The Women Who Write The Movies

In Hollywood's youth, women pioneered in screenwriting for silent films, often networking between friends: Jeannie Macpherson, Frances Marion, and Adela Rogers St. Johns, among many others, were billed alongside the top directors. With the advent of talkies and into the 1930s and 1940s, famous writers Dorothy Parker and Anita Loos wrote scripts for box-office hits such as A Star Is Born and Jean Harlow's Red-Headed Woman. And Catherine Turney wrote the searing Mildred Pierce - uncredited until now. After World War II, women writers began to drop out of sight, with notable exceptions such as Ida Lupino, Betty Comden, and Dorothy Kingsley. And in the 1960s and early 1970s innovative scripts were written by Elaine May and Penelope Gilliatt, followed by screenplays from contemporary writers like Nora Ephron and Leslie Dixon. McCreadie's extensive research details the fascinating careers of all the important contributors so far, from Elinor Glyn, herself a noted actress, who wrote It, starring Clara Bow, which redefined the title word and made the "It Girl" an international sensation; up to Ruth Prawer Jhabvala, whose beautifully detailed and literate films win accolades everywhere; to Callie Khouri, whose script for Thelma and Louise broke new ground in portraying the battle of the sexes. You will find here not only a treasury of new information about women screenwriters, but examples of the scripts themselves and plenty of photographs of the women who write the movies.

This collection of 23 new essays focuses on the lives of female screenwriters of Golden Age Hollywood, whose work helped create those unforgettable stories and characters beloved by audiences--but whose names have been left out of most film histories. The contributors trace the careers of such writers as Anita Loos, Adela Rogers St. Johns, Lillian Hellman, Gene Gauntier, Eve Unsell and Ida May Park, and explore themes of their writing in classics like Gentlemen Prefer Blondes, Ben Hur, and It's a Wonderful Life.

Women Screenwriters is a study of more than 300 female writers from 60 nations, from the first film scenarios produced in 1986 to the present day. Divided into six sections by continent, the entries give an overview of the history of women screenwriters in each country, as well as individual biographies of its most influential.

The year was 1896, the woman was Alice Guy-Blaché, and the film was The Cabbage Fairy. It was less than a minute long. Guy-Blaché, the first female director, made hundreds of movies during her career. Thousands of women with passion and commitment to storytelling followed in her footsteps. Working in all aspects of the movie industry, they collaborated with others to create memorable images on the screen. This book pays tribute to the spirit, ambition, grit and talent of these filmmakers and artists. With more than 1200 women featured in the book, you will find names that everyone knows and loves—the movie legends. But you will also discover hundreds and hundreds of women whose names are unknown to you: actresses, directors, stuntwomen, screenwriters, composers, animators, editors, producers, cinematographers and on and on. Stunning photographs capture and document the women who worked their magic in the movie business. Perfect for anyone who enjoys the movies, this photo-treasury of women and film is not to be missed.

 This collection of 23 new essays focuses on the lives of female screenwriters of Golden Age Hollywood, whose work helped create those unforgettable stories and characters beloved by audiences—but whose names have been left out of most film histories. The contributors trace the careers of such writers as Anita Loos, Adela Rogers St. Johns, Lillian Hellman, Gene Gauntier, Eve Unsell and Ida May Park, and explore themes of their writing in classics like Gentlemen Prefer Blondes, Ben Hur, and It’s a Wonderful Life.

From the multi-award-winning and bestselling author of The Night Watch and Fingersmith comes an astonishing novel about love, loss, and the sometimes unbearable weight of the past. In a dusty post-war summer in rural Warwickshire, a doctor is called to see a patient at lonely Hundreds Hall. Home to the Ayres family for over two centuries, the once grand house is now in decline, its masonry crumbling, its garden choked with weeds. All around, the world is changing, and the family is struggling to adjust to a society with new values and rules. Roddie Ayres, who returned from World War II physically and emotionally wounded, is desperate to keep the house and what remains of the estate together for the sake of his mother and his sister, Caroline. Mrs. Ayres is doing her best to hold on to the gracious habits of a gentler era and Caroline seems cheerfully prepared to continue doing the work a team of servants once handled, even if it means having little chance for a life of her own beyond Hundreds. But as Dr. Faraday becomes increasingly entwined in the Ayreses’ lives, signs of a more disturbing nature start to emerge, both within the family and in Hundreds Hall itself. And Faraday begins to wonder if they are all threatened by something more sinister than a dying way of life, something that could subsume them completely. Both a nuanced evocation of 1940s England and the most chill-inducing novel of psychological suspense in years, The Little Stranger confirms Sarah Waters as one of the finest and most exciting novelists writing today.

This book is a detailed guide to creating complex female characters for film and television. Written for screen storytellers of any level, this book will help screenwriters and filmmakers recognize complicated portrayals of women on screen and evaluate the complexity of their own characters. Author Anna Weinstein provides a thorough analysis of key female characters in film and television, illustrating how some of our greatest screenwriters have developed smart, nuanced, and intriguing characters that successfully portray the female experience. The book features in-depth discussions of women’s representation both on screen and behind the scenes, including interviews with acclaimed women screenwriters and directors from around the globe. These conversations detail their perspectives on the relevance of women’s screen stories, the writing and development processes of these stories, and the challenges in getting female characters to the screen. With practical suggestions, exercises, guidelines, and a review of tired clichés to avoid, this book leaves readers prepared to draw their own female characters with confidence. A vital resource for screenwriters, filmmakers, and directors, whether aspiring or already established, who seek to champion the development of rich, layered, and unforgettable female characters for film and television.

The question of whether women write from a unique perspective has been debated since the silent era. McCreadie examines how this female sensibility has been defined and whether, in fact, it exists at all. Such films as Lost in Translation and Monster suggest that women screenwriters are moving in a new direction, heading away from the big-budget action movies that dominate Hollywood today. But action-driven genre films, like the thrillers of Alexandra Seros, seem to belie the perception that women write films that are more dialogue- and character-driven than those of male screenwriters. Whether or not women actually write differently from men and about different topics, the author's unique approach—working with and through the words and lives of the women screenwriters themselves—allows both readers and writers an otherwise unattainable look into the ever-growing and ever more essential world of women in Hollywood. Over the course of cinematic history, women screenwriters have played an essential role in the creation of the films we watch. The question of whether women write from a unique perspective has been debated since the silent era. Marsha McCreadie examines how this female sensibility has been defined and questions whether, in fact, it exists at all. The emergence of such films as Lost in Translation and Monster would seem to suggest that women screenwriters are moving in a new direction, heading away from the big-budget action movies that dominate Hollywood today. But there can always be found an Alexandra Seros, for instance, whose thrillers would seem to prove the opposite case. Working through these contradictions, Marsha McCreadie takes a captivating look at the words and lives of women screenwriters, allowing readers an otherwise unattainable look into the ever-growing and ever more essential world of women in film. Readers interested in film and women's studies will especially enjoy reading Marsha McCreadie's discussions of such films as Little Women, The Thomas Crown Affair, The Piano, Pollock, and Under the Tuscan Sun. Interviews with major women players in the movie business, including Sofia Coppola (Lost in Translation) and Emma Thompson (Sense and Sensibility), allow readers a unique chance to learn firsthand how women are trying to enter the business, how they pursue and approach the topics they love, and how they have managed to survive and prosper in the unforgiving world of modern cinema. By talking with writers working in Hollywood, Australia, New Zealand, and Europe, Marsha McCreadie provides film fans with an international perspective on the increasingly global film industry.