Girl Talk is a weekly look at women in film — past, present and future.
Susan Seidelman had just completed her first feature when the Cannes Film Festival came calling. In 1982, Seidelman wasn’t yet 30; she was only a few years out of film school and had only a single feature under her belt. But that didn’t matter to the world’s most well-regarded festival. They wanted Seidelman’s “Smithereens,” and the ensuing reception for the film — a punk-infused dark comedy about the bohemian underworld of New York City featuring a not entirely likable lead character — didn’t just change Seidelman’s life; it changed the way American independent cinema was received around the world.
“Smithereens,” shot guerilla-style around the city with a cast and crew made up of many of the filmmaker’s Nyu classmates, marked a sea change for Cannes: It was the first American independent feature had...
Susan Seidelman had just completed her first feature when the Cannes Film Festival came calling. In 1982, Seidelman wasn’t yet 30; she was only a few years out of film school and had only a single feature under her belt. But that didn’t matter to the world’s most well-regarded festival. They wanted Seidelman’s “Smithereens,” and the ensuing reception for the film — a punk-infused dark comedy about the bohemian underworld of New York City featuring a not entirely likable lead character — didn’t just change Seidelman’s life; it changed the way American independent cinema was received around the world.
“Smithereens,” shot guerilla-style around the city with a cast and crew made up of many of the filmmaker’s Nyu classmates, marked a sea change for Cannes: It was the first American independent feature had...
- 7/28/2016
- by Kate Erbland
- Indiewire
Midge Sanford and Sarah Pillsbury by Guest Blogger Peter Belsito I have known Midge Sanford and Sarah Pillsbury for many years. They are straight forward, down to earth, generous and serious. And they have great taste. I thought it would be useful to get their input on our changing movie biz environment and, of course, they had lots to say. Midge Sanford hails from New York City. She went to high school in Mamaroneck, New York and then to Sarah Lawrence College, majoring in psychology. She married, had two children and lived in Manhattan until moving to California with her…...
- 4/27/2011
- Sydney's Buzz
(Filmmaker Susan Seidelman, above.)
by Jon Zelazny
In the early 80’s NYC cultural lull between Patti Smith’s retirement and Jay McInerney’s breakout, Nyu film school graduate Susan Seidelman did the scrappy shoestring indie film thing, resulting in her acclaimed feature debut Smithereens (1982).
Best known for her hit sophomore effort, Desperately Seeking Susan (1985), Seidelman continues to direct movies and TV shows featuring female protagonists… including the pilot for “Sex and the City” and her Oscar nominated short film The Dutch Master (1994), about a shy dental technician who ventures “into” a museum painting for flights of erotic fantasy.
Susan Seidelman: My husband Jonathan Brett—who co-wrote and produced The Dutch Master—and I had committed to living in Paris for a year because I was set to direct a feature for Polygram, a company that unfortunately went bankrupt. So we were kind of in a funk over there, and...
by Jon Zelazny
In the early 80’s NYC cultural lull between Patti Smith’s retirement and Jay McInerney’s breakout, Nyu film school graduate Susan Seidelman did the scrappy shoestring indie film thing, resulting in her acclaimed feature debut Smithereens (1982).
Best known for her hit sophomore effort, Desperately Seeking Susan (1985), Seidelman continues to direct movies and TV shows featuring female protagonists… including the pilot for “Sex and the City” and her Oscar nominated short film The Dutch Master (1994), about a shy dental technician who ventures “into” a museum painting for flights of erotic fantasy.
Susan Seidelman: My husband Jonathan Brett—who co-wrote and produced The Dutch Master—and I had committed to living in Paris for a year because I was set to direct a feature for Polygram, a company that unfortunately went bankrupt. So we were kind of in a funk over there, and...
- 11/23/2009
- by The Hollywood Interview.com
- The Hollywood Interview
Directors Arthur Dong, Jay Duplass, Mark Duplass, Chris Eska, Clark Gregg, Davis Guggenheim and Freida Lee Mock are among the participants in Film Independent's fourth annual Filmmaker Forum, which will be held Sept. 26-28 at the Directors Guild of America in Los Angeles.
Producer Ted Hope will deliver this year's keynote address at the three-day event, which focusses on the latest developments in independent filmmaking.
The forum will kick off on Sept. 26 with a screening of Rian Anderson's "The Brothers Bloom," followed by a Q&A with producer Ram Bergman and other members of the creative team and a reception in the DGA atrium.
On Sept. 27 and 28, panel discussions will be held on such topics as "Finding the Financial Sweet Spot"; "What's Up Doc?"; "The Micro Budget Film as a Calling Card; New Tools for Audience Building; The Cost of Cutting Corners: Production Dos and Don'ts"; "Keeping Your Documentary on...
Producer Ted Hope will deliver this year's keynote address at the three-day event, which focusses on the latest developments in independent filmmaking.
The forum will kick off on Sept. 26 with a screening of Rian Anderson's "The Brothers Bloom," followed by a Q&A with producer Ram Bergman and other members of the creative team and a reception in the DGA atrium.
On Sept. 27 and 28, panel discussions will be held on such topics as "Finding the Financial Sweet Spot"; "What's Up Doc?"; "The Micro Budget Film as a Calling Card; New Tools for Audience Building; The Cost of Cutting Corners: Production Dos and Don'ts"; "Keeping Your Documentary on...
- 9/18/2008
- The Hollywood Reporter - Movie News
Opens: Friday, June 13 (Magnolia Pictures).
Writer-director Carlos Brooks delves into a netherworld of fetishisms and handicap worship in his daring first feature, "Quid Pro Quo". The trouble is the movie isn't daring enough. Brooks tiptoes into territory Luis Bunuel would have frolicked in, but he does so without the master surrealist's desire to outrage and confound his viewers.
The question the movie poses is this: Why would an able-bodied person want to be handicapped? What compels a person to wish to be disabled? And damn if Brooks doesn't come up with an answer, or at least an answer insofar as his heroine is concerned. But wouldn't the mystery of this compulsion -- this eroticized worship of wheelchairs, braces, canes and a pair of "magic shoes" -- make a much more fascinating and daring movie than this ultimately conventional tale that demystifies the heroine's fixation?
The story is told by Isaac Knott, a New York Public Radio reporter. Played by Nick Stahl, Isaac is a kind of Ira Glass raconteur. He has been in a wheelchair since age 8, when his parents died in the car crash that crippled him. But the story is really about the mysterious Fiona, who approaches the reporter indirectly to do a story about people who want to paralyze or damage their bodies. She herself is a "wannabe," who insists she is a paralyzed person trapped inside an abled person's body.
Fiona is played by Vera Farmiga, who is quite simply one of the most fascinating, charismatic actresses working in American cinema today. You can't take your eyes off her. Her Fiona is strong and weak, erotic and enigmatic, provocative and pathetic. She can make the most baffling pronouncements sound completely reasonable -- until you realize what she has just said. She needs to be "special," and her fetishistic worship of wheelchairs and braces has a quality of transcendental spirituality.
Then Brooks spoils all this mysterious perversity by allowing a twist ending to explain away Fiona's erotic compulsions. Throw in a bad mother, and you have an ending that is more Freudian than Bunuelian.
The film is beautifully shot in earthen, rustic tones, and the compositions serve to eroticize the two main characters in uncanny ways. This is a startling and promising debut film by Brooks. You just wish he would trust his bent for the surreal more than he does.
Production: HDNet Films. Cast: Nick Stahl Vera Farmiga, Aimee Mullins. Screenwriter-Director: Carlos Brooks. Producers: Sarah Pillsbury, Midge Sanford. Executive Producers: Jason Kliot, Joana Vicente, Todd Wagner, Mark Cuban. Rated R, 82 minutes.
Writer-director Carlos Brooks delves into a netherworld of fetishisms and handicap worship in his daring first feature, "Quid Pro Quo". The trouble is the movie isn't daring enough. Brooks tiptoes into territory Luis Bunuel would have frolicked in, but he does so without the master surrealist's desire to outrage and confound his viewers.
The question the movie poses is this: Why would an able-bodied person want to be handicapped? What compels a person to wish to be disabled? And damn if Brooks doesn't come up with an answer, or at least an answer insofar as his heroine is concerned. But wouldn't the mystery of this compulsion -- this eroticized worship of wheelchairs, braces, canes and a pair of "magic shoes" -- make a much more fascinating and daring movie than this ultimately conventional tale that demystifies the heroine's fixation?
The story is told by Isaac Knott, a New York Public Radio reporter. Played by Nick Stahl, Isaac is a kind of Ira Glass raconteur. He has been in a wheelchair since age 8, when his parents died in the car crash that crippled him. But the story is really about the mysterious Fiona, who approaches the reporter indirectly to do a story about people who want to paralyze or damage their bodies. She herself is a "wannabe," who insists she is a paralyzed person trapped inside an abled person's body.
Fiona is played by Vera Farmiga, who is quite simply one of the most fascinating, charismatic actresses working in American cinema today. You can't take your eyes off her. Her Fiona is strong and weak, erotic and enigmatic, provocative and pathetic. She can make the most baffling pronouncements sound completely reasonable -- until you realize what she has just said. She needs to be "special," and her fetishistic worship of wheelchairs and braces has a quality of transcendental spirituality.
Then Brooks spoils all this mysterious perversity by allowing a twist ending to explain away Fiona's erotic compulsions. Throw in a bad mother, and you have an ending that is more Freudian than Bunuelian.
The film is beautifully shot in earthen, rustic tones, and the compositions serve to eroticize the two main characters in uncanny ways. This is a startling and promising debut film by Brooks. You just wish he would trust his bent for the surreal more than he does.
Production: HDNet Films. Cast: Nick Stahl Vera Farmiga, Aimee Mullins. Screenwriter-Director: Carlos Brooks. Producers: Sarah Pillsbury, Midge Sanford. Executive Producers: Jason Kliot, Joana Vicente, Todd Wagner, Mark Cuban. Rated R, 82 minutes.
- 6/12/2008
- The Hollywood Reporter - Movie News
Harry Knapp will direct Greenpoint Media's family drama Cherrys with Eartha Kitt, Lynn Whitfield and Jurnee Smollett set to star. Louis Gossett Jr., Anne Deavere Smith, Earle Hyman and Tracie Thoms are expected to join them, the company said. Cherrys, which is in preproduction for a late-August start, is described as a multigenerational story revolving around the coming of age and coming out of a black teenager (Smollett) and the family secrets she discovers in the process. Effie Brown and Holly Schepisi are producing the project with Knapp from a screenplay by Deborah Goodwin. Midge Sanford and Sarah Pillsbury are executive producing. Greenpoint Media is financing.
- 6/25/2004
- The Hollywood Reporter - Movie News
Like the Cathleen Schine bestseller on which it was based, "The Love Letter" is a light Summer Breeze of a romantic comedy. It's pleasant enough, with its share of wittily wistful moments delivered by a capable cast, but as the 89-minute running time might indicate, it just doesn't amount to very much.
And as effective counterprogramming to the "Phantom Menace" juggernaut, it's like trying to divert a charging rhino with a souffle. The DreamWorks release should be able to woo a healthy segment of its targeted female demographic, but they probably won't be falling head over heels.
Set in the fictional, perennially sleepy New England town of Loblolly By The Sea, the picture concerns itself with a mysterious love letter addressed to "Dearest" and signed "Yours" that has seemingly materialized out of nowhere but manages to affect profoundly the lives of all who come across it.
That is particularly the case for Helen MacFarquhar (Kate Capshaw), a single mother whose long dormant passions are suddenly reignited by the discovery of the phantom missive. Believing that she's the "Dearest" in question, Helen is determined to discover the author's identity, and in the process ends up having a little fling with cute, sweet college student Johnny Tom Everett Scott) -- who also sees himself in the letter -- not to mention second thoughts about her lifelong platonic friend, George (Tom Selleck), who has been secretly infatuated with her since high school.
By the time the true identities of both writer and addressee are ultimately revealed, the letter has already managed to alter the emotional states of a number of its readers.
Working from a bright adaptation by Maria Maggenti ("The Incredibly True Adventure of Two Girls in Love) director Peter Ho-Sun Chan ("Comrades: Almost a Love Story") makes his American debut here with a nice grasp on the quirky characters and light humor.
As the emotionally guarded Helen, Capshaw gives a fine if somewhat one-note performance. There are times when certain feelings aren't sufficiently externalized, leaving key facial reactions hidden behind her large, rectangular glasses.
Playing her glib bookstore colleague Janet, Ellen DeGeneres tosses off the picture's best lines with seasoned aplomb, while Scott's earnest, smitten Johnny and Selleck's vulnerable, gentle George are astutely portrayed.
Also impressive is Julianne Nicholson as the young, strong-willed Jennifer, who also works in Helen's bookstore, and, in all-too-brief roles, Blythe Danner and Gloria Stuart, as Helen's peripatetic mother and grandmother, respectively, as well as Geraldine McEwan as the delightfully enigmatic Miss Scattergoods.
Behind-the-camera contributions are sturdy, although composer Luis Bacalov's swooping violins try a little too hard to evoke unbridled passion. Similarly, the songs -- "I'm In the Mood For Love", "Only the Lonely", "I've Never Been In Love Before" -- cloyingly overstate the obvious.
In that vein, as a lilting breeze carries the letter off toward the sea at the film's end, it's tempting to start humming that old Police hit, "Message in a Bottle".
Fortunately the filmmakers didn't go there.
THE LOVE LETTER
DreamWorks Pictures
A Sanford/Pillsbury production
A Peter Ho-Sun Chan film
Producers:Sarah Pillsbury, Midge Sanford, Kate Capshaw
Executive producers:Beau Flynn, Stefan Simchowitz
Director:Peter Ho-Sun Chan
Screenwriter:Maria Maggenti
Based on the novel by:Cathleen Schine
Director of photography:Tami Reiker
Production designer:Andrew Jackness
Editor:Jacqueline Cambas
Costume designer:Tracy Tynan
Music:Luis Bacalov
Casting:Mali Finn
Color/stereo
Cast:
Helen MacFarquhar:Kate Capshaw
Lillian:Blythe Danner
Janet:Ellen DeGeneres
Miss Scattergoods:Geraldine McEwan
Jennifer:Julianne Nicholson
Johnny:Tom Everett Scott
George Matthias:Tom Selleck
Eleanor:Gloria Stuart
Running time -- 89 minutes
MPAA rating: PG-13...
And as effective counterprogramming to the "Phantom Menace" juggernaut, it's like trying to divert a charging rhino with a souffle. The DreamWorks release should be able to woo a healthy segment of its targeted female demographic, but they probably won't be falling head over heels.
Set in the fictional, perennially sleepy New England town of Loblolly By The Sea, the picture concerns itself with a mysterious love letter addressed to "Dearest" and signed "Yours" that has seemingly materialized out of nowhere but manages to affect profoundly the lives of all who come across it.
That is particularly the case for Helen MacFarquhar (Kate Capshaw), a single mother whose long dormant passions are suddenly reignited by the discovery of the phantom missive. Believing that she's the "Dearest" in question, Helen is determined to discover the author's identity, and in the process ends up having a little fling with cute, sweet college student Johnny Tom Everett Scott) -- who also sees himself in the letter -- not to mention second thoughts about her lifelong platonic friend, George (Tom Selleck), who has been secretly infatuated with her since high school.
By the time the true identities of both writer and addressee are ultimately revealed, the letter has already managed to alter the emotional states of a number of its readers.
Working from a bright adaptation by Maria Maggenti ("The Incredibly True Adventure of Two Girls in Love) director Peter Ho-Sun Chan ("Comrades: Almost a Love Story") makes his American debut here with a nice grasp on the quirky characters and light humor.
As the emotionally guarded Helen, Capshaw gives a fine if somewhat one-note performance. There are times when certain feelings aren't sufficiently externalized, leaving key facial reactions hidden behind her large, rectangular glasses.
Playing her glib bookstore colleague Janet, Ellen DeGeneres tosses off the picture's best lines with seasoned aplomb, while Scott's earnest, smitten Johnny and Selleck's vulnerable, gentle George are astutely portrayed.
Also impressive is Julianne Nicholson as the young, strong-willed Jennifer, who also works in Helen's bookstore, and, in all-too-brief roles, Blythe Danner and Gloria Stuart, as Helen's peripatetic mother and grandmother, respectively, as well as Geraldine McEwan as the delightfully enigmatic Miss Scattergoods.
Behind-the-camera contributions are sturdy, although composer Luis Bacalov's swooping violins try a little too hard to evoke unbridled passion. Similarly, the songs -- "I'm In the Mood For Love", "Only the Lonely", "I've Never Been In Love Before" -- cloyingly overstate the obvious.
In that vein, as a lilting breeze carries the letter off toward the sea at the film's end, it's tempting to start humming that old Police hit, "Message in a Bottle".
Fortunately the filmmakers didn't go there.
THE LOVE LETTER
DreamWorks Pictures
A Sanford/Pillsbury production
A Peter Ho-Sun Chan film
Producers:Sarah Pillsbury, Midge Sanford, Kate Capshaw
Executive producers:Beau Flynn, Stefan Simchowitz
Director:Peter Ho-Sun Chan
Screenwriter:Maria Maggenti
Based on the novel by:Cathleen Schine
Director of photography:Tami Reiker
Production designer:Andrew Jackness
Editor:Jacqueline Cambas
Costume designer:Tracy Tynan
Music:Luis Bacalov
Casting:Mali Finn
Color/stereo
Cast:
Helen MacFarquhar:Kate Capshaw
Lillian:Blythe Danner
Janet:Ellen DeGeneres
Miss Scattergoods:Geraldine McEwan
Jennifer:Julianne Nicholson
Johnny:Tom Everett Scott
George Matthias:Tom Selleck
Eleanor:Gloria Stuart
Running time -- 89 minutes
MPAA rating: PG-13...
- 5/21/1999
- The Hollywood Reporter - Movie News
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