Track premiere: Good Old War “It Hurts Every Time”
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Call-In Commentary: Watch the “Rampart” trailer with writer-director Oren Moverman
The rise of the film critic filmmaker
Watching “The Women.”
After a certain film I'd prefer to leave unnamed — let's call it, oh, "Intercourse and the Municipality" — managed an unexpectedly massive opening weekend at the box office, journalists are turning their eyes to another female-centric film on the horizon. Diane English's "The Women," a remake of George Cukor's classic 1939 film starring Norma Shearer, Joan Crawford, Rosalind Russell and bared claws, may also be, well, about women, but doesn't seem ready to bear up under such close scrutiny. English, a writer and executive producer of "Murphy Brown," is making her directorial debut with the film, which proffers Meg Ryan (ook), Eva Mendes (ack) and Annette Bening (okay, not so bad) in the Shearer, Crawford and Russell roles. At Deadline Hollywood, Nikki Finke complains that the film is going to be given a small release from Picturehouse (which is shutting down): "I say Diane should be kicking up a...
After a certain film I’d prefer to leave unnamed — let’s call it, oh, “Intercourse and the Municipality” — managed an unexpectedly massive opening weekend at the box office, journalists are turning their eyes to another female-centric film on the horizon. Diane English’s “The Women,” a remake of George Cukor’s classic 1939 film starring Norma Shearer, Joan Crawford, Rosalind Russell and bared claws, may also be, well, about women, but doesn’t seem ready to bear up under such close scrutiny. English, a writer and executive producer of “Murphy Brown,” is making her directorial debut with the film, which proffers Meg Ryan (ook), Eva Mendes (ack) and Annette Bening (okay, not so bad) in the Shearer, Crawford and Russell roles.
At Deadline Hollywood, Nikki Finke complains that the film is going to be given a small release from Picturehouse (which is shutting down): “I say Diane should be kicking up a big fat fuss right now for a major and wide release. After all, even if the movie is no good, its marketing campaign could be fabulous not to mention obvious: ‘If you loved [Intercourse and the Municipality], then you need to see The Women that started it all.’ ” David Poland at The Hot Blog fires back “[D]oes Nikki have the slightest idea of how clearly The Women is damaged goods already? If Bob Berney – not Jeff Robinov – thought there was money in the movie, he would never have dumped it on September 12 in the first place… never mind the internal discussion that already happened about what the film is and what it is not.”
The trailer went up today — you can see it here. And here are highlights from the original: “Say, can you beat him? He almost stood me up for his wife.”
[Photo: Diane English's "The Women," Picturehouse Entertainment, 2008]
Tags: Diane English, George Cukor, Intercourse and the Municipality, The Women+ UPDATED: Why Won’t Warner Embrace ‘The Women’? Or Will It? And What Other Female Film Isn’t Getting Love There? (Deadline Hollywood)
+ Ignorance = Bliss (Hot Blog)
+ Trailer: The Women (Yahoo)
+ The Women – Witty Moments (YouTube)
