Steven Soderbergh: When you’re talking about yourself, less history, more mystery. And don’t Twitter
Elena Undone Premiere
Image by Earthworm
When this director, Nicole Conn, did Claire of the Moon I was laughed at for liking it. There wasn’t a whole lot being offered at the time (1992). I saw it as a parody of the lesbian community and wrote a review for it in the Weekly. That same month I happened to run into Nicole at a lesbian fundraising tennis tournament and showed her the review. (I was dressed as Cat Woman at the time, so she would probably not remember me.) By the look on her face it wasn’t meant to be parody and she defended herself by saying that it was much appreciated by persecuted lesbians in the midwest, (which is where so-so lesbian films go to be handed around with sweaty palms of appreciation, I gather). So it was with some apprehension that I attended this, her second lesbian film, and was pleasantly surprised.
Elena Undone has the same plain speaking, unambiguous, face value presentation where every line is so consciously delivered that there can be no mistaking of intentions, but this time I think she actually meant it to be funny. The story is loosely based on her meeting her current partner (seen here on the right, with arms around her; Nicole is the short one). The partner said that as a new lesbian, at the age of 52, she was wondering why there weren’t more lesbian movies so urged Nicole to make another one.
The movie turned out to be endearing and poignant and the women had chemistry. She goes a bit overboard with the arty appreciation of women’s bodies, but why complain. They were also attempting to make history by filming the longest onscreen kiss and yes it was a tad long at just over 3 minutes. The straight actresses did a good job (seen here in purple dress and other one, next to her, in black). The one in black added interest with her ethnicity, not to mention intense beauty and the other played a convincing butch which is always the sticking point for me. Some lesbians don’t even look like lesbians to me anymore, so that’s a tough one (and I like them on the femme side). She had the right shirts, slightly hard face and independent attitude. Then there’s the cute BF sidekick with British accent who is by golly, British.
It was fun to have them all up on stage after and the actresses loved us as much as we them. It’s no fun when straight girls don’t know what to do with all the adoration.
As for the question of why there aren’t more lesbian movies, I think the short answer is that lesbians don’t make very good movies, artists do. And artists don’t necessarily follow a community agenda. Plus lesbians seem to think that lesbian drama is plot enough for a movie. And given a culture obsessed with making babies and getting married how dull can you get? I have better luck with foreign films. The Spanish lesbian movie, Sevigne, is still my vote for most psychologically interesting plot in a love story. The period films are a bit better since the plot must be supported by history.
Steven Soderbergh: When you’re talking about yourself, less history, more mystery. And don’t Twitter
Last May, Steven Soderbergh received an Honorary Degree from Pratt Institute for his artistic contributions to the filmmaking community. Soderbergh returned to the Institute on March 24 as part of Pratt’s 7th Annual President’s Lecture Series to offer his opinions to what constitutes a successful directing career. Reflecting back on his catalog of over 24 films, including the “Ocean’s Eleven …
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