- 212 pages
- English
- ePUB (mobile friendly)
- Available on iOS & Android
About This Book
With the chick flick arguably in decline, film scholars may well ask: what has become of the woman's film? Little attention has been paid to the proliferation of films, often from the independent sector, that do not sit comfortably in either the category of popular culture or that of high artââfilms that are perhaps the corollary of the middle-brow novel, or "smart-chick flicks". This book seeks to fill this void by focusing on the steady stream of films about and for women that emerge out of independent American and European cinema, and that are designed to address an international female audience. The new woman's film as a genre includes narratives with strong ties to the woman's film of classical Hollywood while constituting a new distinctive cycle of female-centered films that in many ways continue the project of second-wave feminism, albeit in a modified form.
Topics addressed include: The Bridges of Madison County (Clint Eastwood, 1995); the feature-length films of Nicole Holofcener, 1996-2013; the film roles of Tilda Swinton; Rachel Getting Married (Jonathan Demme, 2008); Blue Jasmine (Woody Allen, 2013); Frances Ha (Noah Baumbach, 2012), Belle (Amma Asante, 2013), Fifty Shades of Grey (Sam Taylor-Johnson, 2015) and Jane Campion's Top of the Lake (Sundance Channel, 2013-).
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Table of contents
- Cover
- Title
- Copyright
- Dedication
- CONTENTS
- List of Figures
- Acknowledgments
- Introduction: What Do Women Watch?
- 1 After the Womanâs Picture: The New Womanâs Film and the Chick Flick
- 2 The New Womanâs Film in the Twenty-First Century: The Smart-Chick Film and Rachel Getting Married (Jonathan Demme, 2008)
- 3 Anticipating the Twenty-First Century: âDirty Harry Bathed in a Romantic Glow?â and The Bridges of Madison Country (Clint Eastwood, 1995)
- 4 Nicole Holofcener as the American Female Auteur: âKeeping It Realââ Walking and Talking (1996), Lovely & Amazing (2002), Friends with Money (2006), Please Give (2010), Enough Said (2013)
- 5 Stardom, Celebrity and the New Womanâs Film: Tilda Swinton and the Maternal MelodramaââWinning an Oscar Was Wasted on Meâ
- 6 Oscars for Women and the Films of Woody Allen: Blue Jasmine (Woody Allen, 2013)
- 7 The Girl Crush: Frances Ha (Noah Baumbach, 2012), âThe Toast of Tellurideâ
- 8 Diversity, the Female Biopic and the New Womanâs Film: Belle (Amma Asante, 2013)
- 9 A Past with a Future, the Ongoing Evolution of the New Womanâs Film: From Top of the Lake (Sundance Channel, 2013â) to Fifty Shades of Grey (Sam Taylor-Johnson, 2015)
- Coda: Feminism Redux
- Select Bibliography
- Index