Various actresses of the vintage kind ... Meg Ryan and Annette Bening in The Women
I copped a lot of flak a few weeks ago for suggesting that maybe men and women needed separate movies. Well, hot on the designer heels of Carrie Bradshaw et al comes Diane English's version of Clare Boothe Luce's play, The Women.
It's a remake of George Cukor's 1939 film of the same name, which was groundbreaking for its all-female cast (Joan Crawford, Norma Shearer, Rosalind Russell and Joan Fontaine to name a few). English's remake has taken ten years to get off the ground and although it sounds great in theory, frankly, I'm scared.
I haven't seen the movie so this isn't a preview, more a fear-view. All I've seen is the trailer where our protagonist Meg Ryan and her flowing blonde tresses (both curly and straight) take centre stage, Eva Mendes looks drop dead gorgeous and various actresses of the vintage kind including Diane Keaton, Annette Bening, Bette Midler and Candice Bergen do their well-trodden older woman thing.
I just hope that something that is so clearly defined by gender also proves to be a film of substance and relevance in 2008 (and also that men want to see it because it's compelling movie-making and not just because Eva Mendes looks hot).
Apparently the fact that it was an all-woman piece was the reason it took a decade to get studio backing. Why that was a problem in the Noughties and not the Thirties is beyond me.
Maybe women were seen as more relevant then because of their invaluable contribution to the Second World War, whereas these days women are simply polarising and a threat to male movie executives? Before you shoot me down in flames, I'm just throwing it out there.
Strong female ensemble pieces (like strong male ensemble pieces) transcend gender. Steel Magnolias springs to mind, as does Waiting to Exhale. How to Make an American Quilt not so much, but it was a solid film with a good heart. And no, Valley of the Dolls doesn't count.
These days the strongest female ensembles are found on the small screen. I could give you a good argument as to why Coronation Street was the first great example of that back in the Sixties but most people would point to The Golden Girls as the one that opened the way for Desperate Housewives, Sex and the City, The L Word and Cashmere Mafia. Defined by gender, but all of them great telly. Let's hope that writer/director Diane English, who was also a writer and producer on Candice Bergen's Murphy Brown, can pull something spectacular out of the bag. We don't want this to be the all-female movie that bombed, but the "younger woman steals another's husband and the affair is the talk of Manhattan society" storyline is all a bit yawn these days, isn't it? Maybe I'm wrong and it's a timeless tale that lends itself to a hi-def re-telling.
English was told many times to "walk away" from the project because of its female bias, and to her credit she stayed the course because she passionately believed in the story. Let's see if the box office agrees.
