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Interesting piece from the Age in Australia on the opening of The Women.

There were women who cried when they watched the Sex and the City movie, and it wasn't because they couldn't afford the shoes. These same women probably flocked to see Mamma Mia!, which The New York Times called "the worst performance of Meryl Streep's career" and yet, simultaneously, gave it a positive review. (They likened it to getting drunk on cheap cocktails.) All of these women will again probably go see The Women because, hey - they're mentioned in the very title! They want to see a movie about sistahood.

They've been dubbed GFFs - girl friend flicks - and it's evident that girrrl power has never been so strong in the cinema.

I kind like this term way better than chick flick.

Quote from Diane English

"The old ideas that females have to be rivals and there's only room enough in this town for one of us - that is very old-fashioned, and it's kind of disappeared over the years as women have begun to embrace each other and form networks and comfort each other when there's a divorce or a bad breakup, and just really be there for each other and appreciate each other. I think those kinds of friendships are something very special to women, to being female. I don't think men really have those kinds of friendships as strongly as women do, so it makes sense that that is going to make its way on to the screen."

And now The Women, a remake of the 1939 cult classic that starred Joan Crawford, Rosalind Russell and Norma Shearer...But, like its recent predecessors, it's really about the power of a girl gang.

I think it's kind of interesting that all these films were framed in this story about women's friendship. So many of the US stories never even touched on that, or if they did it was done it was done in a negative, catty way.
Giving women the flick (The Age)

Here's my interview with Diane English conducted on opening day of The Women.

Women & Hollywood: You picked a pretty beloved film your first time out. Why did you want to take on this film?

Diane English: What I felt was missing at the movies was the presence of women. The old movie featured an all female cast of the best and the brightest movie stars of their time and nothing like that had been done in 70 years. I thought it was high time, but I also believed that you don't remake a movie unless you have something new to say. And because women have come so far and changed so much in 70 years, attitudes towards us are very different and attitudes towards each other are so different, that I thought it was ripe for a remake.

It's very risky business remaking what a lot people consider to be a classic. I personally consider it to be a camp classic, and after reading an interview with George Cukor who actually didn't really like the movie he made very much, I felt that it was safe to remake.

W&H: You've been very outspoken about the lack of film targeted at the "4th quadrant" and the importance for women to see movies about women. I want to get your feelings about why you think there is a disconnect between women's real lives and women seen onscreen?

DE: I have been outspoken about Hollywood catering to the young male demographic which actually is understandable because men under 25 do drive a lot of the box office because they go on opening weekend, they go multiple times, they buy the dvd, they go to see the sequel, they buy the t-shirts -- they're very committed moviegoers where women tend not be.

We have very full complex lives. We're moms and wives and career women and we don't necessarily rush out on opening weekend. So as a result we are now being underserved. And in a way Hollywood has painted itself into a corner by concentrating so much on the young male demographic it has trained others to stay away. We have gotten out of the movie going habit and that is not healthy for the movie business to exclude this demographic.

W&H: Women do buy half the movie tickets. They may not buy them on opening weekend and they don't go as frequently but they do buy 50% of the tickets, but still we are not a market.

DE: You are alive or dead by Friday night, and today is Friday and my film is opening today. And by tonight the powers that be will be making some very serious financial decisions about the movie, how long they're going to keep it in theaters and how much money they will spend on advertising. I keep saying to my women friends you gotta go on opening weekend and vote at the box office with your wallet. It's really, really important.

W&H: How do we get women all across the country to understand the important of going on opening weekend?

DE: By starting with the conversation you and I are having and getting the word out. I think it's just not common knowledge that this is how the film business works. We're busy with a lot of other things and we're not thinking about that. I find that a lot of movies targeted towards women do extremely well on DVD and yet maybe didn't do as well at the box office. I think that you have to have both and just having this conversation and making it more part of the mainstream consciousness is the way to go.

W&H: A lot of women directors don't feel comfortable speaking out about this issue because they are afraid of not getting the next job. How do we get more women to talk about this?

DE: The way women get these jobs is by proving their muscle at the box office. It's pretty simple. It's not a hospital, it's not a charity, and so if these movies do well at the box office then that woman gets another chance and that woman can help other women get another chance.

W&H: It seems that if a woman director does not do well at the box office it hurts more than just her.

DE: Yes absolutely. If the movie doesn't work and people don't get see it people say that's because it’s a "woman's picture," but if a movie that is targeted towards men doesn’t work, like if the latest Tom Cruise movie doesn't work, won't mean that Tom Cruise won't get another job. So it's tougher, but it all goes back to track records and dollars we just have to be more feisty about it. Being beaten up is always hard in life and that's show business, everybody gets beaten up really badly. It's amazing that anybody makes a movie. It is a really hard thing to do and if you don't have the stomach or you want more job security you can go work at the post office. It's hard for everybody.

W&H: Why do you think that successful movies about women are consistently dismissed as flukes?

DE: I don't have a great answer to that question because I have experienced that exact word over and over and over again every time I tried to get The Women made. I would go in with my list of movies that were huge successes starting from 9 to 5, and The First Wives Club, The Hours Waiting to Exhale. It's just a very long list and these movies have consistently done very well. I think because they come along so rarely its like Haley's Comet - it becomes a vicious cycle. They come along rarely because we don't get an opportunity to make them. Now we have Sex and the City and Mamma Mia and to some extent The Sisterhood of the Traveling Pants 2. If we can have a healthy box office I think it will be much harder to call it a fluke -- it can be called a trend.

W&H: I've been looking at the Tyler Perry model and I'm curious as to your opinion as to whether we need to find a new model to tell women's stories?

DE: No, I just think there has to be more of them and they have to be more successful on opening weekend. It’s a simple of that. There are other ways to make movies now too. The digital age has created a potentially new distribution system and it's another way to reach a huge under served population and it has certainly piqued my interest.

W&H: Why do you think that TV is more comfortable embracing the women than film?

DE: Women are big consumers and TV is advertising driven. It also comes into the home and it's much easier to reach women in the home because that is the way our lives are constructed. Therefore you see great opportunity for women in TV, especially in cable now, and it’s a much friendlier place to tell our stories.

W&H: Murphy Brown has been off the air for 10 years and we'll probably not see an overt feminist character like her ever again. Why do you think we don't see strong feminists like Murphy?

DE: I disagree. I think that Kyra Sedgwick is doing a great job on The Closer and Glenn Close, even though she plays a questionable character, has a great role to play [on Damages].

W&H: Now that the conversation in politics is all about women, do you have any opinions on that?

DE: I think that its great that women are front and center right now and there is a woman re-energizing John McCain's campaign and that Hillary Clinton came so close and I think walked away from the experience being greatly admired and a real trailblazer. That was exciting to see, but at the same time I think that we have come far enough as women not to support a candidate just because she's a woman and therefore I don't feel the need to say anything positive about Sarah Palin beyond the fact that good for her she's a vice presidential nominee. I really don't like her politics and I will not be supporting her just because she's a woman. And I feel free enough now in my evolution as a woman to be able to say that.

W&H: But people said that too about Hillary Clinton, that we didn't need to support her just because she was a women.

DE: I know tons of women who supported her for that reason.

W&H: But they don't say the same thing about Sarah Palin?

DE: I didn't feel the need to support Hillary just because she was a woman but it would have been very meaningful to me to see that woman in the white house. Because her politics were very similar to mine. But Sarah Palin's politics are not and when I hear some women saying they want to support John McCain because of her I don't know what that's all about.

W&H: What's next?

DE: A good long rest.

W&H: I was reading that you are taking on Fear of Flying?

DE: The script is done. I completed the script before we started shooting The Women. It will probably be as difficult a journey to get that movie made as was The Women.

The Women is playing nationwide.

Those of you familiar with this site know that I have been very excited about The Women which opens nationwide today. What could be better for a site that celebrates women and Hollywood than a film about women from one of Hollywood's most beloved and outspoken feminists, the creator of Murphy Brown-- Diane English.

I'm sure some of you have seen the press over the last couple of weeks about how it has taken 14 years! for English to make the film, and how having a film targeted at women -- especially those of us over 25, that evil and dreaded fourth quadrant -- has gotten even harder to make. This messianic zeal is common to women directors and it's amazing how she stuck to it for all those years. Here's what English said to her hometown paper Buffalo News:

“The more times people told me to walk away, that it couldn’t be done and it was a fool’s journey, the more committed I became to it. That’s the nature of my personality,” she laughs. “Also, it just felt like an important statement to make that women will go to the movies if we see something that is meaningful to us, if we can see ourselves on the screen, rather than being just the stock characters — the long-suffering wife and the hot girlfriend.

If there weren't such a pathetic lack of films and such a torturous back story, this film's success or failure would have everything to do with what's onscreen and nothing to do with the lack of films for women. But there are many layers to this story, and we do see so few women onscreen so a film like The Women with its star power has gotten a lot of attention especially in the wake of the successes of Sex and the City and Mamma Mia.

The reviews have not been kind to Ms. English. They're all really bad. I agree with lots of what people are saying but personally I did enjoy the film not because it is a good film but in spite of its multitude of shortcomings.

Honestly, this is not well crafted film. The directing is lacking. At times the film felt like a sitcom and that makes perfect sense because that's where English is most comfortable. There are scenes when I felt that the characters were not acting within the same scene. Diane English -- who never even so much directed an episode of Murphy Brown before -- was in some ways forced into the director's chair in order to get it done. I respect and understand her zeal to make the movie but there are plenty of other women directors who are experienced who should of and could have taken on the assignment.

While some people feel the 1939 version of the film is their favorite film ever, others, including readers of this site, think it is incredibly sexist. While I don't love the 1939 version, I do love the premise -- a movie about women, just women. I still wonder why it's such a big deal to see a movie with just women. I mean last year's two top Oscar contenders were movies about men and that was no big deal. I'm just looking for a little diversity in choice.

And speaking of diversity, I really didn't enjoy the portrayal of the two women of color in the film. Eva Mendes plays Crystal Allen the "spritzer girl" who is having an affair with Meg Ryan's husband. Eva's part is small and comes off as a cliche -- the hot Latina. And boy is she hot. How do I know? All the men in the theatre sat up straight and licked their lips during her confrontation scene with Meg Ryan where both are in lingerie. She is underutilized and objectified, but that's I guess that's what you get when you play the other woman.

Jada Pinkett Smith plays a surly lesbian writer who drinks to much and is having issues delivering her second book. She also seems to date gorgeous supermodels who is hysterically seen at a party eating a paper napkin because god forbid she should actually eat some food. And speaking of cliches, poor Deb Messing. She plays the continuously pregnant Edie Cohen. She comes off shrill, annoying and unessential.

Meg Ryan is typical Meg Ryan only with a new face (she's got that new face that NY magazine wrote about). She's wooden with the same hand gestures we've seen in all her previous films. The amazing Bette Midler has a teeny part as a much married Hollywood agent whom Meg meets at a canyon ranch like retreat. Candice Bergen, who I still miss as Murphy Brown, steals every scene she's in as Meg's mom (which she is playing for the 2nd time) even though she would have had to have given birth when she was 15 years old, but hey teen pregnancy is all the rage these days.

Lastly and thankfully, there's Annette Bening who I was honestly so scared to see onscreen because her face on the poster makes it looks like she's had a total face transplant. But I am happy to report that I saw her face move, and Bening is by far the best part of this film. She plays a hard working career woman who never wanted to have kids. Seeing that type of woman onscreen in this baby obsessed world (have you noticed?) is in itself a relief, as is her struggle as an aging woman in the youth obsessed magazine business. Sylvie Fowler is no Miranda Priestley. She is very unsure of herself and her place in society and while she puts on a good face, she's falling apart.

While I still don't understand how all these women are friends and I can't pretend that these women who spend way too much time in Saks (honestly, I'd believe it more if it were Macy's) are at all realistic, I still enjoyed many of the stinging quips English was able to get in about aging and the treatment of women in our culture.

It's the week of The Women and to continue to build awareness the studio has offered a give-away of the soundtrack to the readers of Women & Hollywood.

In order to win the soundtrack you need to email me at melsil@earthlink.net the answers to the following questions (they're really easy):

• What year was the original film made?
• Name two other films that starred women that opened that year?
• Who wrote the original film?
• Diane English (the film's writer and director) created what TV series?
  

Include your address in the email so the prize can be mailed to you.

Film description: The Women tells the story of Mary Haines (Meg Ryan), a clothing designer who seems to have it all – a beautiful country home, a rich financier husband, an adorable 11-year-old daughter and a part-time career creating designs for her father’s venerable clothing company. Her best friend, Sylvie Fowler (Annette Bening), leads another enviable life – a happily single editor of a prominent fashion magazine, a possessor of a huge closet of designer clothes and a revered arbiter of taste and style poised on New York’s cutting edge. But when Mary’s husband enters into an affair with Crystal Allen (Eva Mendes), a sultry ‘spritzer girl’ lurking behind the Saks Fifth Avenue perfume counter, all hell breaks loose. Mary and Sylvie’s relationship is tested to the breaking point while their tight-knit circle of friends, including mega-mommy Edie Cohen (Debra Messing) and author Alex Fisher (Jada Pinkett-Smith), all start to question their own friendships and romantic relationships as well.

More info on The Women all week long.

The good news is that according to Nikki Finke Warner Brothers is going to spend $25 to $30 million in prints and advertising for The Women opening on September 12th. This clearly means more people will be able to see it. I am waiting with baiting breath for my screening invitation.

The bad news as I've mentioned before is that two other women centric films open that weekend -- Towelhead and The Duchess (see this post: September 12th Just Got Really Busy

The worse news is that it seems that Tyler Perry's newest movie The Family That Preys is also opening that weekend. I wouldn't care so much if the film didn't star Kathy Bates and Alfre Woodward as best friends whose families are falling apart. Film also co-stars Sanaa Lathan, KaDee Strickland and Taraji P. Henson.

This is just crazy.

Meg Ryan was given a tribute (by William H. Macy) at the Nantucket Film Festival this past weekend. She's excited about her upcoming film The Women which she has been involved with for 13 years.

Here are some quotes from the Boston Herald:

Meg said English and the cast are hopeful that the big box-office numbers put up by the “Sex and the City” flick will help boost their all-gal flick this fall.

“We were all excited and calling each other,” she laughed. “We hope it opens doors. Especially for the 40-plus set in Hollywood,” said the 46-year-old mother of two.

“Turning 40 in Hollywood was definitely something,” she groused. “But it doesn’t feel like an ending to me. My interests have expanded and I haven’t felt more creative than I do right now.

(photo Mark Garfinkel)

We're going to hear a lot over the next couple of months how it took Diane English one of the most successful female TV producers over a decade to get her passion project The Women made. I think it's important to keep telling this story because honestly if Diane English has such a hard time, what about the rest of the women who don't have her money and stature.

Women in Film gave English its Crystal award for excellence in film.

Key quotes:

I was advised by people I have the utmost respect for to walk away, Ironically, in 1939, (the all-female cast) was not an issue. The movie was made, and it was a smash. But in the year 2008, it is a huge issue.

Now, English and company hope that female filmgoers who feel underserved by traditional Hollywood fare will support the film when it's released later this year. Women need to reach into their purses and vote with their wallets, she says. Money talks, and Hollywood listens. That's the only way things will change.

Diane English, 'The Women' receive the WIF Crystal Award for excellence in film (Hollywood Reporter)
Women in Film salutes 'The Women' director, along with cast (USA Today)

Note to distributors and producers. It's hard enough for one female focused film to be successful but now there are three films targeted at women opening on September 12th. Sounds like trouble to me.

The busy September 12th now includes Towelhead, a coming of age story of an Arab-American girl sent to Houston to live with her restrictive father. Also, opening is The Duchess with Keira Knightley as the Duchess of Devonshire and the previously mentioned The Women written and directed by Diane English.

Will this glut prevent any of them from breaking out?

Looks like The Women, a movie that nobody would touch or even talk about for months is getting a new lease of life in the wake of Sex and the City's success.

Hooray. Can't say anything about the film cause I haven't seen it, but all I know is that it has a prime release date of Columbus Day weekend for months and then when Picturehouse (the distributor) got sucked into Warner Brothers (aka the studio that hates women) it looked like The Women was going to be dumped into a small release on September 12th. This 15 year in the making labor of love for Diane English was made for the paltry $16.5 million and stars some serious women including: Annette Bening, Meg Ryan, Jada Pinkett Smith, Debra Messing, Eva Mendes, Bette Midler and Candice Bergen.

Here's what a Warner Exec said to Nikki Finke at Deadline Hollywood: "We should give it another look."

Take a look at the trailer for yourself (this is the best quality trailer I could find). Seems kind of funny to me.



Do you think it will do better in the wake of Sex and the City? Will the hungry women's audience come out again?

PS- Sex and the City took in $5.5 at the box office on Monday making it the best non-holiday Monday of the year after Iron Man. News flash to Hollywood, women do go to the movies during the week. I'm excited to see how the rest of the week goes. Between the domestic numbers and the $37.5 its taken in overseas it it almost at $100 million and that's in less than a week of release worldwide. Incredible.

Yesterday, Warner Brother shut down its two indie operations Warner Independent Pictures (headed by Polly Cohen) and Picturehouse. Warners, if you recall, if the studio headed by Jeff Robinov who declared his love for women by stating that he didn't even want to read any scripts that had women leads (earlier post Do Women Matter to Hollywood?.)

Picturehouse led by Bob Berney (who brought us the awesome Whale Rider) has a couple of women friendly films on track to be released within the next several months: First is Kit Kittredge: An American Girl based on the American Girl dolls which stars Abigail Breslin, Julia Ormand, Joan Cusack and is directed by Patricia Rozema from a screenplay by Ann Peacock. It's a family friendly film with a G rating and Abigail plays a young reporter. Sounds cute. Film will be released in early July.

Second is The Women an update of the classic film written and directed by Diane English starring Annette Bening, Meg Ryan, Eva Mendes, Jada Pinkett Smith, Debra Messing and Candice Bergen and Bette Midler. Yowsa. Every time I write this cast I can't help but get excited.

Now that The Women is technically in the hands of Warner Brothers which has a horrible track record with women, what will they do with this film? I'm nervous. I really hope they don't dump it (the release date has recently been changed from October to September 12). I remember what happened when the Weinsteins left Miramax and there were a couple of films that never got released properly. Hopefully they sell it or partner with someone who can figure out how to market this to women (not that anyone is Hollywood is good at that).

Anyone know what's going on?

Just saw this description of the movie I am most excited about this year, The Women directed and adapted by Murphy Brown creator Diane English. Check out the most awesome cast. Mark your calendars!

Starring Meg Ryan, Annette Bening, Eva Mendes, Debra Messing, Jada Pinkett-Smith, Candice Bergen, Bette Midler, Cloris Leachman, Carrie Fisher, Lynn Whittfield, Joanna Gleason, Ana Gasteyer and Debi Mazar.

“The Women” directed by Diane English from her screen adaptation of Clare Boothe Luce’s play of the same name, first made famous by director George Cukor’s iconic 1939 film.

Set in New York City’s modern whirl of fashion and publishing, “The Women” tells the story of Mary Haines (Meg Ryan), a clothing designer who seems to have it all – a beautiful country home, a rich financier husband, an adorable 11-year-old daughter and a part-time career creating designs for her father’s venerable clothing company. Her best friend, Sylvie Fowler (Annette Bening), leads another enviable life – a happily single editor of a prominent fashion magazine, a possessor of a huge closet of designer clothes and a revered arbiter of taste and style poised on New York’s cutting edge. But when Mary’s husband enters into an affair with Crystal Allen (Eva Mendes), a sultry ‘spritzer girl’ lurking behind the Saks Fifth Avenue perfume counter, all hell breaks loose. Mary and Sylvie’s relationship is tested to the breaking point while their tight-knit circle of friends, including mega-mommy Edie Cohen (Debra Messing) and author Alex Fisher (Jada Pinkett-Smith), all start to question their own friendships and romantic relationships as well.

This sounds fantastic. Can't wait.