Week 10: 80s and 90s Representation of Women and the LGBTQ+ Community

Representation of Women in Early Film History

• Hollywood is usually dominated by men in front of and behind the camera

• Silent era had several women involved like Lois Weber, Mabel Normand, Mary Pickford, and Pearl White

• Modern studio system mad roles for women rare

• Women were often love interests, physically weak, and emotionally fragile

• Women joined the workforce, during WWII, the femme fatale archetype was a reaction to women gaining more independence

• American Releasing Corporation determined that films aimed at boys in their late teens brought the largest audiences

First Wave Feminism

• Fought for legal equality and voting rights

Second Wave Feminism

• Fought for reproductive rights and workplace equality

80s

• Decade that featured pushback against Second Wave Feminism

Susan Seidelman

• Studied fashion at Drexel University

• Inspired by Godard, Truffaut, and Bergman

• Received a Student Academy Award nomination for short film at NYU

• First feature, Smithereens, first American independent film to be selected for competition at Cannes

• Directed pilot of Sex in the City

• Directed Desperately Seeking Susan

Callie Khouri

• Studied drama in college before dropping out and moving to LA

• Studied to be an actress before shifting to production and working on music videos

• Wrote screenplay for Thelma and Louise, won Oscar

• Directorial debut was Divine Secrets of the Ya-Ya Sisterhood

• Created TV series Nashville

Desperately Seeking Susan

• Directed by Susan Seidelman

• Written by Leora Barish

• Screwball comedy

• Madonna’s first major film role

• Impacted 80s fashion

• Critical and commercial success

• Feminist themes

• Cult classic

• Adapted into stage musical

• Selected for preservation by the National Film Registry in 2023

Thelma and Louise

• Directed by Ridley Scott

• Written by Callie Khouri

• Premiered at Cannes

• Nominated for 6 Oscars

• Subverts buddy film genre

• Finale is homage to Butch Cassidy and the Sundance Kid

• Khouri wanted to direct but had trouble getting it produced

9 to 5

• Idea from Jane Fonda

• First draft of the script was written by Patricia Resnick

• Main theme was performed by Dolly Parton, won an Oscar

Fatal Attraction

• A career-oriented woman has an affair with a married man, tries to kill him after the affair ends

• Career women are portrayed as violent and mentally unstable while women who stay at home are portrayed as well-adjusted

Working Girl

• Directed by Mike Nichols

• Tackles sexism in the workplace

• Career is blocked by men and by another woman who wants to steal her work

The Silence of the Lambs

• Directed by Jonathan Demme

• Based on a novel series by Thomas Harris

• One of only 3 films to win Oscars in all five major categories (Picture, Director, Actor, Actress, Screenplay)

• Only horror film to win Best Picture

• Agent Starling works in a hostile environment and fights against a serial killer who targets women

• Transphobic tropes

A League of Their Own

• Directed by Penny Marshall

• Subverts the male-centered sports film

• Features all-women baseball team during WWII

The Piano

• Written and directed by Jane Campion

• Non-speaking Scottish woman who travels to New Zealand with her daughter due to an arranged marriage

• Critical and commercial success

• 8 Oscar nominations, won 3

• Won Palme d’Or at Cannes, Campion was the first woman to win

All About Eve

• Starred Bette Davis

• Won Oscars for Best Picture, Director, and Screenplay

• Only film to receive four nominations for Best Actress

Norma Rae

• Based on a true story

• Directed by Martin Ritt

• Co-written by Harriet Frank Jr.

• Woman fighting for workers’ rights in an anti-union Southern town

• Nominated for 4 Oscars

• Sally Field won Best Actress

Steel Magnolias

• Written by Robert Harling, also wrote off-Broadway play the film is based on

Fried Green Tomatoes

• Co-written by Fannie Flagg and Carol Sobieski

• Based on Fannie Flagg’s novel

Kramer vs. Kramer

• Part of an 80s pushback against Second Wave Feminism

• Meryl Streep’s character wants to have a career along with being a mother is portrayed as selfish

• Dustin Hoffman’s character is able to have a career and be a single father

When Harry Met Sally

• Written by Nora Ephron

• Directed by Rob Reiner

• One of the best romcoms of all time

• Nora Ephron wrote several other films

Daughters of the Dust

• Written and directed by Julie Dash

• First feature film directed by a Black woman to have a US theatrical release

Buffy the Vampire Slayer

• Directed by Fran Kuzui

• Written by Joss Whedon

• Subverts horror conventions and the final girl trope

• Inspired a TV show, spinoffs, comics, video games

The Joy Luck Club

• Co-written by Amy Tan, based on her novel

• Explores relationships between Chinese-American women and their immigrant mothers

• Critical and commercial success

• Selected for preservation by the National Film Registry