With hindsight being 20/20 and all, it may be a shock to learn that when Jane Fonda and producing partner Bruce Gilbert wanted to make a workplace comedy about three secretaries who decide to enact revenge on their tyrannical, chauvinist boss called "9 to 5," few people (see: men) in positions of power thought the film would be a success. And yet, the film -- which got its name after a grassroots organization of women fighting for workplace equality and fair pay (that is still around today) -- was a box-office smash, launched the mainstream career of Dolly Parton outside of music, and inspired both a TV adaptation and a Broadway musical.
Featuring interviews with Parton, Fonda, Lily Tomlin, countless others who worked on the film, the TV adaptation (Rita Moreno!), the Broadway musical (Allison Janney!), and activists from then and now, the documentary "Still Working 9 to 5" currently boasts a 93% critical score.
Featuring interviews with Parton, Fonda, Lily Tomlin, countless others who worked on the film, the TV adaptation (Rita Moreno!), the Broadway musical (Allison Janney!), and activists from then and now, the documentary "Still Working 9 to 5" currently boasts a 93% critical score.
- 4/30/2024
- by BJ Colangelo
- Slash Film
In the offices of Dunder Mifflin (Scranton branch), salesmen, accountants and even Hr got together to decide once and for all: Is Hilary Swank hot or not? They’re referring to her looks, but one could just as easily be talking about her career. At what point was Hilary Swank hot in her career? In 2008, when the episode aired: Yeah. In the years between her Oscars? Not exactly. Now? No. So, let’s take a look and find out…Wtf Happened to…Hilary Swank?
But to truly understand what the fuck happened to Hilary Swank, we go back to the beginning. And the beginning began when she was born on July 30th, 1974, in Lincoln, Nebraska. As a youth, Swank bounced around a bit, going from Nebraska to Washington to California, developing a love for both gymnastics (Junior Olympian; state finalist) and acting (appearing in The Jungle Book at 9 as Mowgli...
But to truly understand what the fuck happened to Hilary Swank, we go back to the beginning. And the beginning began when she was born on July 30th, 1974, in Lincoln, Nebraska. As a youth, Swank bounced around a bit, going from Nebraska to Washington to California, developing a love for both gymnastics (Junior Olympian; state finalist) and acting (appearing in The Jungle Book at 9 as Mowgli...
- 6/30/2023
- by Chris Bumbray
- JoBlo.com
Update, with Matthew Broderick announcement Matthew Broderick has tested positive for Covid and will miss tonight’s performance of Broadway’s Plaza Suite, producers announced. His wife and co-star Sarah Jessica Parker has tested negative and will perform this evening.
In a statement released just an hour before showtime, producers said Broderick had maintained strict adherence to Covid safety protocols but that a second test confirmed the diagnosis.
“Everyone wishes him a speedy recovery,” the statement said. The statement did not indicate when Broderick is expected to resume performances at the Hudson Theatre.
Previous: A Strange Loop, Michael R. Jackson’s Pulitzer-winning musical, has canceled its first Broadway preview, originally set for Wednesday, due to cases of Covid detected within the company. Previews now are expected to begin Thursday, April 7, at the Lyceum Theatre with understudies in some roles.
The show becomes the second Broadway production in as many weeks...
In a statement released just an hour before showtime, producers said Broderick had maintained strict adherence to Covid safety protocols but that a second test confirmed the diagnosis.
“Everyone wishes him a speedy recovery,” the statement said. The statement did not indicate when Broderick is expected to resume performances at the Hudson Theatre.
Previous: A Strange Loop, Michael R. Jackson’s Pulitzer-winning musical, has canceled its first Broadway preview, originally set for Wednesday, due to cases of Covid detected within the company. Previews now are expected to begin Thursday, April 7, at the Lyceum Theatre with understudies in some roles.
The show becomes the second Broadway production in as many weeks...
- 4/5/2022
- by Greg Evans
- Deadline Film + TV
The plan to put Harriet Tubman on the $20 bill is back on track — and Kasi Lemmons, the director of 2019’s “Harriet,” is “thrilled” about it.
“This was well thought out under Obama,” Lemmons told Variety. “But just to have Biden talk about fast-tracking it — that’s just such good news.”
In April 2016, President Barack Obama’s secretary of the treasury, Jacob Lew, announced that Harriet Tubman would take the place of Andrew Jackson on the $20 bill. The change was to be part of a larger plan to make American money better reflect the history of the United States. The unveiling of the newly designed bills were to be unveiled in 2020, and were to be put into circulation later in the ‘20s.
The choice of Tubman, a heroic abolitionist who herself had escaped slavery, taking the place of Jackson, an enslaver, was the result of a contentious public conversation Lew had...
“This was well thought out under Obama,” Lemmons told Variety. “But just to have Biden talk about fast-tracking it — that’s just such good news.”
In April 2016, President Barack Obama’s secretary of the treasury, Jacob Lew, announced that Harriet Tubman would take the place of Andrew Jackson on the $20 bill. The change was to be part of a larger plan to make American money better reflect the history of the United States. The unveiling of the newly designed bills were to be unveiled in 2020, and were to be put into circulation later in the ‘20s.
The choice of Tubman, a heroic abolitionist who herself had escaped slavery, taking the place of Jackson, an enslaver, was the result of a contentious public conversation Lew had...
- 2/2/2021
- by Kate Aurthur
- Variety Film + TV
Given the misogyny on open display in our nation’s capital, and sordid revelations of the #MeToo era, it’s not unreasonable to question how much progress we have really made since U.S. women got the right to vote 100 years ago. Revisiting the battle helps provide the long view.
My grandfather always told me I had suffragette ancestors, but that was just part of my hazy Quaker heritage until I began researching a Variety story about women’s suffrage and learned that my great-great-grandmother was president of the Women’s Suffrage League of Swarthmore, Pa., during the 1890s. Among saved mementos in my brother’s possession: a program for a Suffrage Sociable at her house and newspaper clippings from her lifetime.
“Taft Is Hissed By Suffragists” blares one Washington Post article from 1910: the front page story notes that the sitting president received that response after telling the assembled...
My grandfather always told me I had suffragette ancestors, but that was just part of my hazy Quaker heritage until I began researching a Variety story about women’s suffrage and learned that my great-great-grandmother was president of the Women’s Suffrage League of Swarthmore, Pa., during the 1890s. Among saved mementos in my brother’s possession: a program for a Suffrage Sociable at her house and newspaper clippings from her lifetime.
“Taft Is Hissed By Suffragists” blares one Washington Post article from 1910: the front page story notes that the sitting president received that response after telling the assembled...
- 8/19/2020
- by Diane Garrett
- Variety Film + TV
American Slavery Project is partnering with 11 theaters for a special presentation of Black Women and the Ballot, three short radio plays that will be available nation-wide and virtually for the first time on June 19, at 7:30pm Et.
Available on Juneteenth, a day that marks the end of slavery in the United States, the timely and relevant plays will be available on American Slavery Project website and YouTube channel as well as Crossroads Theatre’s website and partner social media. The event will end with the actors sharing what voting means to them, followed by a live talkback hosted by American Slavery Project on their YouTube Channel. Phylicia Rashad will be featured in Judy Tate’s intergenerational drama Pulling the Lever.
“Black Women and The Ballot marks American Slavery Project’s entrance into the virtual space of theatre performance since Covid-19 swept in changing our lives, our livelihoods and the way theatre is consumed,...
Available on Juneteenth, a day that marks the end of slavery in the United States, the timely and relevant plays will be available on American Slavery Project website and YouTube channel as well as Crossroads Theatre’s website and partner social media. The event will end with the actors sharing what voting means to them, followed by a live talkback hosted by American Slavery Project on their YouTube Channel. Phylicia Rashad will be featured in Judy Tate’s intergenerational drama Pulling the Lever.
“Black Women and The Ballot marks American Slavery Project’s entrance into the virtual space of theatre performance since Covid-19 swept in changing our lives, our livelihoods and the way theatre is consumed,...
- 6/15/2020
- by Dino-Ray Ramos
- Deadline Film + TV
FX’s new original show Mrs. America takes on the Equal Rights Amendment (the Era), painting an intimate portrait for the very real lives of the women who fought for and against it. Names like Gloria Steinem, Shirley Chisholm, and even Phyllis Schlafly are tossed around as giants who shaped our culture and history, but the reality is that they’re real people with real passions, frustrations, love lives, egos, and shortcomings, just like any of us. One of the things Mrs. America does best is show just how deeply personal these conflicts – even among people on the same side – really were, and how often important choices were driven by personal experience.
The show itself comes with a disclaimer that it’s based on truth, but that some conversations have been made up or characters have been merged to aid in telling the story. By and large, however, Mrs. America...
The show itself comes with a disclaimer that it’s based on truth, but that some conversations have been made up or characters have been merged to aid in telling the story. By and large, however, Mrs. America...
- 4/17/2020
- by Alec Bojalad
- Den of Geek
American EXPERIENCEThe Vote, a new four-hour, two-part documentary series, tells the dramatic story of the epic a and surprisingly unfamiliar a crusade waged by American women for the right to vote. Focusing primarily on the movement's militant and momentous final decade, the film charts American women's determined march to the ballot box, and illuminates the myriad social, political and cultural obstacles that stood in their path.The Votedelves deeply into the animating controversies that divided the nation in the early 20th century aa gender, race, state's rights, and political power aa and offers an absorbing lesson in the delicate, often fractious dynamics of social change. Timed to the 100th anniversary of the passage of the 19th Amendment,The Voteis narrated by Kate Burton and features the voices of Mae Whitman Alice Paul, Audra McDonald Ida B. Wells, Laura Linney Carrie Chapman Catt and Patricia Clarkson Harriot Stanton Blatch portraying some...
- 3/10/2020
- by Stage Tube
- BroadwayWorld.com
On Last Week Tonight, John Oliver lobbied for one U.S. state — but preferably not Florida, for snarky reasons — to cement gender equality in the constitution by ratifying the Equal Rights Amendment.
“It’s been an especially rough few years in America for women — from abortion bans to the confirmation of a Supreme Court justice with ‘resting beer face’ to the election of a president who thinks of their genitals as handles,” the comedian cracked. And while June 4th marked the 100th anniversary of Congress passing the 19th amendment, securing women’s right to vote,...
“It’s been an especially rough few years in America for women — from abortion bans to the confirmation of a Supreme Court justice with ‘resting beer face’ to the election of a president who thinks of their genitals as handles,” the comedian cracked. And while June 4th marked the 100th anniversary of Congress passing the 19th amendment, securing women’s right to vote,...
- 6/10/2019
- by Ryan Reed
- Rollingstone.com
The second and final season of “Timeless,” NBC’s time travel drama, embraces more inclusion and diversity, including encounters with abolitionist Harriet Tubman, suffragist Alice Paul, and blues musician Robert Johnson. This greatly expanded the challenges and opportunities for costume designer Mari-An Ceo, who especially enjoyed “Hollywoodland,” in which she got to recreate Katherine Hepburn’s lavish Greek goddess gown from “The Philadelphia Story” for star Abigail Spencer.
“The stories shifted and became more evolved [this season], but this was one of my favorites,” Ceo said. “Going into Hollywood, it felt like we were making a movie and dressed all the people that worked on movies. We made hundreds of background costumes. We were on the Paramount lot and, finally, we were shooting where the place actually was supposed to be.”
In “Hollywoodland,” the Lifeboat team of Lucy, Wyatt (Matt Lanter), and Rufus (Malcolm Barrett) travel to 1941 Hollywood to retrieve the stolen...
“The stories shifted and became more evolved [this season], but this was one of my favorites,” Ceo said. “Going into Hollywood, it felt like we were making a movie and dressed all the people that worked on movies. We made hundreds of background costumes. We were on the Paramount lot and, finally, we were shooting where the place actually was supposed to be.”
In “Hollywoodland,” the Lifeboat team of Lucy, Wyatt (Matt Lanter), and Rufus (Malcolm Barrett) travel to 1941 Hollywood to retrieve the stolen...
- 7/9/2018
- by Bill Desowitz
- Indiewire
Shaina Taub, creator of an acclaimed 2016 Shakespeare in the Park production of Twelfth Night, has signed on a lyricist for the Elton John-Paul Rudnick Broadway musical adaptation of The Devil Wears Prada.
Based on Lauren Weisberger’s best-selling 2003 novel and the 2006 Fox 2000 Pictures film, the in-development Prada is being produced by Kevin McCollum, Fox Stage Productions and Rocket Entertainment.
A production time-line and additional creative team members will be announced at a later date, according to a spokesperson for the project.
Said Elton John in a statement, “It’s great working with Shaina. We’re all having a blast and I’m delighted with the way the show is shaping up.”
“Writing songs with Elton John is a joy and an honor,” said Taub. “The Devil Wears Prada is one of my all-time favorite movies. I’m thrilled to join this amazing team in bringing this story about two...
Based on Lauren Weisberger’s best-selling 2003 novel and the 2006 Fox 2000 Pictures film, the in-development Prada is being produced by Kevin McCollum, Fox Stage Productions and Rocket Entertainment.
A production time-line and additional creative team members will be announced at a later date, according to a spokesperson for the project.
Said Elton John in a statement, “It’s great working with Shaina. We’re all having a blast and I’m delighted with the way the show is shaping up.”
“Writing songs with Elton John is a joy and an honor,” said Taub. “The Devil Wears Prada is one of my all-time favorite movies. I’m thrilled to join this amazing team in bringing this story about two...
- 7/2/2018
- by Greg Evans
- Deadline Film + TV
Did the Time Team manage to save Alice Paul after she was framed for murder?
That was the big question on Timeless Season 2 Episode 7 when the team joined forces with Grace Humiston with the aim of taking down the real villain.
Watch Timeless Season 2 Episode 7 Online
Meanwhile, Connor continued his plan to take down Rittenhouse, but he had to wrestle with the possibility that he would have to do so from the inside.
Did anyone else volunteer to help him?
Use the video above to watch Timeless online right here via TV Fanatic.
View Slideshow: 18 Catchy Tunes that Dominated TV in 2017!!
Get up to speed with the latest twists in the tale for the characters. ...
That was the big question on Timeless Season 2 Episode 7 when the team joined forces with Grace Humiston with the aim of taking down the real villain.
Watch Timeless Season 2 Episode 7 Online
Meanwhile, Connor continued his plan to take down Rittenhouse, but he had to wrestle with the possibility that he would have to do so from the inside.
Did anyone else volunteer to help him?
Use the video above to watch Timeless online right here via TV Fanatic.
View Slideshow: 18 Catchy Tunes that Dominated TV in 2017!!
Get up to speed with the latest twists in the tale for the characters. ...
- 4/30/2018
- by Paul Dailly
- TVfanatic
Sundance Film Festival
PARK CITY -- In "Iron Jawed Angels", Katja von Garnier, who in 1997 directed one of Germany's biggest hits, "Bandits", brings her dynamic, rock 'n' roll style to a subject that is not only American but historical to boot. The story ranges from 1912 to 1920 when a group of fiercely dedicated young suffragettes band together to cajole and embarrass a supposedly democratic country into adapting a Constitutional amendment guaranteeing women the right to vote. It is bracing to see a period drama told with such a contemporary style that includes a highly mobile camera, vivid colors and techniques such as a "speed ramp," where the camera speed changes during the same shot.
While it's disappointing that, as the suffrage struggle grows more protracted, the film gradually becomes more conventional, that initial charge will undoubtedly pull younger viewers into the HBO film, which premiered here at Sundance. Certainly the film could not be timelier as it deals with the problem of politically confronting a wartime president, who is not above playing the "traitor" card and more than willing to incarcerate American citizens on dubious charges, then deny them access to legal counsel.
At the film's focal point are two real-life women. Hilary Swank plays the cerebral and charismatic Alice Paul while Frances O'Connor is the fashionable, good-natured Lucy Burns. They team up to head the Washington D.C. committee for the old-line National American Women's Suffrage Association (NAWSA). However, their inflammatory methods not only rub the new president, Woodrow Wilson (Ben Gunton), the wrong way, this confrontational approach ruffles the feathers of staid and conservative NAWSA leaders Carrie Chapman Catt (Anjelica Huston in a performance rich in appalling stiffness) and Anna Howard Shaw (Lois Smith).
Nevertheless, the energetic pair attracts many to their cause including labor lawyer Inez Mulholland (Julia Ormond), who literally dies of exhaustion campaigning for the amendment, and Ben Weissman (Patrick Dempsey), a political cartoonist smitten by Paul's fiery temperament but unable to carve out a role for himself in a life so consumed with a single political issue.
Perhaps the most intriguing and revealing characters are a Senator (Joseph Adams) and his immaculate wife (Molly Parker), who fall out over her suffrage activities. That a man once could easily and so completely control the life, finances, children and well being of a woman he claims to love will no doubt be an eye-opener to those who take women's rights for granted today.
With so many characters and issues to detail, the movie does take convenient shortcuts. President Wilson, a complicated and crucial figure in American history, gets reduced to a cartoon here. Nor is anyone who opposes our plucky heroines given any chance to rise above the two-dimensional. But this is no great loss since their cause was an ignoble one.
Working with a script credited to several writers, von Garnier has created about as lively a rendering of the period and issues as possible. It is extremely well acted, features terrific production design, costumes and cinematography and contains a directorial control over theme and style that could, if the German filmmaker so chooses, lead to an interesting career in the U.S
IRON JAWED ANGELS
HBO Films
Spring Creek Productions
Credits: Director: Katja von Garnier; Writers: Sally Robinson, Eugenia Bostwick Singer, Raymond Singer, Jennifer Friedes; Story by: Jennifer Friedes; Producers: Laura McCorkindale, Dennis Pinckley, Jim Bigwood; Executive producers: Paula Weinstein, Len Amato, Robin Forman, Lydia Dean Pilcher; Director of photography: Robbie Greenberg; Production designer: Norris Spencer; Music: Johnny Klimek, Reinhold Heil; Costume designer: Caroline Harris; Editor: Hans Funck.
Cast: Alice Paul: Hilary Swank; Lucy Burns: Frances O'Connor; Inez Mullholland: Julia Ormond; Carrie Chapman Catt: Anjelica Huston; Ben Weissman: Patrick Dempsey.
No MPAA rating, running time 123 minutes.
PARK CITY -- In "Iron Jawed Angels", Katja von Garnier, who in 1997 directed one of Germany's biggest hits, "Bandits", brings her dynamic, rock 'n' roll style to a subject that is not only American but historical to boot. The story ranges from 1912 to 1920 when a group of fiercely dedicated young suffragettes band together to cajole and embarrass a supposedly democratic country into adapting a Constitutional amendment guaranteeing women the right to vote. It is bracing to see a period drama told with such a contemporary style that includes a highly mobile camera, vivid colors and techniques such as a "speed ramp," where the camera speed changes during the same shot.
While it's disappointing that, as the suffrage struggle grows more protracted, the film gradually becomes more conventional, that initial charge will undoubtedly pull younger viewers into the HBO film, which premiered here at Sundance. Certainly the film could not be timelier as it deals with the problem of politically confronting a wartime president, who is not above playing the "traitor" card and more than willing to incarcerate American citizens on dubious charges, then deny them access to legal counsel.
At the film's focal point are two real-life women. Hilary Swank plays the cerebral and charismatic Alice Paul while Frances O'Connor is the fashionable, good-natured Lucy Burns. They team up to head the Washington D.C. committee for the old-line National American Women's Suffrage Association (NAWSA). However, their inflammatory methods not only rub the new president, Woodrow Wilson (Ben Gunton), the wrong way, this confrontational approach ruffles the feathers of staid and conservative NAWSA leaders Carrie Chapman Catt (Anjelica Huston in a performance rich in appalling stiffness) and Anna Howard Shaw (Lois Smith).
Nevertheless, the energetic pair attracts many to their cause including labor lawyer Inez Mulholland (Julia Ormond), who literally dies of exhaustion campaigning for the amendment, and Ben Weissman (Patrick Dempsey), a political cartoonist smitten by Paul's fiery temperament but unable to carve out a role for himself in a life so consumed with a single political issue.
Perhaps the most intriguing and revealing characters are a Senator (Joseph Adams) and his immaculate wife (Molly Parker), who fall out over her suffrage activities. That a man once could easily and so completely control the life, finances, children and well being of a woman he claims to love will no doubt be an eye-opener to those who take women's rights for granted today.
With so many characters and issues to detail, the movie does take convenient shortcuts. President Wilson, a complicated and crucial figure in American history, gets reduced to a cartoon here. Nor is anyone who opposes our plucky heroines given any chance to rise above the two-dimensional. But this is no great loss since their cause was an ignoble one.
Working with a script credited to several writers, von Garnier has created about as lively a rendering of the period and issues as possible. It is extremely well acted, features terrific production design, costumes and cinematography and contains a directorial control over theme and style that could, if the German filmmaker so chooses, lead to an interesting career in the U.S
IRON JAWED ANGELS
HBO Films
Spring Creek Productions
Credits: Director: Katja von Garnier; Writers: Sally Robinson, Eugenia Bostwick Singer, Raymond Singer, Jennifer Friedes; Story by: Jennifer Friedes; Producers: Laura McCorkindale, Dennis Pinckley, Jim Bigwood; Executive producers: Paula Weinstein, Len Amato, Robin Forman, Lydia Dean Pilcher; Director of photography: Robbie Greenberg; Production designer: Norris Spencer; Music: Johnny Klimek, Reinhold Heil; Costume designer: Caroline Harris; Editor: Hans Funck.
Cast: Alice Paul: Hilary Swank; Lucy Burns: Frances O'Connor; Inez Mullholland: Julia Ormond; Carrie Chapman Catt: Anjelica Huston; Ben Weissman: Patrick Dempsey.
No MPAA rating, running time 123 minutes.
Sundance Film Festival
PARK CITY -- In "Iron Jawed Angels", Katja von Garnier, who in 1997 directed one of Germany's biggest hits, "Bandits", brings her dynamic, rock 'n' roll style to a subject that is not only American but historical to boot. The story ranges from 1912 to 1920 when a group of fiercely dedicated young suffragettes band together to cajole and embarrass a supposedly democratic country into adapting a Constitutional amendment guaranteeing women the right to vote. It is bracing to see a period drama told with such a contemporary style that includes a highly mobile camera, vivid colors and techniques such as a "speed ramp," where the camera speed changes during the same shot.
While it's disappointing that, as the suffrage struggle grows more protracted, the film gradually becomes more conventional, that initial charge will undoubtedly pull younger viewers into the HBO film, which premiered here at Sundance. Certainly the film could not be timelier as it deals with the problem of politically confronting a wartime president, who is not above playing the "traitor" card and more than willing to incarcerate American citizens on dubious charges, then deny them access to legal counsel.
At the film's focal point are two real-life women. Hilary Swank plays the cerebral and charismatic Alice Paul while Frances O'Connor is the fashionable, good-natured Lucy Burns. They team up to head the Washington D.C. committee for the old-line National American Women's Suffrage Association (NAWSA). However, their inflammatory methods not only rub the new president, Woodrow Wilson (Ben Gunton), the wrong way, this confrontational approach ruffles the feathers of staid and conservative NAWSA leaders Carrie Chapman Catt (Anjelica Huston in a performance rich in appalling stiffness) and Anna Howard Shaw (Lois Smith).
Nevertheless, the energetic pair attracts many to their cause including labor lawyer Inez Mulholland (Julia Ormond), who literally dies of exhaustion campaigning for the amendment, and Ben Weissman (Patrick Dempsey), a political cartoonist smitten by Paul's fiery temperament but unable to carve out a role for himself in a life so consumed with a single political issue.
Perhaps the most intriguing and revealing characters are a Senator (Joseph Adams) and his immaculate wife (Molly Parker), who fall out over her suffrage activities. That a man once could easily and so completely control the life, finances, children and well being of a woman he claims to love will no doubt be an eye-opener to those who take women's rights for granted today.
With so many characters and issues to detail, the movie does take convenient shortcuts. President Wilson, a complicated and crucial figure in American history, gets reduced to a cartoon here. Nor is anyone who opposes our plucky heroines given any chance to rise above the two-dimensional. But this is no great loss since their cause was an ignoble one.
Working with a script credited to several writers, von Garnier has created about as lively a rendering of the period and issues as possible. It is extremely well acted, features terrific production design, costumes and cinematography and contains a directorial control over theme and style that could, if the German filmmaker so chooses, lead to an interesting career in the U.S
IRON JAWED ANGELS
HBO Films
Spring Creek Productions
Credits: Director: Katja von Garnier; Writers: Sally Robinson, Eugenia Bostwick Singer, Raymond Singer, Jennifer Friedes; Story by: Jennifer Friedes; Producers: Laura McCorkindale, Dennis Pinckley, Jim Bigwood; Executive producers: Paula Weinstein, Len Amato, Robin Forman, Lydia Dean Pilcher; Director of photography: Robbie Greenberg; Production designer: Norris Spencer; Music: Johnny Klimek, Reinhold Heil; Costume designer: Caroline Harris; Editor: Hans Funck.
Cast: Alice Paul: Hilary Swank; Lucy Burns: Frances O'Connor; Inez Mullholland: Julia Ormond; Carrie Chapman Catt: Anjelica Huston; Ben Weissman: Patrick Dempsey.
No MPAA rating, running time 123 minutes.
PARK CITY -- In "Iron Jawed Angels", Katja von Garnier, who in 1997 directed one of Germany's biggest hits, "Bandits", brings her dynamic, rock 'n' roll style to a subject that is not only American but historical to boot. The story ranges from 1912 to 1920 when a group of fiercely dedicated young suffragettes band together to cajole and embarrass a supposedly democratic country into adapting a Constitutional amendment guaranteeing women the right to vote. It is bracing to see a period drama told with such a contemporary style that includes a highly mobile camera, vivid colors and techniques such as a "speed ramp," where the camera speed changes during the same shot.
While it's disappointing that, as the suffrage struggle grows more protracted, the film gradually becomes more conventional, that initial charge will undoubtedly pull younger viewers into the HBO film, which premiered here at Sundance. Certainly the film could not be timelier as it deals with the problem of politically confronting a wartime president, who is not above playing the "traitor" card and more than willing to incarcerate American citizens on dubious charges, then deny them access to legal counsel.
At the film's focal point are two real-life women. Hilary Swank plays the cerebral and charismatic Alice Paul while Frances O'Connor is the fashionable, good-natured Lucy Burns. They team up to head the Washington D.C. committee for the old-line National American Women's Suffrage Association (NAWSA). However, their inflammatory methods not only rub the new president, Woodrow Wilson (Ben Gunton), the wrong way, this confrontational approach ruffles the feathers of staid and conservative NAWSA leaders Carrie Chapman Catt (Anjelica Huston in a performance rich in appalling stiffness) and Anna Howard Shaw (Lois Smith).
Nevertheless, the energetic pair attracts many to their cause including labor lawyer Inez Mulholland (Julia Ormond), who literally dies of exhaustion campaigning for the amendment, and Ben Weissman (Patrick Dempsey), a political cartoonist smitten by Paul's fiery temperament but unable to carve out a role for himself in a life so consumed with a single political issue.
Perhaps the most intriguing and revealing characters are a Senator (Joseph Adams) and his immaculate wife (Molly Parker), who fall out over her suffrage activities. That a man once could easily and so completely control the life, finances, children and well being of a woman he claims to love will no doubt be an eye-opener to those who take women's rights for granted today.
With so many characters and issues to detail, the movie does take convenient shortcuts. President Wilson, a complicated and crucial figure in American history, gets reduced to a cartoon here. Nor is anyone who opposes our plucky heroines given any chance to rise above the two-dimensional. But this is no great loss since their cause was an ignoble one.
Working with a script credited to several writers, von Garnier has created about as lively a rendering of the period and issues as possible. It is extremely well acted, features terrific production design, costumes and cinematography and contains a directorial control over theme and style that could, if the German filmmaker so chooses, lead to an interesting career in the U.S
IRON JAWED ANGELS
HBO Films
Spring Creek Productions
Credits: Director: Katja von Garnier; Writers: Sally Robinson, Eugenia Bostwick Singer, Raymond Singer, Jennifer Friedes; Story by: Jennifer Friedes; Producers: Laura McCorkindale, Dennis Pinckley, Jim Bigwood; Executive producers: Paula Weinstein, Len Amato, Robin Forman, Lydia Dean Pilcher; Director of photography: Robbie Greenberg; Production designer: Norris Spencer; Music: Johnny Klimek, Reinhold Heil; Costume designer: Caroline Harris; Editor: Hans Funck.
Cast: Alice Paul: Hilary Swank; Lucy Burns: Frances O'Connor; Inez Mullholland: Julia Ormond; Carrie Chapman Catt: Anjelica Huston; Ben Weissman: Patrick Dempsey.
No MPAA rating, running time 123 minutes.
- 1/19/2004
- The Hollywood Reporter - Movie News
Frances O'Connor has signed on to star opposite Hilary Swank in "Iron Jawed Angels," an HBO telefilm about turn-of-the-century suffragist Alice Paul. O'Connor will play Lucy Burns, the Brooklyn-born activist who co-founded the Congressional Union for Women Suffrage with Paul (played by Swank) and others in 1913. The organization was credited with introducing such militant tactics as hunger strikes and demonstrations in front of the White House to focus public attention on the battle to gain voting rights for women.
- 8/30/2002
- The Hollywood Reporter - Movie News
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