More women in films
b y E leanor M a lin
D epart to Arriue. Just as the title indicates.
This film depicts the story of Anna, a young
woman who does not take the ending of a
romance at all well. She is dumped by her
lover. Regine, who began her Journey into the
realm of lesbian lovers with Anna. Mow Re­
gine breaks off the relationship to go to
another woman, claiming she needs what
CINEMA
her new lover can give her, at least right now.
In truth, Anna had been immature, de­
manding, heavy of personality. She was
nervous, manic, a nag. One can sympathize
with Regine.
But Anna cannot face life without Regine,
despite her form er lack of satisfaction with
the way things were. She quits her photog­
raphy job, borrows a VW van, and journeys to
a beautiful valley in the south of France.
To forget To remember.
In the fully equipped van (with a “real bed"
in the back), she takes her camera equip­
ment, but doesn’t touch it for the longest
tim e.
Instead, she dissolves into a world of soul-
searching and memory sifting. Her memories,
the sad, the happy, the embarrassing, come
back to her transformed into a psychic col­
lage, some transformed into surreal dream­
like sequences. Cinematically, this film is very
good. The almost sampler-like snippets of
m em ories and surreal dreamettes inter­
spersed with the pastorale of Anna fixing veg­
etables and drinking wine in the summer
valley makes for a nice contrast We see the
helter-skelter of her memories and dreams
being played out against the everyday beauti­
ful emptiness of the valley. Anna has simply
expected too much of herself and others, and
wasn’t looking past herself to see the rest of
the universe. We all know people like Anna. In
our twenties, we all were people like Anna.
In the beginning scenes, we see Anna
breaking the glass of a mirror she is staring
into. In the final scene, she is sitting at a table,
wearing gloves (back in the swing of things),
preparing a photo montage. She has sized a
photo of herself Regine took when they were
still together, and she is going to set it into a
photo of a bam, with door flaps cut into it I
take this to mean that she has forgiven herself
and Regine for an imperfect past (whatever
that is), and is putting herself back in the
picture.
Directed by Alexandra von Grote, photo­
graphed by Hille Sagal, this 1982 West
Germ an film does hit to the heart of the mat­
ter regarding what many women go through
during the growth, decline and disintegration
of romantic liaisons.
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This film played June 28th at the NWFVC.
It should reappear at art movie houses at
some tim e in the future.lt’s a bit on the slow
side, but it is an honest and worthwhile
endeavor.
Three M en and a Cradle, also conceived,
written and directed by a woman (whose
name I have somewhere in my notes, which
are somewhere else), played earlier at the
Movie House, to mixed reviews. It was funny,
as most people would agree. K was a tear-
jerker, as most people mentioned. Most of
the people in the audience cried during parts
of the film. And it was not very realistic. What
m om would go off for six months and leave
her baby with the father (unauthorized to do
so), to punish him, and still expect to get the
baby back at the end of six months? And
does such a mom deserve the little tyke? I
think no t But it was, still in all, fun most of the
way through. Again, it was beautifully filmed,
in a huge old Paris apartment, replete with
antiques and Persian rugs, works of art and
bric-a-brac.
The baby, played by two different little girls,
was a charmer, and here’s what I liked about
the movie. It gave a lot of us in the audience,
who are not currently raising children, the
chance to experience such nurturing, how­
ever vicarious that experience was. Watching
the guys trying to cope, getting testy, finally
getting suckered into really loving that little
baby, was great In one scene, the three men
cluster around the cradle, and sing A u C lair
de la Lune in three-part harmony. It was both
funny and touching.
Feminists have complained about the
ending of the movie. I’ll put in a com plaint
too, but not from a feminist perspective,
merely that of a filmgoer. I hate bad endings,
but it seems that there’s a lot of that going
around. Ever since Carrie we have been in
undated with double, triple, quadruple,
surprise, anti-climactic, and drippy endings.
This was a drippy ending. If the filmmaker
JONAH'S
barely do it between them. Three Men and a
Cradle, however, is funny, well-acted (the
baby is so sweet), and if I have to close my
eyes to 30 seconds here or there to keep
from losing my cool, I’m up to it
chose the ending to show that women can’t
cope with raising a child, that is her right
W omen with children should be getting all
the help they can. K really is too big a job for
one person, at least one who is trying to do
oico ^ii The three quys could just
West Coast
Women's Festival
dates set
The 7th Annual West Coast Women’s Music
& Com edy Festival will be back in Yosemite,
on Labor Day Weekend, Aug. 29-S ept 1,
1986. The camp is beautiful, private, wooded
and has a gigantic swimming pool, lake &
river. It is located 3Yi hours East of San
Francisco.
Last year’s Festival was sold out, with close
to 3 0 0 0 women attending. This year, a partial
list of musical performers will include Alix
Dobkin, Mary Watkins. Diedre McCalla, Kay
Weaver, Swingshift Karen Mac Kay, The
Washington Sisters, Kellie Greene, Gayle
Marie, Hunter Davis, Girl Talk, etc. Comics
include Kate Clinton, Delaria & Strobel, Lori
Noelle. Lvnne Lavner, Robin Tyler, & Karen
Coming out
stories wanted
Alyson Publications is in the process of
com piling two collections of coming-out
stories. They are looking for both lesbians
Ripley.
With the accent on Comedy, Theatre
Groups include the Cherry Cokes and Over
Our Heads. Special guest will be Pat Bond,
recreating both her theatre roles — as Lorena
Hicock and Gertrude Stein.
Guest Speakers will include noted authors
Katherine V. Forrest (Curious Wine), Lee
Lynch (The Swashbuckler), Paula Gunn
Allen (Sacred Hoop Indian), Judy Grahn
(Another Mother Tongue), S. Diane Bogus
(Black Lesbians in Literature), Max Dashu
(Oppresse Herstory Archives). There will be a
film festival, a dance every night, as well as a
crafts area, workshops and sports. Three and
four-day ticket prices will include camping or
cabins, & food. Boys 10 and under welcome.
Childcare provided. Concerts interpreted for
the hearing impaired. For further information,
send a self-addressed stamped envelope to
W.C.W.M.F., 13514 Hart Street. Van Muys,
California 91405, (818) 904-9495.
and gay men who would like to write about
some aspect of their own real-life experiences.
For a set of guidelines, please write to Alyson
Publications, attn: Coming Out Project, 40
Plympton S t, Boston, MA 02118. They would
especially welcome inquiries from the physi­
cally challenged, minorities, older people,
and others who have too often been invisible.
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15
Jut» Out. July, 1986
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