ABSTRACT

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 art––films 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-).

chapter |6 pages

Introduction

What Do Women Watch?

chapter 1|19 pages

After the Woman’s Picture

The New Woman’s Film and the Chick Flick

chapter 2|22 pages

The New Woman’s Film in the Twenty-First Century

The Smart-Chick Film and Rachel Getting Married (Jonathan Demme, 2008)

chapter 3|21 pages

Anticipating the Twenty-First Century

“Dirty Harry Bathed in a Romantic Glow?” 1 and The Bridges of Madison Country (Clint Eastwood, 1995)

chapter 4|22 pages

Nicole Holofcener as the American Female Auteur

“Keeping It Real” 1 — Walking and Talking (1996), Lovely & Amazing (2002), Friends with Money (2006), Please Give (2010), Enough Said (2013)

chapter 5|21 pages

Stardom, Celebrity and the New Woman’s Film

Tilda Swinton and the Maternal Melodrama—“Winning an Oscar Was Wasted on Me” 1

chapter 6|19 pages

Oscars for Women and the Films of Woody Allen

Blue Jasmine (Woody Allen, 2013)

chapter 7|21 pages

The Girl Crush

Frances Ha (Noah Baumbach, 2012), “The Toast of Telluride” 1

chapter 8|21 pages

Diversity, the Female Biopic and the New Woman’s Film

Belle (Amma Asante, 2013)

chapter 9|17 pages

A Past with a Future, the Ongoing Evolution of the New Woman’s Film

From Top of the Lake (Sundance Channel, 2013–) to Fifty Shades of Grey (Sam Taylor-Johnson, 2015)

chapter |5 pages

Coda

Feminism Redux