The first time I saw "Now Voyager" (1942) my heart soared. The sight of Bette Davis’ sad and belittled spinster, suffocating under a dowdy, de-sexed wardrobe, not daring to raise her voice or choose her life, was a potent preamble to what awaited her. Her glamorous liberation involved exotic travel, mothering a child, and freely loving the dashing Paul Henreid who sealed the deal with a pair of cigarettes dually lit from his lips. Heaven, indeed.
By the time I got to Melanie Griffith’s character in "Working Girl" (1988) with her “head for business and a bod for sin,” I was fired up and enthralled. She was far more audacious than the men in her life who didn’t have to be either audacious, or in her life. Though she ended up with Harrison Ford, she had clearly earned her way, found and used her power, and had been willing to go it alone.
"Thelma & Louise" (1991) took me right over the edge. I was with them in that convertible, flying through the air, the last shot frozen in time with law enforcement and bewildered husbands racing to catch up with them, now unreachable against the blue sky.
A prominent male critic once said to me that this film was “not character-driven.” What was he thinking? Here are two unforgettable, central female characters, literally driving, across country, on a high-speed chase, leaving an entire culture in their dust. These armed and dangerous women who took off for parts unknown, not only had a smokin’ one-nighter with Brad Pitt’s frisky hitchhiking cowboy, but abruptly altered the socio/sexual terrain between men and women while driving a conversation we are still having.
Among this year’s films, I thrilled at "The Favourite" which turned the costume drama on its head, and found three ambitious women locked in a power struggle, while far less powdered and puffed than their male playthings at court.
"The Wife" found her outlet in the subterranean currents of Glenn Close’s simmering spouse. A luminous Lady Gaga in "A Star is Born" seems to have emerged full-blown like Venus on the half shell, and continues to find her voice in ever-widening circles. "If Beale Street Could Talk," an under-appreciated masterpiece at this year’s Oscars, depended on Regina King’s gravitas and warmth to anchor the humanity of that film in its most heated and pivotal scenes. Damien Chazelle’s "First Man," another of this year’s overlooked masterpieces, found Claire Foy tethered to Ryan Gosling’s astronaut; he wasn’t home until he re-entered her orbit.
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