Festival

(Photo credit: Martin Bentsen)

TV Tonight

In honor of St. Patrick's Day director Dawn Scibilia's (she also co-produced, shot and edited) documentary HOME premieres tonight on PBS at 9pm.

Young Dubliner Alan Cooke reflects on his recent immigration to New York City, contemplating the concept of home and the ever changing cosmopolis in this award winning first feature directed by Dawn Scibilia.

With Liam Neeson, Susan Sarandon, Mike Myers, Alfred Molina, Colin Quinn, Rosie Perez, Pete Hamill, Frank McCourt, Malachy McCourt, Fran Lebowitz, Elaine Kaufman, Drew Nieporent, David Amram and many more.

Home The Movie

The New Adventures of Old Christine
I have been remiss in not pushing this show more. It is one of my favorites and has been on this winter when there has been so little other new shows due to the writers strike. Julia Louis- Dreyfus is so great and funny. Last month they did a show on whether or not Christine was going to get plastic surgery and it was handled so well. I couldn't stop laughing. (They also actually used the word feminist which I don't think I've heard on TV in forever.) Show is created and run by Kari Lizer and also stars Wanda Sykes. Need any more reasons to watch? I don't think so. Tune in.

In fact, here's a question: when was the last time you heard the word feminist on TV (in a scripted show) and in what context?

Don't miss this show- Mondays, 9:30pm CBS

Emma Thompson, Hollywood Feminist

Emma Thompson has a first person essay in Newsweek on standing up against human sex trafficking. She is the chair of the Helen Bamber Foundation which among the other great work it does, created an exhibit called Journey featuring the testimony of the people (mostly young women) who have been trafficked and the impact on their lives.

Read the Newsweek piece: Emma Thompson on Human Trafficking
Learn more about the Helen Bamber Foundation

(photo: John Shearer, Wireimage.com)

Women at the Box Office This Weekend

There are no new women-centric releases this weekend.

Women & Hollywood recommends that you check out Miss Pettigrew Lives for a Day which is playing in most communities. Girls Rock! is also rolling out on a limited basis and is fantastic. Here are reviews: Miss Pettigrew Review; Girls Rock Review

Holdovers Remaining in Theatres
The Other Boleyn Girl
4 Months, 3 Weeks, 2 Days
The Orphanage
Juno
Penelope
Mad Money
Atonement
La Vie en Rose

Opening Next Week
Under the Same Moon - interview with director Patricia Riggen to come next week

TV This Weekend
If you don't want to go to the theatre there are a couple of things on TV worth watching.

The Return of Jezebel James
Feminist Amy Sherman-Palladino's return to scripted TV. Show stars Parker Posey and Lauren Ambrose
Friday night, Fox, 8pm.
This commentary from the Huffington Post lays out why we should take a chance on the show and not listen to the reviewers. (I might add that in general I have stopped reading reviews before I watch something, especially on shows related to women. They just don't help and are usually get off on trashing a show) Will Jezebel James Follow in the Footsteps of the Gilmore Girls?

On Deadly Ground: The Women of Iraq
A behind the scenes look at how deadly it has become for women. Another unacceptable tragedy of the US occupation. Weren't we supposed to help women get rights?
CNN, Saturday and Sunday night at 8pm.

John Adams
While this is not about a woman, Laura Linney co-stars as Abigail Adams and gives another one of her fantastic performances. I've seen the first two parts and this is one of the most well done TV films I've seen in a long time. HBO does these types of TV events better than anyone else. It's riveting and Paul Giamatti is beyond good. Don't miss it.
Premieres Sunday night at 9pm on HBO.

Another Woman Joins the Boys Club

The list has grown from one -- Amy Pascal at Sony -- or two -- if you count Stacey Snider at Dreamworks (which is a subsidiary of Paramount)-- to three now that Mary Parent has been named Chairman (can we please make these names gender neutral?) of the MGM Worldwide Motion Picture Group.

She will oversee production, distribution, marketing and business affairs at the studio. Parent is a well liked and respected executive who used to be Vice Chairman of World Wide Production at Universal before her most recent gig as an indie producer with partner Scott Stuber.

The job at MGM has been vacant since 2004.

Parent will report to MGM chairman & CEO Harry Sloan.

Will her appointment lead to more opportunities for women onscreen or behind the scenes? Her most recently produced films The Kingdom, The Breakup and upcoming Wolfman speak for themselves.

News Briefs

• Interview with Helen Hunt from the South by Southwest Film Festival in Austin. Her directorial debut, Then She Found Me opens on April 25. Helen Hunt Talks Film Making in Austin

• The Golden Compass is the first film to cross the $300 million mark in international box office without having made $100 million in the US. Maybe the world doesn't have as much trouble with girls as the lead of movies as we think they do. Hopefully this will get sequel talks revived.

• Sarah Polley 's Away from Her picked up seven awards at the Canadian Genie's. The film won best picture, best director, best adapted screenplay, best first feature and acting awards for Julie Christie and Gordon Pinsent.

• Persepolis, Marjane Satrapi's autobiographical film about her life in Iran has been banned in Lebanon.
  

• ShoWest is the industry event that stokes the fire to get people in the biz (namely the theatre owners and reporters) ready for the summer season. They hand out awards each year that are focused on films that are coming out over the next couple of months. The list this year includes: Helen Hunt as the Breakthrough Director of the Year for Then She Found Me; Anne Hathaway as Female Star of the Year who will be seen as Agent 99 in Get Smart. Also, Sarah Jessica Parker who will try and whip up a female frenzy with Sex and the City, received the Vanguard award and Abigail Breslin who next stars with Jodie Foster in Nim's Island has been named Female Star of Tomorrow (based on her current crop of work, she seems like the female star of today.) This summer she also stars in the big screen version of the American Girl doll phenomenon, Kit Kittredge: An American Girl.

• Interviews from Women Directors with film at South by South West Mary Bronstein, director of Yeast; Caroline Suh, director of FrontRunners (IndieWire)
  

• Baby Mama, the new comedy starring Tina Fey and Amy Poehler, will open this year's Tribeca Film Festival on April 23rd.

• Judith Thompson has won the 2008 Susan Smith Blackburn Prize for her play Palace of the End, a series of monologues about the Iraq War. This is the most prestigious prize for female playwrights.
  

• Joe Queenan in the Guardian uses the release of 10,000 BC to ponder the changing role of women in the prehistoric films.

In today's postmodern prehistoric film, the women - rather than thundering across the Hyborian savannahs clad only in string bikinis stitched together from the carcasses of very tiny Jurassic marsupials, but doing so in a strong and empowered way - are simply shunted off to the sidelines.

Full piece: The Women the Script Forgot (The Guardian)

Who Says Women Aren't Funny?

Over a year ago, Christopher Hitchens, the misogynistic blowhard had an essay in Vanity Fair entitled Why Women Aren't Funny. The article pissed off a lot of people including me and now a little over a year later, Vanity Fair takes a look at the other side with its April cover story Who Says Women Aren't Funny.


Firstly, it pisses me off that just because Hitchens says women aren't funny that we now have to defend ourselves. It just plays into the bullshit that feminists are humorless. Alessandra Stanley (who writes about TV for the NY Times) goes behind the scenes with some of today's funniest women to look at how comedy has evolved since the days of the big screen screwball comedies which featured some of the highest profile women of the time. As Stanley says, today's comedians are found on TV, not film (because we all know that there are hardly any funny (or even non-funny) women starring on the big screen today.

The leader of today's funny women is feminist Tina Fey who parlayed her role as head writer on Saturday Night Live into the comedy 30 Rock, which she created, writes and stars in. (Shame on you if you don't watch this show, it is fantastic and funny.) She's about launch a new female buddy comedy Baby Mama co-starring Amy Poehler which will open the Tribeca Film Festival in NY on April 23rd.

Here are some quotes from the piece:

It used to be that women were not funny. Then they couldn't be funny if they were pretty. Now a female comedian has to be pretty- even sexy- to get a laugh. At least, that’s one way to view the trajectory from Phyllis Diller and Carol Burnett to Tina Fey. Some say it’s the natural evolution of the women’s movement; others argue it’s a devolution. But the funniest women on television are youthful, good-looking, and even, in a few cases, close to beautiful—the kind of women who in past decades might have been the butt of a stand-up comic’s jokes.

Comedy used to be about women making fun of themselves as well as everyone else, and you couldn't really make fun of yourself if you were too pretty (think of Gilda Radner). The pretty girls get everything. Now, the one place where looks didn't matter as long as you made them laugh, is being taken over by the pretty girls. Come on. What's left for the rest of us?

How this evolution happened is not entirely clear. The backlash school of feminism would argue that it’s the tyranny of a looks-obsessed culture that promotes sex appeal over talent, be it in comedy, pop music, or even sports.

Is there a backlash school of feminism? Are there classes available? Give me a break. It's not the backlash school of feminism that thinks our culture is looks obsessed -- it's the WHOLE CULTURE that KNOWS that we are obsessed with looks.

There has been an epochal change even from 20 years ago, when female stand-up comics mostly complained about the female condition—cellulite and cellophane—and Joan Rivers and Roseanne Barr perfectly represented the two poles of acceptable female humor: feline self-derision or macho-feminist ferocity.

The younger women on TV today owe their careers to Joan Rivers and Roseanne and don't forget Joy Behar and Rosie O'Donnell and the many other women who worked the clubs when it was all guys. They pushed the envelope and made it acceptable for women to be funny. They were funny and feminist. Stanley mentions Wanda Sykes and Maya Rudolph in her piece but hardly any other women of color. And also, where is Julia Louis-Dreyfus? I love The New Adventures of Old Christine that stars Dreyfus and Sykes.

It’s not that these girls are better than the girls who preceded them,” says Fran Lebowitz. “They’re luckier. They came along at a time when the boys allowed them to do this. In comedy, timing is everything.”

So glad to see we still need permission to be allowed to be funny.

At the moment, though, big-budget comedies are still a reach for most women. Comedians such as Steve Carell, Will Ferrell, and Sacha Baron Cohen are major movie stars in a way that their female counterparts are not. Looks, for them, aren’t important: pudgy Jack Black and Seth Rogen are tapped as romantic leads opposite Kate Winslet and Katherine Heigl.

Nobody knew who the hell Sacha Baron Cohen was before Borat. It seems that the films are trying to apply to the lowest common denominator (namely the young boys who are maybe too immature to understand nuanced comedy.) But the real question is, why are women allowed to be funny on TV and have to be the killjoys in films?

Poehler argues that, despite the changes in television and comedy clubs, Hollywood has made it harder than ever for comediennes to play leads in romantic film comedies. “I guess I’m not able to play the girlfriend of guys my own age anymore,” she says. “I play the bitchy older sister. And who doesn’t love the bitchy older sister who gets it in the end?” Poehler speaks wistfully of the days—20 years ago—when “Lily Tomlin and Bette Midler could open a movie, Teri Garr and Diane Keaton were movie stars and they looked like they lived in your building; you felt you could kind of know them.”

Amen, Amy.

It’s oddly cultural but not really much of a mystery: ticket sales are driven by young men (18–24), whereas television, especially network television, is more of a woman’s world. (Female viewers outnumber men by approximately 30 percent during prime time.) So it is something of a milestone that Tina Fey and Amy Poehler have teamed up to make Baby Mama, a comedy about a single career woman (Fey) who wants a child and hires a working-class surrogate (Poehler), who moves in; they then clash like The Odd Couple. In a market that favors boy-girl romantic comedies such as 27 Dresses, a female buddy picture is bold. There have not been many successful ones since Bette Midler and Shelley Long starred in Outrageous Fortune in 1987. (Thelma & Louise had its funny moments, but that final pratfall was deadly.)

Fey says she is aware of the risks. “Women drive what’s on television, and husbands and boyfriends decide on movies,” she said. “I’m doing it backwards: I have a TV show for men and a movie coming out for women.”

I am so incredibly sad that the last female buddy comedy that they could think of to mention is 20 years old. somebody please help me understand why we can be funny or star in TV shows but cannot be funny or star in films. Let's all decide to go and see Tina Fey's movie on opening weekend to support her and her work! Anyone want to come with me?

Ladies Take Lead at HBO

I'm usually quite happy to read about women getting leads in TV shows. But I have to take issue with the tone of Lisa de Moraes TV column in today's Washington Post. From her piece today you get the impression that guys do the serious work and, "chicks" do the light stuff. It's just so demeaning. See for yourself:

Chicks are back, accessible is back, fun is back at HBO.

The network, which just wrapped up a wrist-slittingly depressing final season of "The Wire" and is still angsting its way through five nights a week of "In Treatment" (tonight's patient: Alex, the arrogant Navy pilot who insists his recent brush with death and a disastrous mission in have had no effect on him), announced yesterday it has ordered up 13 episodes of a new drama series, "The No. 1 Ladies' Detective Agency," based on the international best-selling novels of Alexander McCall Smith.

The news came the same day the trades unveiled HBO's greenlighting of a pilot from "Will & Grace" alum Jhoni Marchinko called "Driving Around With Joni," about a successful 40-year-old woman, suddenly widowed, who spends her days driving around Los Angeles with her French bulldog trying to figure out the meaning of life.

Can I do a show about me walking my dog around Brooklyn all day?

The network also is developing a comedy series with Darren Star and Elaine Goldsmith-Thomas called "Diary of a Manhattan Call Girl" -- which, yes, is fun, unless you're the governor of New York, which most of us aren't. It's based on Tracy Quan's book, the Hollywood Reporter reminded.

These projects, and Alan Ball "True Blood," based on Charlaine Harris's best-selling books about a psychic waitress and her vampire boyfriend, mark the first projects in the post-Chris Albrecht era at HBO. (You remember former HBO chairman Albrecht, who entered rehab after allegedly assaulting a female companion in Vegas, only to get the old heave-ho when the L.A. Times reported another allegation of violence, this one against a female HBO staffer.)

HBO co-president Richard Plepler and programming group president Michael Lombardo declined to discuss the recent trend toward female leads and, um, fun, but did tell The TV Column their game plan is to "throw out the rulebook."

"Actually, we said, 'There are no rules -- the only rules are good storytelling,' " Plepler added.

I'm going to be watching this trend. My question is when is HBO going to air the Linda Bloodworth-Thomason Show, 12 Miles of Bad Road starring Lily Tomlin and Mary Kay Place. This sounds like a comedy and doesn't sound as "light" or trashy as some of the shows mentioned above.

This chickification of all things women is driving me nuts.

Tang Wei, Blacklisted in China

Actress Tang Wei who appeared in Ang Lee's Lust, Caution has been blacklisted in China. Her commercials have been pulled and her image has been banned from all newspapers and broadcast media.

Me thinks they doth protest too much.

Full story: Director Lee defends actor banned from Chinese media (The Guardian)

Send Yourself Roses- Biography of Kathleen Turner

I get lots of emails from Kathleen Turner. If you're on progressive and women's list-servs, you probably get them too. It wasn't until I started getting these emails that I realized what an awesome feminist Turner is. But looking back on the roles she played, it makes perfect sense. Now Turner has told her full, honest story Send Yourself Roses, her new memoir done in collaboration with the former leader of Planned Parenthood, Gloria Feldt.

Send Yourself Roses is an easy and interesting read, there are some great tidbits from her film career, but more importantly, Turner takes issue with the culture that dismisses women as they age, and gives us an example of a woman thriving as she moves into a new role in life. Turner has recently taken up directing getting great reviews for her Broadway directing debut, a revival of Crimes of the Heart.

Turner made it big playing smart, sexy, independent women in films in the 1980s and early 1990s. I loved her in Romancing the Stone, its sequel The Jewel of the Nile and especially in Prizzi's Honor. She kicked ass with that sexy voice and her awesome hair and she was a great role model. There was never any doubt that her characters were equal to her male co-stars. Sadly, nowadays, those types of female characters are gone. (Does anyone get the impression from watching Keira Knightley in the Pirates movies that she is equal to her male co-stars? I don't.)

Turner's memoir illuminates just how bad it has gotten for women in Hollywood, but it also talks about issues related to women and aging from a broader perspective. She is strong woman who has survived Hollywood (probably because she never moved there), and a debilitating bout with rheumatoid arthritis (when we all thought she had just gotten fat thanks to the tabloids). I was really impressed with her honestly and guts. Suffice it to say that it's a good thing she's done with Hollywood, cause after this book, she probably won't be getting her any more calls from the guys running the town.

Here are some of my favorite quotes:

I am seriously unhappy about the way women are "sold" today, through film and media. I don't think women want to be anorexic. I don't think the way, as they do in Charlie's Angels, to strip and lap dance- how humiliating.

I choose my roles for film and stage the same way I choose my roles in life. The woman I play must be integral to the script. If the film or play will be just as good without her, then I will not play that part.

About LA and Hollywood:

It is anti-women out there, altogether. Women are, without a doubt, second-class citizens. There is almost a palpable contempt.

Our culture is still afraid of strong women and tends to demonize them.

But the facts are facts and the truth is that in Hollywood, as a woman ages she's not likely to be the romantic interest. She gets stereotyped, often as bitter and angry or just silly. Men, on the other hand, continue to get roles as the romantic lead in films well into their sixties. We often see a visibly older man with a younger leading lady..."

How our society views women will have to change, because today's women are changing how we feel about our own age and aging.

As women get more economic power, we also become more respected for who we are...

These are just a few choice tidbits, but you get the drift. Kathleen Turner rules! Book is available everywhere now.

Review- Miss Pettigrew Lives for a Day

Miss Pettigrew Lives for a Day is the story of Guinevere Pettigrew (the amazing Frances McDormand), a down on her luck governess who spends one spectacular life changing day in the company of an American singer and actress Delysia Lafosse (Amy Adams) on the eve of the of World War II in London.

Miss Pettigrew gets dropped into Delysia's crazy high-society life as her new "social secretary", and helps her negotiates not one, but three men and her own desire to remake herself from her humble coal mining roots. Both women wind up transforming each other and each finds what she needs at the end of their exciting 24 hours together.

Adams plays the same type of effusive character that we grew accustomed to with last year's Enchanted. She just pops off the screen. I'm ready to see her play a different role and that's clearly coming later this year in Doubt and Sunshine Cleaning. She's a really talented young actress and is able to hold her own against one of the best in the business, Frances McDormand. What I love about McDormand is that every character she plays seems so incredibly different from the previous one.

The film is based on the 1938 novel by Winifred Watson, who, according to producers was a woman ahead of her time. "Her books were about women changing their lives, flouting convention, and addressing class tensions and extramarital sex." Gotta add her to my reading list.

I walked out of the film with a goofy little smile on my face liking it way much more than I expected to. Hope you enjoy.

Review: Girls Rock

I loved everything about Girls Rock! I loved that the movie told the story of girls who come together to embrace (or discover) their musical and creative sides. I loved that these girls found a place where they could truly be themselves with no consequences. I loved that women rockers who had been through what these girls are experiencing -- feeling like a freak and unsure of yourself and your place in the world -- were able to show them the light at the end of the tunnel. And, I especially liked that this was a film about something important and it was still fabulously fun and entertaining.

I remember how much it sucks being a girl who is not exactly made from the cookie cutter mold, and watching these girls struggle with identity made me so glad to be done with that. While many things have changed for the better since I was a girl (like the very fact that there is a rock and roll camp for girls) some things have gotten a lot worse namely the pressure to be thin and to conform. Rock camp is a space for girls to be themselves, to embrace their voices and to roar. (They actually make them yell as loud as they can.) It also helps them to develop communication and team type skills as their bands work together to write music and lyrics for the concert that happens at the end of the week. The camp also teaches self-defense and gives girls other tools to survive the boxes that girls get put in by our culture.

The statistics strewn the film just make you want to cry including the fact that women are only 22% of musical performers in music videos (but are a majority of the scantily dressed fans); and that teen girls spend $43 billion on fashion and beauty products.

Directors Shane King and Arne Johnson are incredibly respectful about their portraits of the four girls highlighted in the film. It's not often that I say this, but these guys really get it, and people who work with girls can take some important lessons from this film on how men and women can work together to help improve the lives of girls.

Here's what the directors had to say:

The persistence of the questions [about why men would be interested in making a movie about girls] has brought another issue to mind, and that is the embarrassment we have had to confront about the idea that a man would care about women's issues. It's perfectly acceptable for a straight white man to publicly protest the mistreatment of homeless people or a racist miscarriage of justice. But if a man speaks passionately about the mistreatment of half of the world's population- their lovers, daughters, nieces, mother, grandmothers, aunts, sisters- there seems to be some kind of shame attached. Like you're somehow "going to the other side" or being a weak man.

We care what happens to women...we want them to be full participants in our culture, not just because of fairness and equality, but also because life is richer when their voices are heard.

And so we embrace these questions about being men making this movie, because it gives us an excuse to talk in ways that men don't usually.

AMEN- Go see this film!

Film opens today in NY, LA, Seattle, Portland, SF and Chicago and will roll out in other cities this spring. For info on the film and where it is showing: Girls Rock!

DVD Review- I Could Never Be Your Woman

This should have been a review of an upcoming theatrical release, but sadly that didn't happen. (read some of the insanity here: I Could Never be Your Women Goes Straight to DVD) The good news is that the actual film is not the reason why I Could Never Be Your Woman didn't make it to your local cinema. The film is a fun, funny film from one of the best practitioners of her craft, writer/director Amy Heckerling. Heckerling uses this film to make fun of how fake Hollywood is (a hysterical plastic surgery montage opens the film) and what happens to women as they age in the business (not only onscreen, but also to people working behind the scenes)

The film stars Michelle Pfeiffer (looking fantastic) as the 40-year-old showrunner of an aging teen comedy show You Go Girl. The show within the movie stars Stacey Dash (one of Heckerling's favorites - remember her in Clueless?) as a 20-something trying to stretch out her career playing a teenager. Paul Rudd gets cast in a bit part (he's also part of the Heckerling posse) and he and Pfeiffer hit it off and start dating. Pfeiffer is mortified to discover their age difference and breaks it off, but after some funny back and forths (without making it too much of a drama) they wind up staying together.

More than anything this film deals with the challenges a woman faces as she ages all the while trying to raise an independent, strong daughter. This film was shot in Britain (for financing reasons) in 2005, so it's populated by funny (but mostly unknown) British comedic actors. The amazing revelation of the film is the performance of Saoirse Ronan who burst onto the scene this year in Atonement (she also plays the lead in the highly anticipated The Lovely Bones). This film was her first. Ronan is so funny, so smart and is able to play a pre-teen American kid to perfection. (I still can't believe how good her accent is.) The chemistry between her and Michelle Pfeiffer is fantastic and they even kind of look alike. What's also great, and has always been a hallmark of Amy Heckerling's work, is that does not write down to kids. She writes them as real, smart little people and that's what makes her adolescent characters so special. She gets it, especially when she is writing about young women.

One of my favorite scenes is when Pfeiffer meets her daughter's teacher armed with statistics about how boys and girls learn differently. She stands up for her daughter and tells the teacher that it is his job to make girls feel good about math and science, not scared of it. Another fantastic scene is when Pfeiffer is waiting to head into the network executive's office and there are two drones sitting next to her trying to think of a woman (over 30) they could cast in something. Every woman mentioned is dismissed as too old. After a minute
Pfeiffer can't take it and just lets them have it. It's a precious moment and one only a woman like Heckerling who has worked in the business for such a long time could get way with.

While I can't say it's perfect (I still don't understand the point of Tracey Ullman playing Mother Nature), it is so much better than some of the other films about women that recently made it into the theatres. I really enjoyed it and highly recommend it.

Reese Witherspoon: Hollywood Feminist of the Day

Reese Witherspoon celebrated Women's Month at the UN yesterday and helped launch an international campaign to end violence against women. She teamed up with Avon (she's their global ambassador) and UNIFEM and showed off the new "women's empowerment bracelet." (Will it have the same powers as Wonder Woman's bracelets?) 100% of the profits will go towards ending violence against women. Why can't we just give our money, why do we need jewelry to make us feel good about giving to such an important cause?

Full story: Witherspoon pitches fund to combat violence against women (AFP)

Bird's Eye View Women's Film Festival Kicks Off in London

The Bird's Eye View Film Festival, which celebrates women filmmakers, launches its fourth festival tomorrow night (March 6) in London. The program includes shorts, documentaries and features, and this year has a special feature that looks at the women focused comedies of earlier Hollywood. These smart women also conduct education programs and take some of the films on the road to other festivals and events to spread the word of the importance of including female voices and perspectives as part of the cultural discussion.

More information: Bird's Eye View

Festival director Rachel Millward answered some questions as she prepared for this year's festival.

Women & Hollywood: Why did you name the festival Bird's Eye View?

Rachel Millward: In the UK the term ‘bird’ is a derogatory term for women. It can be affectionate, like chick, but it doesn’t tend to be particularly respectful. So, this is all about seeing the world from the perspective of women – so it is, literally, a bird’s eye view. I think it works because it’s pretty tongue in cheek and shows that we’re fun and not precious or ranty.

This is massively serious to us, but to get our message across and to be true to who we are, we’re going to have a giggle while we get on with it… So it’s somehow disarming for a lot of people who would be put off by a ‘women’s/feminist film festival’ type title.

W&H: How do you pick the films to be included?

RM: We have about 600 shorts submitted from around the world and whittle that down to 20 – 6 for opening night. We get docs and features submitted too, but most of these we request from around the world. Researching other film festivals, putting word out etc. It’s a massive job but it’s a joy when you find such amazing talents!

W&H: What premieres are you particularly excited about?

RM: Hotel Very Welcome is our closing night – it’s a lovely, funny, laid back and painfully accurate movie about travelers in the East. Makes you cringe it’s so familiar! Expired has Sam Morton being her usual brilliant self. Sleepwalking Land is from Mozambique – a really beautiful and heart-rending tale based on Mia Couta’s magical realism novel. We always try to have a chunk of our programme showcasing women from developing countries.

The docs are amazing this year – Her Name is Sabine is a fascinating and frankly quite upsetting doc from the famous French actress Sandrine Bonnaire about her autistic sister going through various stages of treatment and care. All these are UK premieres.

W&H: I noticed that you have a focus on the early comedies of Hollywood. The recent trend in Hollywood has been away from comedies including romantic comedies that feature a female perspective. Do British comedies have more of a female perspective? And what message are you trying to send by showing these films that star strong women?

RM: No, there are hardly any British comedies with strong female leads. The stats here are just as bad as Hollywood. (6.5% films produced in the UK last year were directed by women, 11% were written by women – and if women aren’t writing, the likelihood of having real, complex, multi-dimensional and fabulous female characters is very very slim!). We’ve got a bit more women’s perspective in TV comedy now, since Smack the Pony did their TV sketch show which was encouraged by the Spice Girls success in music (our first girl band). But really, comedy is very much a boys game.

The comedy retrospective idea came about because last year our programme was full of these incredible dramas by women – really stunning and wonderful films – but all tended towards the harrowing/weepy/emotional. It made me think, and wonder why we didn’t get more comedies. So I thought it was a good plan to look back and see what women’s involvement in comedy film over the last century has been. We started with the pre-1930s silent films (in our ‘clowning glories’ retrospective) – there is some fantastically refreshing zaniness – really bonkers and ridiculous humour – all slapstick and physical. Then it moves into the era of classical Hollywood comediennes – the Screwball Women – who are far more glamorous and men-obsessed, but are also feisty, quick, intelligent, strong – they run the show! We just don’t see that anymore. I think Hollywood made films more for a middle aged female audience in those days. Now it’s all about the teen boy market – hence this kind of character just isn’t seen as relevant, I guess.

Looking back highlights what we don’t have now. We’re also using this retrospective to launch a new initiative for women writing comedy feature films – we’ll be bringing together female comic talent from tv, radio, theatre and standup and running an intensive ‘lab’ to generate feature film ideas, which will then get taken into development with a partner production company.

W&H: In the US less that 6% of the top 250 grossing films were directed by women, yet most people don't know about this issue. Is the situation as bad in Britain, and in general why do you think that it's important to focus on female directed movies?

RM: It’s the same situation here. Bad. As to why it’s important to focus on female directed movies (and I’d extend that to female-written too) well, I really believe that film has an enormous influence on our culture. More than that, it can actually affect the way in which we see each other and ourselves. So it’s absolutely crucial to get a balanced perspective on screen. If all I see are one-dimensional female characters, I’m missing the chance to explore life’s dilemmas and imaginative possibilities through the films I watch, because I can’t relate to the characters I see. And film is hardly offering men more insight into womanhood – but it can and should!

If you're anywhere near London this weekend, support the great work of this Festival!

Gender Imbalance in Best Picture Nominated Films from 1977 to 2006

Now that this year's Oscars are over and the critics agree that the ceremony and the awards themselves are out of date (the ratings this year were lower than the first night of American Idol), the Academy will have to struggle to figure out how to make the Oscars, and the movies more relevant.

Here's my answer: Make more movies about women. Not just crappy reductive chick flicks (I'm not saying all chick flicks are crappy), but movies about real women.

In this year's lead up to the Oscars there were several stories written (mostly in the British press) about how the Oscars had gotten so dark, and so male. (Imagine the conversation if Juno hadn't been included as a nominee.)

But is this year any worse than previous years, or did it just actually get some press this time around?

A new study by Stacy L. Smith and her colleagues at the Annenberg School of Communication at USC took a look at all the speaking parts in films nominated for the Best Picture award over the last 30 years (not including this past year) to see what the gender balance looks like. (This research is part of a larger research program on looking at gender roles in the media that is funded by actress/activist Geena Davis.)

The news is not good.

"Of the 6,833 single speaking characters only 27.3% were females." (The data set included anyone who spoke a line onscreen no matter how big or small their part was. The leading character counted just as much as the person who said one line.)

"Very simply, there has been no change in the frequency of roles for females in best picture nominated films in the last 30 years."

Smith spoke with Women & Hollywood about the research.

Women & Hollywood: How did this research come about?

Stacy Smith: We had been doing some other work on films and were curious about how these prestigious films might do in terms of gender balance. They often tackle controversial issues of historical import. We were looking to see where people are doing a good job and where there is room for improvement.

W&H: What did you learn?

SS: The previous 30 years don't look so great. Are things getting better? No, they're not. Now we have hard evidence to show that there is lots of room for improvement. Without the data it's hard to know. Any way you slice it up this representational portrait is out of balance.

W&H: Why did you decide to track the data this way?

SS: This is the whole bandwidth of characters from the most prominent to the least prominent not the amount of words they say. If we think about representation and that females should represent half the characters or half the space we want to make sure that it is across all characters not just the ones that have compelling lead roles.

Of the 150 films nominated for best picture from 1977-2006. Only 5 and a half of the films are directed by women.

These films are:
1986- Children of a Lesser God, directed by Randa Haines
1990- Awakenings, directed by Penny Marshall
1991- The Prince of Tides, directed by Barbra Streisand
1993- The Piano, directed by Jane Campion
2003- Lost in Translation, directed by Sophia Coppola
2006- Little Miss Sunshine, co-directed by Valerie Faris

"An analysis revealed a significant difference in the percentage of females depicted on screen by director sex. The proportion of females on the silver screen is significantly higher when a female is directing a motion picture than when a man is at the helm."

W&H: The data clearly shows that when a woman directs, the number of female speaking parts is higher.

SS: We just know that the numbers make a significant jump when the female is a director and that's a positive. It would suggest that maybe we need more female directors.

W&H: What are your hopes for this research?

SS: I spend a lot of time educating my students and sending them into the film industry informed is really important. It's about empowering them and giving them the courage to tell stories that are rich and multi-dimensional. This data suggests that there is a lot of room for improvement and it's important to educate the next generation of filmmakers about these issues so they remember issues of representation and diversity when they are creating their scripts and pitching their stories. The goal is not to deal with this on the back end in the research, but that the next generation of content creators are thinking about these issues when they tell the stories.

Amy Sherman-Palladino Makes Her TV Comeback

The NY Times ran a piece on Amy Sherman-Palladino the writer/creator of The Gilmore Girls on her return to TV with The Return of Jezebel James starring Parker Posey and Lauren Ambrose. The fact that she was called an auteur in headline is progress itself. Auteur is usually associated with male directors especially in the film business. It's much harder for a woman to be called an auteur in the movies (probably because there are so few female film directors.)

But on TV there has been a strong history of female auteurs including Diane English (remember Murphy Brown? I still miss it), Linda Bloodworth-Thomason (Designing Women), Susan Harris (The Golden Girls), Roseanne, and now Shonda Rhimes. One of the things I've always noticed about strong women (you know those pesky women with opinions and thoughts) in any business that we (I am one!) are quickly put into the bitch box. It's thanks to Tina Fey (on SNL last week) that we can all now embrace our inner bitch because "bitch is the new black."

Sherman-Palladino has one of those legendary stories that only happen in showbiz about being kicked off her own show in a contract dispute. She left the Gilmore Girls the season before its last, and those who loved the show know full well that her departure was the cause of its demise. Some shows just cannot survive without the "birth parent" on set. (Case in point- The West Wing. Show was just not as good after Aaron Sorkin left.) Btw she seems to get along fine with her creative partner and husband Daniel (but she is clearly the visionary getting the lion's share of publicity and the lion's share of the crap that goes with that.)

Some quotes from the piece:

Within the television industry Ms. Sherman-Palladino, a spunky, sarcastic writer with a penchant for gothic top hats and fishnet stockings, is recognized as a unique talent, but also a challenging one.

Ms. Sherman-Palladino said that she always provided pitches and outlines well in advance, and that the industry’s most esteemed show runners of that era were not expected to submit finished scripts. Joss Whedon never gave anyone a script,” she said. Aaron Sorkin never gave anyone a script.”

Could it be that there is a double standard between female and male showrunners? Really, that would mean we live in a sexist world and we all know that everything's equal now, right?

“It’s hopefully funny in a way that only girls can be funny,” Ms. Ambrose said. When an actor works in television, she said, “they own you, but when somebody like Amy’s in charge, who’s passionate and very determined, you go, ‘O.K., I’ll put my life for the next thousand years in her hands.’ ”

“The first few years at ‘Gilmore,’ ” Ms. Sherman-Palladino said, “I really spent way too much time talking to person after person after person, about marketing and support, and how we’re not just a chick show, we can do more than sell tampons. It never got us anything. It came down to when the audience discovered it, they watched it, and then all of a sudden everybody liked it.”

Hopefully now that it's almost a decade later and that women are appear and are leads in many hit shows, this new show will not get pegged as the TV equivalent of the chick flick.

Check out the full piece: Auteur Writes Herself Another Chance

Show premieres on Fox on March 14th.

Women at the Box Office the Weekend of February 29, 2008

There are three semi-wide films vying for the female audience this weekend, and two other limited releases. Penelope and The Other Boleyn Girl seem to be going after the same market -- young women not interested in Will Ferrell's Semi-Pro -- and Bonneville is looking to tap into the older female market. Vivere is opening in NY and LA and the documentary Beyond Belief about two women whose husband's were killed on 9/11 and their journey to Afghanistan to help widows like themselves. (I saw the film at last year's Tribeca Film Fest. It was quite moving.) For more details on where its playing: Beyond Belief

Check out my reviews/ interviews from earlier this week on Vivere and Bonneville.

Penelope tells the fairy tale story of a young woman addled with a long family curse that the next born girl child would be doomed to live life with a pig's snout until she finds someone of her "class" to love her. Christina Ricci plays Penelope has spent her life hidden by her parents (mostly her mother played by Catherine O'Hara) so that she does not have to experience the world's cruel treatment of people who looks different.

A series of proper suitors are engaged on the search to break the curse and it is only when Penelope realizes and embraces that she is happy with herself and the way she looks pig nose and all, that the curse is broken.

The film was shot two years ago and was produced in part by Reese Witherspoon's Type A films. Witherspoon plays a small part (which she probably had to agree to do to get financing.) Sadly, she's too big a star for small parts and she seems out of place here. The film also stars a younger and greener (and freer) James McAvoy before his breakout performances in The Last King of Scotland and Atonement. This guy really has the goods, he lights up the screen.

I thought the film was cute and the story was touching. I think it's really good for the younger set and has a great message which is that we all need to love ourselves for who we are no matter what we look like.

The film is written by first time screenwriter Leslie Caveny whose goal was to rework the typical fairy tale "We've seen many fairytales where the woman loves the guy no matter what he looks like, so I wanted to create a story giving the woman the same treatment."

On the complete opposite end is The Other Boleyn Girl, this weekend's guilty pleasure movie. Big costumes, big dances, lots of deception. Scarlett Johansson and Natalie Portman play Mary and Anne Boleyn, the two sisters who seem to have a new movie or mini-series based on their lives each year. The film is based on Phillipa Gregory's best-selling historical novel that tells the story we all know too well. I've never been a big fan of Johansson's and this movie doesn't sway me any more in her favor. She seems shocked (shocked!) at the continued treachery of her sister played by the slumming Natalie Portman. Eric Bana is disappointing as King Henry. This bland film made me even more excited for the return of The Tudors on Showtime later this spring.

Films Opening
Penelope - 1,196
The Other Boleyn Girl - 1,166
Bonneville - 101
Vivere- NY/LA
Beyond Belief - NY

Remaining in Theatres
4 Months, 3 Weeks, 2 Days
A Walk to Beautiful (LA)
Juno
27 Dresses
Caramel
Atonement
P.S. I Love You
Persepolis
The Golden Compass
The Savages
Mad Money
How She Move

Opening March 7
Miss Pettigrew Lives for a Day
Girls Rock

Emma Thompson Saves Young Actress from Starving

Missed this from earlier this week. It's worthy of a full copy and paste (from the First Post)

Brit actress saved by outraged Emma

The English actress Emma Thompson has stepped in to protest about an up-and-coming British actress, of seemingly perfect proportions, being required by an American film company to lose weight for her next role. Hayley Atwell may be the latest muse of Woody Allen, starring in his new film Cassandra's Dream, but she didn't measure up for Miramax Films, who are behind the big-screen remake of Brideshead Revisited.

Having been cast as Julia Flyte, the gilded scion of an aristocratic family played in the original TV series by Diana Quick, the 25-year-old Londoner was asked to shed a few pounds.

Thompson, who appears in the remake as Lady Marchmain (opposite Michael Gambon in the old Laurence Olivier role as Lord Marchmain), learned of Atwell's predicament when she invited her to dinner at her home.

Says Atwell: "I went round to Emma's one night and she was getting very angry that I wasn't eating all the food she was giving me. I told her why and she hit the roof." The no-nonsense Thompson was so outraged that she called the producers the next day and threatened to resign from the film if they forced Atwell to lose weight. Faced with Thompson - a two-times Oscar winner - on the warpath, Miramax Films swiftly relented.

This is why I love Emma Thompson.

News from the Week

• Cate Blanchett is one busy woman. About to give birth to her third child, and running the Sydney Theatre Company with her husband she has agreed to chair a culture think tank, Towards a Creative Australia. Blanchett to Chair Culture Forum

• Uma Thurman is producing her second film The Accidental Husband written by three women. She thinks things are getting better for women in Hollywood.
  

“I think female writers and directors have been getting more work in recent years,” she continues, her slender fingers fiddling with the fine blonde hair scraped back from her face. “The slow move towards Hollywood accepting women in the employer and leadership positions is getting better. I think we’re all growing up more and more. There is some positive movement, and that makes me happy.”

Yet she bought the rights to the film cause she couldn't get a part.

I bought the rights and developed the story because nobody at the time was letting me do comedy,” explains the 37-year-old New Yorker, a hint of frustration creeping into her otherwise sanguine tone as she recalls the earlier stages of her career.

Uma Thurman, Producer

• ABC will bring back the Women's Murder Club in April with a new showrunner. Gotta say I'm kind of pissed since I thought the show was fine. The good news is that Sarah Fain and Elizabeth Craft were quickly hired by Joss Whedon to work on his new show Dollhouse.
  

• Lipstick Jungle seems to have survived. NBC ordered six more scripts.

• Overture Films will release Sunshine Cleaning, Christina Jeffs drama starring Amy Adams and Emily Blunt. Deal is for around $2 m, that's $5 m less than it cost them to make the film. Amy Adams was in the highest grossing film starring a woman in 2007.
  

• The Business of Being Born continues its run opening in Seattle this weekend. Here is another interview with Executive Producer, Ricki Lake: The Business of Being Born

Bonneville- A Road Trip with Jessica Lange, Kathy Bates and Joan Allen- Opens Tomorrow

I was so excited to see that a film starring Jessica Lange, Kathy Bates and Joan Allen was happening. I am a fan of each actress and am really happy that this script brought Jessica Lange back to the big screen. Lange plays Arvilla Holden, a recent widow who promised her free spirited, traveler husband that he would never be buried below ground. The problem for her is that her late husband's daughter played by Christine Baranski (yes, he was 20 years older than Lange) wants her father buried next to her long deceased mother. The kicker is that the stupid dead husband never changed his will after they got married, so Arvilla will be homeless if she does not deliver the her husband's ashes for a proper internment.

So, Lange breaks out the old Bonneville and along with her two best friends, Margene (Kathy Bates) and Carol (Joan Allen), they journey west from Pocatello, Idaho to Santa Barbara, CA. This, being a road movie you get the inevitable flat tire and rescue by a young hot man worldly beyond his years on his own journey; a trip to the Grand Canyon; a rented houseboat disaster; and of course the leering truck driver (Tom Skerritt) who turns out quite the gentleman who falls for Margene. The trip also brings the women closer together and helps them rediscover their love for each other.

The film is directed by first timer Christopher N Rowley and his inexperience is evident onscreen especially because of the seasoned actresses he is directing. But the women clearly had fun making the film and seeing Lange, Bates and Allen onscreen together should be reason enough for anyone to fork over $10 bucks.

Lauren Timmons is an Associate Producer on the film. She was the one who first read the script at her company and was instrumental in all phases and facets of the film.

She answered a few questions about the film.

Women & Hollywood: How did you come across the script for Bonneville?

Lauren Timmons: After I finished classes for my MFA at Columbia, I started working in development at SenArt (the Tribeca production company behind “The Station Agent” and the Academy Award Winning Documentary “The Fog of War”). The writer and director of “Bonneville” had seen and loved “The Station Agent,” and they sent us their script because that character-driven, funny, uplifting feel was exactly what they were going for with “Bonneville.”

I was the first at SenArt to read “Bonneville” – I’d read hundreds of scripts at this point, and this story really stood out. I loved the characters, I loved that it was about friendship, fun, travel, living life to the fullest. And I loved that starred three women at an age that Hollywood so often relegates to playing the “supporting mother/grandmother” roles. Robert May, who founded SenArt, loved “Bonneville” as well – and so we started working with the writer and director to refine the script!

W&H: Explain what an associate producer does?

LT: I’ve been involved literally in every step of “Bonneville’s” creation since development: raising the money, casting the film, pre-production. I was on set in Utah and California when we shot it, and around for the post-production/editing as well. And finally, I’ve been working very closely on the marketing and release, which is really exciting. We’ve created an amazing website, www.BonnevilleTheMovie.com, where you can not only see the trailer and find out more on the film, but you can watch an amazing “Behind the Scenes” featurette, enter to win fabulous vacations, download driving directions to take the actual road trip Jessica brings her friends on in the film, and a lot more!

W&H: What in the script resonated with you that you wanted to pursue it?

LT: As I mentioned above, I was immediately struck by the script. I loved the characters - that this was a story about three women, each with a real journey to go on. It was funny, sad, and completely character-driven. It drops you into these women’s world and you really feel like you’re right there on the road with them. Plus, it was fun - a road film, a buddy film. It leaves you feeling good, which is extremely refreshing – it’s a celebration of friendship, fun, travel and living life to the fullest.

W&H: Scripts with female leads are few and far between and this film has three strong female characters. Why do you think there are some few female centric films in Hollywood?

LT: I keep hearing that “women will go see a movie starring men, but men won’t see a movie starring women” but I think that’s crazy. There have been huge “female centric” hits - “Calendar Girls,” “Something’s Got to Give,” “The Devil Wears Prada” – and most recently, “Juno.” I truly believe that if it’s a good story with good characters, it has every opportunity to be a really big, profitable success. And I think women want to see films that resonate with their lives. At preview screenings of “Bonneville,” I can’t tell you how many women have come up to us afterwards, telling us how passionate they are about the film, and asking why more films aren’t made like this. What we tell them is, bring every one of your friends to see “Bonneville” and truly help us make it a success – and there will be more films made like it!

W&H: You worked with a first-time director on the project. Did he come attached to the script and if not, how did you pick him? Why was he the right person to direct this film?

LT: The director, Christopher N Rowley, developed the screenplay along with the writer, Dan Davis. They had brought the screenplay to SenArt together, and we spent over a year working with them on further development, and then on all the pre-production leading up to filming. So we had a long period to get to know each other, and Chris really impressed us with both his preparation and vision. As an independent film company, you absolutely look for new voices, first-time directors with a fresh vision and something interesting to say. Tom McCarthy hadn’t even directed a short film before he made “The Station Agent,” and it’s especially exciting to give someone a shot to make a film that truly might never get made otherwise.

W&H: You yourself are a writer and director. Why do you think women writers and directors continue to struggle to get their work made in Hollywood.

LT: I really do think it’s getting better, and I have every hope that women writers AND directors will continue to get more and more work made at a really rapid pace. I thought it was great that three of the five best original screenplay nominees were women this year, with Diablo Cody winning for “Juno.” A lot of people who see “Bonneville” are surprised that it was written and directed by men, but the screenwriter, Dan Davis, is a really smart and insightful guy who wrote the film from his life. Jessica Lange’s character was very closely based on his grandmother, Margene (Kathy Bates) was a close family friend, and Carol (Joan Allen) was his Aunt Carol, who we actually met on set. But in any case, I think we should absolutely be supporting films both made by and made about women.

W&H: The film was shot in the fall of of 2005. What was the delay from shoot to release?

Well, first of all, it took awhile to find the right balance – “Bonneville” is a true mix of comedy and drama, of character and adventure. Along the way, we would screen cuts of the film to audiences to see how they reacted – and as we went on, we started to get more and more comments like “why doesn’t Hollywood make films like this anymore”. Then, when we started talking to distributors, we found out – in large part, distributors think it’s simply a lot harder to market to “Boomers” than teenage boys. And by this point, we believed so strongly in the film, and we felt that we knew this audience so well, that ultimately we decided we could do a better job. So we partnered with Jeff Lipsky and formed SenArt Films Releasing. And we’re doing all kinds of “outside the box” outreach to get the word out. A key part of our promotion has been preview screenings - we want people to see “Bonneville,” love it, and talk about it to all their friends and family! So we’ve orchestrated screenings for art groups, senior communities, film clubs, boomer groups, the Red Hat Society, and two weeks ago the film screened as a special event on all 16 of Princess Cruises’ ships! We’ve also partnered with AAA, igourmet.com, Xanterra Resorts, and other companies that are helping get the word out to our audience. And what we tell everyone is, if you like “Bonneville,” share it with everyone you know – let’s prove that Boomer women will get out to the theater and support an uplifting, adult story!

W&H: What do you want people to walk out of the theatre thinking after they see the film?

LT: I think ultimately audiences will leave moved, and uplifted. “Bonneville” is a celebration of friendship and of freedom, of letting go of the past and embracing everything life has to offer.

Film opens tomorrow in markets across the country.

Interview With Angelina Maccarone, director of Vivere

Vivere is another one of those hard to describe films. It takes place on Christmas eve in a dreary town outside Cologne, Germany. Three women of different generations-- two sisters and a mysterious older women -- are on the run from their lives and each is affected by the other women in her journey towards creating her future.

Francesca (Esther Zimmering) has been taking care of her her sister Antonietta (Kim Schnitzer) and their father for years driving a cab. When Antoinetta takes off for Rotterdam with her musician boyfriend, Francesca goes in search of her. On her journey she encounters Gerlinde (Hannelore Elsner) and they form an unlikely team in the search for Antoinetta.

Their story is told from each woman's individual perspective. When the stories converge at the end, the three have come together for each other and you get a glimmer that maybe they have created some new connections to each other that will help each of them on her next journey.

The film is written and directed by Angelina Maccarone and produced by Anita Elsani. Angelina answered some questions about the film for Women & Hollywood.

Women & Hollywood: You are the writer and director of this film. How did you come up
with the idea for the film, and did you write it with the intention that you would direct it?

Angelina Maccarone: Since I am a writer/director as you said, I did write VIVERE with the intention to direct it as well. In this case it is an important part of the film since the way it is shot is interwined with my intention of showing three different views of basically the same events and thus make it the subjective story of each of the three protagonists. The basic idea was to show three women of different generations who are at some crossroads in their lives. They all have to make a seemingly small decision that will have great impact onto their lives.

W&H: Explain the title: Vivere.

AM: VIVERE is Italian and means "to live". The three women are in a kind of waiting situation. They wait for other people to make decisions and to tell them what to do. In order to take their lives into their own hands and responsibility they have to give up their waiting and just decide that life begins NOW.

W&H: Each of the women in the film is lonely and desperate to make a connection to others around them. What is the message behind the desperation of people to connect?

AM: I believe that we as human beings are not self-sufficient. But still we need to grow up in the sense of becoming responsible and emotionally independent to be able to have deep and meaningful relationships that are not based on need in the first place. This sounds like a paradox: Becoming independent to being able to belong, but this is how life works, I guess, with paradoxes.

W&H: What do you want people to get out of the film?

AM: I hope for people to think about their situation, their wishes and maybe make them take the first step into the direction they want to head into. Every small step takes you further. I hope this comes across while watching the characters on screen.

W&H: Your film is not only written and directed by a woman, it stars three women and it is produced by a woman. That is very uncommon in the US. Is it easier for women writers and directors in Germany, and what can the US industry learn about how to integrate more women's visions and stories into our film business?

AM: I know too little about the movie business in the US but in Germany it is not necessarily easier for women. We worked on the funding for this film for nearly ten years. Maybe this was due to the fact that there are three female main characters. But still it was great fun working with Anita, the producer, and the cast: Hannelore, Esther and Kim.

Film opens in NY and LA on Friday

Four Films about Women Opening This Weekend

Update: A fifth film Beyond Belief is opening Friday in NY.


This Friday, 4 movies about women are opening. I just have to say how lame brained this is. I know that the studios and distributors all work separately and set up their own schedules, but people we need to be smarter about this. Talk to each other! Remember last month when 27 Dresses and Mad Money opening on the same day. Things didn't go so well for Mad Money.

To make matters worse, Will Ferrell is opening a remake of Semi-Pro this weekend. Will Ferrell is one of the guy who gets women to go to see his films so Semi-Pro will cut into all the potential box office dollars. It will have the most effect on the films targeted at the younger market like The Other Boleyn Girl and Penelope.

I'm going to write about and have some interviews about all four films between now and Friday.

The films are:

Bonneville- starring Jessica Lange, Kathy Bates and Joan Allen

Penelope- starring Christina Ricci

The Other Boleyn Girl - starring Scarlett Johannson and Natalie Portman

Vivere- Directed by Angelina Maccarone starring Hannelore Elsner, Esther Zimmering and Kim Schnitzer. (In German)