Thanks for your thorough and well-thought-out assessments of these films... and the time travel through both life and movies.
I am 75, grew up in Silicon Valley. I have photos of myself in middle school, with teased flip hairdo. I carried hairspray to school. The first bra episode is very familiar. So, I was Gung ho to try.
However, what kind of parent takes their gradeschool girls to see the 1959 anti- nuke drama "On the Beach." Before that, they took us shopping for a bomb shelter, leaving with a car of bawling kiddies.
That movie stuck with me, underneath the flip dippity-do wannabe life...until I found an outlet. When I was freshman, dad and I saw a bearded guy near Cal Berkeley...with a sign. I asked about him. "He's a beatnik. And he's holding a peace sign. The symbol is from the signal Corp, spelling N D ... nuclear disarmament."
So I had a new identity. Had myself a pair of custom sandals made in North Beach. Bought a guitar and sang folk songs. Let my hair grow, not cutting it until after college.
Lucky for me, my parents let me volunteer nightly at the Palo Alto Community Theatre, where I enjoyed the company of Stanford intellects. Reading of plays...sarte, Beckett, brecht, Miller, Shakespeare. And I never drank until I was 21. And never became a hippie.
I really appreciate your series about these movies. I am enjoying filling in gaps I skipped over in my own life, the context. be it the more traditional "Little Women" or...how did I miss reading Virginia Wolfe? Well...all my authors were men.
And later the shocking realization that I didn't want to...and did not Have to...have children. Inspired by reading "Silent Spring" and "the Population Bomb." I remember right where the AHa happened. Outside the gym at San Jose State.
Wonderful, insightful analyses, as usual, Susan. I still haven't seen Gerwig's 'Little Women'. I'd forgotten about it and now I'll have to look for it.
Two others about girls/women that might fit in here:
Thanks for your thorough and well-thought-out assessments of these films... and the time travel through both life and movies.
I am 75, grew up in Silicon Valley. I have photos of myself in middle school, with teased flip hairdo. I carried hairspray to school. The first bra episode is very familiar. So, I was Gung ho to try.
However, what kind of parent takes their gradeschool girls to see the 1959 anti- nuke drama "On the Beach." Before that, they took us shopping for a bomb shelter, leaving with a car of bawling kiddies.
That movie stuck with me, underneath the flip dippity-do wannabe life...until I found an outlet. When I was freshman, dad and I saw a bearded guy near Cal Berkeley...with a sign. I asked about him. "He's a beatnik. And he's holding a peace sign. The symbol is from the signal Corp, spelling N D ... nuclear disarmament."
So I had a new identity. Had myself a pair of custom sandals made in North Beach. Bought a guitar and sang folk songs. Let my hair grow, not cutting it until after college.
Lucky for me, my parents let me volunteer nightly at the Palo Alto Community Theatre, where I enjoyed the company of Stanford intellects. Reading of plays...sarte, Beckett, brecht, Miller, Shakespeare. And I never drank until I was 21. And never became a hippie.
I really appreciate your series about these movies. I am enjoying filling in gaps I skipped over in my own life, the context. be it the more traditional "Little Women" or...how did I miss reading Virginia Wolfe? Well...all my authors were men.
The flip—oh yes. And “On The Beach.” And the Beatnik phase. And the male writers. Are we the same person?
And later the shocking realization that I didn't want to...and did not Have to...have children. Inspired by reading "Silent Spring" and "the Population Bomb." I remember right where the AHa happened. Outside the gym at San Jose State.
Wonderful, insightful analyses, as usual, Susan. I still haven't seen Gerwig's 'Little Women'. I'd forgotten about it and now I'll have to look for it.
Two others about girls/women that might fit in here:
Dickinson (https://tv.apple.com/us/show/dickinson/umc.cmc.1ogyy5s2agasxa5qztabrlykn)
And 'Anne with an E'. It's a thoroughly modernized version of 'Anne of Green Gables', with more angst than the original, sexual ambiguity ,and all that entails. https://www.whats-on-netflix.com/news/introducing-netflix-original-series-anne-with-an-e/