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Post by topbilled on Dec 21, 2023 14:48:59 GMT
Motion picture melodrama is considered 'feminist' if it focuses on: a maternal figure, a woman's impossible love affair, a story about a female patient; or a melodrama in which a female subject is driven to paranoia.
So using this criteria, here are some titles that may fit:
Maternal figures: MISS FANE'S BABY IS STOLEN (1934); STELLA DALLAS (1937); NOW VOYAGER (1942); and MADAME X (1966).
Impossible love affair: HEAVEN KNOWS MR. ALLISON (1957); SPLENDOR IN THE GRASS (1961); DAVID AND LISA (1962); THE THORN BIRDS (1983)
Female patient: CAMILLE (1936); THE OTHER LOVE (1947); THE SNAKE PIT (1948); A STREETCAR NAMED DESIRE (1951); LOVE STORY (1970)
Paranoia: GASLIGHT (1940) & (1944); THE TWO MRS. CARROLLS (1947); POSSESSED (1947); SUDDEN FEAR (1952)
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Post by I Love Melvin on Dec 22, 2023 0:54:28 GMT
I second your nomination of the Lana Turner Madame X and would like to add the Susan Hayward version of Back Street (1961). It's actually a departure from the book and earlier film versions, having been tailored specifically for Susan as a tale of a plucky designer who rises to the top, with the messy adultery stuff more secondary.  Also Lana's Portrait in Black (1960), which features both an impossible love affair and a woman driven to paranoia. It's a little nutty, but it's a good cast: Anthony Quinn, Ray Walston, Sandra Dee, John Saxon and Anna May Wong. It tries for glam noir but I'd say it's a swing and a miss on that one.  |
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Post by topbilled on Dec 22, 2023 2:12:24 GMT
I love PORTRAIT IN BLACK...it's very well made. A good example of multi-generational casting with plenty of cultural diversity.
Re: the '61 version of BACK STREET...didn't Miss Hayward play a woman who worked in the garment trade ten years earlier? A film called I CAN GET IT FOR YOU WHOLESALE. So now she has gone from manufacturing fabrics to designing fabrics...
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Post by kims on Dec 23, 2023 15:35:14 GMT
My unsolicited, uneducated and sometimes strange opinion of what is melodrama. It differs from drama, always the acting is more emotional than normal, any more emotion and the film becomes camp. There are a few characters facing more tragedies than anyone does in life or a cast of several intertwined stories of characters facing crises bordering on controversial.
THE BEST OF EVERYTHING and PEYTON PLACE are feminist melodrama.
And for my controversial opinion: Hepburn's LITTLE WOMEN is melodrama, but not the Alyson version. GASP! I know most people see Hepburn's version definitive. Read no further if you do. I like her version, but I have moments I cringe- she poses looking up and putting a hand near her face; she poses sticking out her neck with a puppy dog grin at times. She was the perfect person to play Jo with her tomboy ways, but sometimes changes her voice and expression reminiscent of Shirley Temple. Example: she finishes a story in the March attic and is ready to take the story to a magazine editor. She puts on that too cute voice and says it's the best she could do and will have to do until she can do better. I mute before that statement because I can't believe she read the line that way. There are a few moments when the film editor stays on her poses longer than necessary as if waiting for a laugh track or someone to snap her picture.
After all that criticism, hard to believe that I like the Hepburn version, but I watch it whenever it is broadcast.
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Post by jamesjazzguitar on Dec 24, 2023 0:32:34 GMT
Here is a feminist melodrama:
Lucy Gallant is a 1955 American drama film directed by Robert Parrish and written by John Lee Mahin and Winston Miller. The film stars Jane Wyman, Charlton Heston, Claire Trevor, Thelma Ritter, William Demarest and Wallace Ford. The film was released on October 20, 1955, by Paramount Pictures.
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Post by Fading Fast on Dec 24, 2023 0:44:37 GMT
My unsolicited, uneducated and sometimes strange opinion of what is melodrama. It differs from drama, always the acting is more emotional than normal, any more emotion and the film becomes camp. There are a few characters facing more tragedies than anyone does in life or a cast of several intertwined stories of characters facing crises bordering on controversial. THE BEST OF EVERYTHING and PEYTON PLACE are feminist melodrama. And for my controversial opinion: Hepburn's LITTLE WOMEN is melodrama, but not the Alyson version. GASP! I know most people see Hepburn's version definitive. Read no further if you do. I like her version, but I have moments I cringe- she poses looking up and putting a hand near her face; she poses sticking out her neck with a puppy dog grin at times. She was the perfect person to play Jo with her tomboy ways, but sometimes changes her voice and expression reminiscent of Shirley Temple. Example: she finishes a story in the March attic and is ready to take the story to a magazine editor. She puts on that too cute voice and says it's the best she could do and will have to do until she can do better. I mute before that statement because I can't believe she read the line that way. There are a few moments when the film editor stays on her poses longer than necessary as if waiting for a laugh track or someone to snap her picture. After all that criticism, hard to believe that I like the Hepburn version, but I watch it whenever it is broadcast. |
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Post by I Love Melvin on Dec 24, 2023 14:18:00 GMT
Here is a feminist melodrama: Lucy Gallant is a 1955 American drama film directed by Robert Parrish and written by John Lee Mahin and Winston Miller. The film stars Jane Wyman, Charlton Heston, Claire Trevor, Thelma Ritter, William Demarest and Wallace Ford. The film was released on October 20, 1955, by Paramount Pictures. Great choice, james. It's literally rags to riches as she sells her trousseau after getting jilted and stuck in a Texas backwater, turning it into a small business and then a mammoth fashion empire, complete with a flagship store which opens with an Edith Head fashion show. It was filmed in VistaVision but I've yet to see a print true to that process, even on TCM. Heston does pretty well in a kind of thankless secondary-to-the-woman role, but Thelma Ritter and Claire Trevor really shine, which shows how truly feminist it is; Wyman isn't the only woman in the spotlight. Here's Claire stepping in to help save her friend Lucy's business after the board tries to take over. You tell 'em, Claire.  |
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Post by I Love Melvin on Dec 24, 2023 14:48:32 GMT
And for my controversial opinion: Hepburn's LITTLE WOMEN is melodrama, but not the Alyson version. GASP! I know most people see Hepburn's version definitive. Read no further if you do. I like her version, but I have moments I cringe- she poses looking up and putting a hand near her face; she poses sticking out her neck with a puppy dog grin at times. She was the perfect person to play Jo with her tomboy ways, but sometimes changes her voice and expression reminiscent of Shirley Temple. Example: she finishes a story in the March attic and is ready to take the story to a magazine editor. She puts on that too cute voice and says it's the best she could do and will have to do until she can do better. I mute before that statement because I can't believe she read the line that way. There are a few moments when the film editor stays on her poses longer than necessary as if waiting for a laugh track or someone to snap her picture. After all that criticism, hard to believe that I like the Hepburn version, but I watch it whenever it is broadcast. To piggy-back on Fading Fast's mention of the 1994 version, I'd also like to recommend the great (I thought) version done on PBS Masterpiece in 2017. It's on YouTube so it's easy access. It's an extraordinary cast in both the female and male roles. There's also Greta Gerwig's 2019 theatrical version, also with a standout cast, including Saoirse Ronan (whom I love) as Jo and Timothee Chalamet as Laurie (whom I was more ambivalent about; too modern?), as well as Laura Dern as Marmee and Meryl Streep as Aunt March. That one seemed to me to be trying a little too hard to be feminist in ways which reflected more modern attitudes. But I've watched the PBS version twice since it premiered and will probably go back more as the years go by, so I'm starting to realize it may be my favorite version. Here's some of the cast and crew talking about it. |
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Post by Fading Fast on Dec 24, 2023 15:01:29 GMT
And for my controversial opinion: Hepburn's LITTLE WOMEN is melodrama, but not the Alyson version. GASP! I know most people see Hepburn's version definitive. Read no further if you do. I like her version, but I have moments I cringe- she poses looking up and putting a hand near her face; she poses sticking out her neck with a puppy dog grin at times. She was the perfect person to play Jo with her tomboy ways, but sometimes changes her voice and expression reminiscent of Shirley Temple. Example: she finishes a story in the March attic and is ready to take the story to a magazine editor. She puts on that too cute voice and says it's the best she could do and will have to do until she can do better. I mute before that statement because I can't believe she read the line that way. There are a few moments when the film editor stays on her poses longer than necessary as if waiting for a laugh track or someone to snap her picture. After all that criticism, hard to believe that I like the Hepburn version, but I watch it whenever it is broadcast. To piggy-back on Fading Fast's mention of the 1994 version, I'd also like to recommend the great (I thought) version done on PBS Masterpiece in 2017. It's on YouTube so it's easy access. It's an extraordinary cast in both the female and male roles. There's also Greta Gerwig's 2019 theatrical version, also with a standout cast, including Saoirse Ronan (whom I love) as Jo and Timothee Chalamet as Laurie (whom I was more ambivalent about; too modern?), as well as Laura Dern as Marmee and Meryl Streep as Aunt March. That one seemed to me to be trying a little too hard to be feminist in ways which reflected more modern attitudes. But I've watched the PBS version twice since it premiered and will probably go back more as the years go by, so I'm starting to realize it may be my favorite version. Here's some of the cast and crew talking about it. |
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Post by jamesjazzguitar on Dec 24, 2023 19:13:24 GMT
I Love Melvin gave me the idea for this film: The Revolt of Mamie Stover (1956), with Jane Russell and Richard Egan.
Gary Tooze writing a review of the Blu-ray release of the film for DVDBeaver website "The Revolt of Mamie Stover has adult themes, female empowerment, war and romance. It offers an impressive, tough girl, performance from Russell. I love the film's exotic look, extravagant costumes and mixed genres."
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Post by I Love Melvin on Dec 25, 2023 0:14:35 GMT
I Love Melvin gave me the idea for this film: The Revolt of Mamie Stover (1956), with Jane Russell and Richard Egan. Gary Tooze writing a review of the Blu-ray release of the film for DVDBeaver website "The Revolt of Mamie Stover has adult themes, female empowerment, war and romance. It offers an impressive, tough girl, performance from Russell. I love the film's exotic look, extravagant costumes and mixed genres." It's a great role for Agnes Moorehead as the (very blonde!) proprietor of a "dance hall" (read w**** house) who knows all the ins and outs of dealing with local prudes and the police, as well as the income tax people. It's one of my favorites of her roles, as she alternately befriends and exploits Mamie (and maybe has a yen for her?), who finally becomes a draw whose appeal eclipses the appeal of the business itself and Mamie becomes too much for her to handle.  |
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Post by Fading Fast on Dec 25, 2023 1:26:54 GMT
"The Revolt of Mamie Stover," both the book and the movie are fun. The book, as is usual, is better, but both are entertaining.
Comments on the movie here: "The Revolt of Mamie Stover"
Comments on the book here: "The Revolt of Mamie Stover"
The author of "The Revolt of Mamie Stover," William Bradford Huie, also wrote the novel "The Americanization of Emily."
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Post by Fading Fast on Jan 10, 2024 14:01:17 GMT
And for my controversial opinion: Hepburn's LITTLE WOMEN is melodrama, but not the Alyson version. GASP! I know most people see Hepburn's version definitive. Read no further if you do. I like her version, but I have moments I cringe- she poses looking up and putting a hand near her face; she poses sticking out her neck with a puppy dog grin at times. She was the perfect person to play Jo with her tomboy ways, but sometimes changes her voice and expression reminiscent of Shirley Temple. Example: she finishes a story in the March attic and is ready to take the story to a magazine editor. She puts on that too cute voice and says it's the best she could do and will have to do until she can do better. I mute before that statement because I can't believe she read the line that way. There are a few moments when the film editor stays on her poses longer than necessary as if waiting for a laugh track or someone to snap her picture. After all that criticism, hard to believe that I like the Hepburn version, but I watch it whenever it is broadcast. To piggy-back on Fading Fast's mention of the 1994 version, I'd also like to recommend the great (I thought) version done on PBS Masterpiece in 2017. It's on YouTube so it's easy access. It's an extraordinary cast in both the female and male roles. There's also Greta Gerwig's 2019 theatrical version, also with a standout cast, including Saoirse Ronan (whom I love) as Jo and Timothee Chalamet as Laurie (whom I was more ambivalent about; too modern?), as well as Laura Dern as Marmee and Meryl Streep as Aunt March. That one seemed to me to be trying a little too hard to be feminist in ways which reflected more modern attitudes. But I've watched the PBS version twice since it premiered and will probably go back more as the years go by, so I'm starting to realize it may be my favorite version. Here's some of the cast and crew talking about it.
I still think the 1994 version is my favorite, but this 2017 version is fantastic. |
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Post by I Love Melvin on Jan 11, 2024 0:23:16 GMT
On your recommendation, I just finished the 2017 BBC/PBS version last night and thoroughly enjoyed it. Great recommendation! The acting is uniformly good with the actors playing Jo and Laurie standing out for me in particular.
I still think the 1994 version is my favorite, but this 2017 version is fantastic. I just found out recently that Maya Hawke, who played Jo, is the daughter of Ethan Hawke and Uma Thurman. She has also appeared recently as Leonard Bernstein's daughter in Bradley Cooper's Maestro (2024), in which she was equally compelling. I look forward to seeing more from her. Jonah Hauer-King, who was Laurie, has played two seasons as the lead on World on Fire, a British series set during the Second World War, which PBS has shown here and in which he's also excellent. He was also really good in a British television adaptation of Howard's End (2017), also shown on PBS here. I'm a fan of the 1994 Little Women too. Great cast. I have the DVD and watch it occasionally; I especially like seeing Mary Wickes in her last role. |
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Post by kims on Jan 14, 2024 17:25:14 GMT
TEA AND SYMPATHY, I considered posting this under teen issues-it fits both teen and feminist. I saw the trailer for this film on TCM this a.m. The trailer declares the subject can be told on film if done with good taste. Hmmm.
Do you think it was done in good taste or in the usual Hollywood veiled references to pass the code of the day? We discussed this film elsewhere. Here are my additional questions: What was considered feminist at that time-that a woman sacrifices herself for a greater good or did society condemn her for shocking behavior? I don't think women of the day would sympathize much with the Deborah Kerr character-my mother didn't.
Would the John Kerr character in that time have been universally reviled? Wasn't there the equivalent of the nerd group?
And Erickson's role as the coach. Was he gay, but didn't realize it? Note in NIGHT OF THE IGUANA, Burton says if the Grayson Hall character ever discovered she was lesbian, it would destroy her. Or did the coach believe as some men did at the time, maybe now too, that having sex with a woman made a man weak?
I don't think TEA AND SYMPATHY was done in good taste. I think it was done skirting the issues of the story in order to appeal to a broader audience.
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