Girlfriends (1978 film)

Girlfriends
1993 VHS cover
Directed by Claudia Weill
Produced by Claudia Weill
Screenplay by Vicki Polon
Story by Claudia Weill
Vicki Polon
Starring Melanie Mayron
Anita Skinner
Eli Wallach
Christopher Guest
Bob Balaban
Gina Rogak
Amy Wright
Viveca Lindfors
Mike Kellin
Music by Michael Small
Cinematography Fred Murphy
Edited by Suzanne Pettit
Production
company
Cyclops Films
Distributed by Warner Bros.
Release date
  • August 18, 1978 (1978-08-18)
Running time
 88 minutes
Country United States
Language English

Girlfriends is a 1978 comedy-drama film produced and directed by Claudia Weill and written by Vicki Polon. The film stars Melanie Mayron as Susan Weinblatt, a Jewish photographer who experiences loneliness once her roommate Anne (Anita Skinner) moves out of their apartment in New York City. It was the first American independent film to be funded with grants, although private investors were also brought on to help complete the film.[1]

Although the film was shot in 1975, post-production took three years to finish because their initial budget of $80,000 ran out.[2] After distribution was picked up by Warner Bros., the film was released on August 18, 1978.

Plot

A photographer, Susan Weinblatt, supports herself by shooting baby pictures and Bar Mitzvahs while she aims for an exhibit of her work in a gallery. Her best friend and roommate, Anne Munroe, is an aspiring writer.

After she sells three of her pictures to a magazine, Susan thinks she has left the world of portraits and wedding photography behind her, but her life begins to fall apart when Anne moves out and marries her boyfriend, Martin, and she can't manage to sell any more photographs.

Susan develops a crush on the Rabbi Gold, who works at the bar mitzvahs and weddings she photographs. The two kiss, but before they start an affair she accidentally meets his wife and son, which puts a damper on their relationship.

After scamming her way into a meeting with a gallery owner, Susan is recommended to another gallerist and is finally able to get her own show. She also gets a boyfriend, Eric. She later fights with Anne, as Anne is jealous of her independence while Susan resents Anne's marriage and child. Later on she fights with Eric over her insistence on maintaining her own apartment.

At her gallery showing, all of Susan's friends and family show up to support her except for Anne, who Martin tells her has gone to the countryside alone in order to work. Susan goes to the countryside to see Anne. Anne apologizes for not going to see her show and reveals that she had an abortion that morning, not wanting more children.

The two drink tequila shots and play games but are interrupted by Martin's arrival.

Cast

Production

The film started as a 30 minute film funded by a grant from the American Film Institute, but upon completion Weill realized that she wanted to explore what would happen next in the story. That short film eventually became the first seven minutes of the feature film.[3] Original funding for the feature film came from National Endowment for the Arts and New York State Council on the Arts, totaling $80,000. Principal photography was effectively six and a half weeks, but those days were stretched over the span of a year because the production kept running out of money. When the grant money ran out, Weill had to seek out private investors to help complete the film. Once the film was finished, she took the film to Hollywood studios, and sold it to Warner Brothers for world distribution. They also signed a contract with Weill to direct two more features.[1]

Release

The film premiered at the International Film Festival Rotterdam, and went on to screen at Cannes and other festivals.[1] It was released in the United States on August 18, 1978.

Reception

Girlfriends received positive reviews from critics. Variety magazine called the film "a warm, emotional and at times wise picture about friendship" and added that while it was Weill's first feature, "there’s no reason to apologetically pigeonhole this movie as a ‘promising first feature’. It’s the work of a technically skilled and assured director."[4]

In 1978, Girlfriends won the Bronze Leopard award for Best Actress at the Locarno International Film Festival and the People's Choice Award at the Toronto International Film Festival. In 1979 it won the Special David award at the David di Donatello Awards. That year it was also nominated for a Golden Globe award and a BAFTA Award.

Stanley Kubrick brought up the film in 1980 when being interviewed by Vicente Molina Foix at Kubrick's house:[5]

Foix: Are you interested in the new paths or trends within current Hollywood production being tried by people like Coppola, Schrader, Spielberg, Scorsese or DePalma?

Kubrick: I think one of the most interesting Hollywood films, well not Hollywood -- American films -- that I've seen in a long time is Claudia Weill's Girlfriends. That film, I thought, was one of the very rare American films that I would compare with the serious, intelligent, sensitive writing and filmmaking that you find in the best directors in Europe. It wasn't a success, I don't know why; it should have been. Certainly I thought it was a wonderful film. It seemed to make no compromise to the inner truth of the story, you know, the theme and everything else.
...
The great problem is that the films cost so much now; in America it's almost impossible to make a good film -- which means you have to spend a certain amount of time on it, and have good technicians and good actors -- that aren't very, very expensive. This film that Claudia Weill did, I think she did on an amateur basis; she shot it for about a year, two or three days a week. Of course she had a great advantage, because she had all the time she needed to think about it, to see what she had done. I thought she made the film extremely well.

References

  1. 1 2 3 Starr, Cecile (6 Aug 1978). "Claudia Weill: From Shoestring to Studio". New York Times. Retrieved 26 September 2018.
  2. ↑ Sweeney, R. Emmet (7 March 2017). "Best Friends Forever: Girlfriends (1978)". Streamline. TCM Interactive Group Inc. Retrieved 14 September 2018.
  3. ↑ Myers, Victoria (30 May 2018). "Claudia Weill on Directing Theatre, Film, and Television". The Interval. Retrieved 26 September 2018.
  4. ↑ "Girlfriends". Variety. 31 December 1977. Retrieved 26 September 2018.
  5. ↑ Quoted in The Stanley Kubrick Archives, p. 460, Taschen, 2008.
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