Midway through David Thomson's meandering and (self-) reflective history of world cinema, The Big Screen: The Story of the Movies and What They Did to Us, he discusses British director David Lean's classic film Brief Encounter, a "woman's film" about an adulterous affair. Thomson is mystified by the film's "tacit admission of women's tragic position, …
Sisterhood at the Oscars, 1942
The story behind the picture: Olivia De Havilland (born July 1, 1916) and Joan Fontaine (born October 22, 1917) are sisters. In 1942, they were both nominated for an Oscar in the Best Actress category, Olivia for her role in Hold Back the Dawn and Joan for her role in Hitchcock's Suspicion. Joan won. "I …
HAPPY VALENTINE’S DAY
THE GRAND ADVENTURE OF VERA CASPARY: My February Column at Bookslut
In Vera Caspary's absorbing autobiography The Secrets of Grownups (1979) recounting her life as a writer, she avows, "This has been the century of The Woman and I know myself fortunate to have been part of the revolution. In another generation, perhaps the next, equality will be taken for granted. Those who come after us …
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THIS IS HOW I FEEL
ON A BAD DAY: AND THIS IS HOW I FEEL ON A GOOD ONE:
UNDERSTANDING THE OTHER: ELIF SHAFAK’S HONOR: My January “bombshell” column at Bookslut:
On the front and back covers of the Turkish edition of Elif Shafak's novel İskender (to be published in the U.S. as Honor), the author appears in two different poses dressed as her male protagonist İskender, a handsome, savvy-looking youth with slick hair and a five o'clock shadow wearing a stylish suit. In Shafak's story, …
MERRY XMAS HAPPY NEW YEAR
ÉMILIE DU CHÂTELET: THE LADY WHO WAS A GREAT MAN, My December post at Bookslut
In a 1740 letter to an English friend, Voltaire expressed his regret at being unable to visit him, as he could not live without, even for a short period, "that lady whom I look upon as a great man and as a most solid and respectable friend. She understands Newton; she despises superstition and in …
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“Ingrid Bergman, Ingrid Bergman, Let’s Go Make A Picture on the Island of Stromboli”
Billy Bragg sings Woodie Guthrie's song about Ingrid Bergman while she was filming Roberto Rossellini's STROMBOLI (1950) . A documentary has recently been made about the highly romantic and scandalous love affair between Bergman and Rossellini that erupted into public view during the filming of STROMBOLI . The War of the Volcanoes ( La guerra …
Happy Thanksgiving! (Choose your bird…or fish)
I love the shark. But who can resist The Shag, or the Old Wife...?
Jenny McPhee 