Our 2023 at InSessionFilm!

 

Despite a tough 2023, it was important to me to keep up my moonlighting commitments at InSessionFilm, both with Long Form Movie Reviews and Top Ten Lists - not to mention the Women InSession Podcast! 

Here's a rundown of everything from Rachel Weisz to Vincent Price: 

The Underseen Rachel Weisz

The Banishing uses Shame as Commentary

Kick Ass Women's Comedies

Cool Eighties Comedies

She Will Addresses Women's Fears

Statement Making Seventies Science Fiction

Top Ten Michael Fassbender Essentials 

Top Ten Vincent Price Horrors

The Vincent Price, Roger Corman, Edgar Allan Poe Cycle

Great Bela Lugosi Horrors that aren't Dracula

I'm so grateful to have this film outlet to write, discuss, and share a variety of film thoughts past, present, or obscure! Here's a small sample of some of my favorite Women InSession Podcast episodes:

Robert Mitchum

Top 5 Worst Best Picture Nominees

Swashbuckler Movies

The Adventures of Priscilla Queen of the Desert

Tootsie and The Birdcage

Some Like it Hot

Underrated 1980s Movies

Memento

1939 in Film

Christopher Nolan and The Prestige

Wild Vampire Movies

Elizabeth Taylor and Richard Burton

Brendan Fraser

Little Women vs Little Women

A Christmas Carol Adaptations 

I don't always get a lot of interaction on Film Twitter, such that X is, but it is a tremendous privilege to share my film discourse with you and thank you for tuning in here, there, everywhere! 🥰

A Literary Extravaganza!

It's a Literary Extravaganza!

By Kristin Battestella

Stateside or British, these Victorian, turn of the last century, and post war dramatizations, documentaries, and biographies have heaps of period decorum, famous names, and family friendly bookishness thanks to Agatha, Emily, Louisa, and Sherlock.

Louisa May Alcott: The Woman Behind Little Women – This American Masters ninety minute documentary separates the fact from fiction with first hand accounts, re-enactments, and historical scenery. To the camera recitations add realism while narrations and scholarly interviews create a balanced point/counterpoint detailing Louisa's wild girl childhood and radical upbringing – The Alcotts believed in abolition, women's rights, transcendentalism, and equal education to bloom a child's mind rather than break young spirits. Such religious and racial taboos outcast the family onto tough times and their nineteenth century hippies on a commune Utopian intellectualism leads to starvation, humiliation, small pox, slums, and poverty as the cost of their reform. Louisa wrote of her overworked mother before Concord happiness and hobnobbing with Ralph Waldo Emerson, Nathaniel Hawthorne, and Henry David Thoreau – experiences high and low inspiring her determination. Early short stories and attempts at the stage come amid her sister Beth's terrible death, and this depressing time and subsequent gruesome, traumatizing Civil War nursing and suicidal thoughts are reflected in her later fiction. Alcott declined marriage proposals to keep her independence, and therapeutic writings led to literary success in new magazines and paying newspapers looking for her anonymous, fast turn around, serialized thrillers. Louisa herself preferred the vicariously lurid on the page to her mercenary children's literature – women weren't supposed to write that sort of thing and most of this adult material went undiscovered until after her death with evidence of yet more lost works. Trips to Europe and potential flings in Paris become inspirations for some of her famed characters while questions of possible bipolar disorders, manic depression, or undiagnosed lupus linger thanks to her extreme periods of creativity between months of physical inability. The surprise success of Little Women allowed her to enjoy later laurels, but opium, morphine, and other alternative medicinal cures did little to curb the nonetheless prolific Alcott's declining health at thirty-eight. This in depth documentary makes the semi-autobiographical tag of Little Women seem like a small, saccharin sampling, as there is far more to the author indeed.

Mr. Holmes – Ian McKellan's (Lord of the Rings) ninety-three year old detective pursues the case that got away in this 2015 tale opening with superb locomotives, vintage automobiles, quaint cottages, and country mood. The eponymous crusty old passenger is a relic, with bleak music matching the weary toll after a long trip to Japan. There's a hunch to his back, a cane, and a grovel to his voice – feeble friends have gone to live with family but Mr. Holmes is still sharp. He notices a decrease in his bee population and evidence on the stair steps, digging into vintage photographs and cursive notes as he writes down memories he is forgetting and tries to recall one particular client. Holmes is writing the story we see in flashbacks to thirty years prior – but these snippets represent the confused mind, a blurring of fact and fiction as the film also goes back to the recent Japanese quest. Is Holmes forgetting the details or not telling what he knows as he dispels myths about his famous cap and pipe? One must identify the problem and solve it, and if he can't, then is it time to move to a care home? The past shows us a younger, distinguished detective charming his way into a room, smoothing both clients and witnesses and remaining swift even as people doubt the real man because he doesn't match the detective on the page. Despite a terrible accent, housekeeper Laura Linney (The Big C) doesn't want her son too attached to Holmes – an increasingly difficult old man with liver spots once so suave in a top hat but now idle in striped pajamas and clinging to dignity by writing forgotten names on his inner left cuff. The hard facts of a case don't explain a client's behavior or feelings, and upsetting moments help Holmes learn how his acerbic thoroughness isn't always what a person needs. This regret of old and final growth before one's inevitable completion is not an introductory piece. Viewers should be familiar with the character, and the timeline back and forth may be confusing to audiences who can't tell the post war settings apart. The unreliable narrator fictionalizing a past account with other point of views within may also be a frame too many, and some of the storylines are uneven in a busy patchwork of illicit meetings, poisons, false drawer bottoms, and hidden gloves. The art imitating life vice versa works better with Holmes reading Watson's dreadful prose and going to see stereotypical Sherlock Holmes adaptations on the silver screen – putting him face to face with his mortality as he weeps at his inability to recall the truth. Palm readings and the scandalous touching a lady's bare hand are vividly shot as the bittersweet detective looks directly at the screen to say he can't remember it. Such old Father Christmas passing the torch to the New Year babe mature is meant for adult viewers who can understand the frailty, child loss, old habits dying hard, and last piece of unfinished business. Though somewhat flawed in its constructs, the period touches and layered nuance from McKellan keep this little drama charming.

The Mystery of Agatha Christie – Poirot star David Suchet hosts this 2014 documentary hour taking a deeper look at the woman behind the best selling author via lovely on location scenery, tours of the Christie Archive, and sit down interviews with family, historians, and biographers. Private photographs, childhood poems, handwritten notes, and original typed short stories add to the inside nostalgia alongside home movie screenings, memoir readings, and quotes from Christie's writings defining the recluse versus the crime queen. Sit down chats with Suchet and experts waxing on Christie's nightmares and love of swimming are grounded with rare video interviews, audio clips, and drives to the Devon beaches in vintage cars as period newspapers and slides follow the time line from her unusual upbringing at Ashfield and financial difficulties after her father's death to coming out parties, marriage, and wartime nursing in Torquay. Dartmoor inspirations, learning to surf, and the birth of her daughter Rosalind become defining experiences amid the first Poirot publications and future mystery staples such as poison breaking the rules of the detective genre. Christie's global travel is well documented, however the dark emotional crisis stemming from the Nancy Neil affair and the death of her mother remains unexplained in Christie's autobiography, and Suchet and Co. debate her Mary Westmacott novels and the infamous ten day disappearance before Christie's rebirth in Istanbul and subsequent literary heights. The Miss Marple stories and mixing of exotic tales with English comfort helped heal the nation during World War II, followed by renewed paperback masses and more recent manuscript discoveries. One and all describe Christie with warmth, kindness, and gratitude – yet she remains an enigma. The segments here don't go chapter by chapter and book by book, but focus on the insights into the person rather than the literature. Although this may not be anything new for Agatha enthusiasts, this pleasing compliment to the author provides an intimate, personal touch in spite of its shorter, classroom perfect run time. For more fun, also see David Suchet on the Orient Express.

An Unfortunate Skip

A Quiet Passion – Colorful interiors, lovely firelight, charming costumes, and early photography set off Cynthia Nixon (Sex and the City) as Emily Dickinson in this 2016 biopic from writer and director Terence Davies (The Deep Blue Sea). Unfortunately, the trying to be ye olde dialogue is immediately wooden and pretentious. Reading Victorian text isn't the same as speaking it, and every pursed lips conversation is unintentionally humorous with one heavy handed religious browbeating after another dragging the pace. The first twenty minutes of redundant precociousness could have been cut as the so called ungrateful Emily is continually chastised into the adult transition scenes. The unnecessary sassy sounding board BFF says they are trying to be ironic, but the tone is thick with oppression, obnoxious women, and fussiness. The audience feels the bitter we read from Dickinson, however nothing happens to intrigue the viewer – no scandalous publication nor shocking lesbianism. Some pains and health issues are mentioned, but the inconsequential in her own life Emily merely watches time go by amid awkward family marriages or falling flat war drama. Subtly defiant moments are far better, such as Emily asking her father to stay up at night to write in the quiet or smashing his dirty plate because it can't be soiled if it is broken. Voiceover rejections of her too common womanly rhyme lead to feverish writing with one acceptance and an anonymous publication, yet the poetry is apparently not the point of this piece? Should be funny tea with the water only minister's wife and witty arguments about Longfellow or The Brontes are too few and far between, disservicing Nixon by never fully letting the bittersweet come across. Emily's unloved stoicism and ugly feelings because no one wants her poetry anchor the final forty minutes as the eccentricities come to the forefront, and the poetry narrations answer as others question why she thinks her life is so bad, complains about them leaving, doesn't go anywhere, and pushes people away. The dream sequence/veiled masturbation interlude is a bit much, and time transitions leave large life gaps – unless we are to believe that her brother's affair is the most important thing to ever happen to Emily Dickinson. Viewers can't come into this expecting answers, and simply put, reading about Dickinson and her work does far more.

Little Women (1933) and Little Women (1949)

Little Women and, Well, Little Women

By Kristin Battestella

Last December, I took in a critical of analysis of Gillian Armstrong’s very fine 1994 adaptation of Little Women. But just when you thought I couldn’t whip up any more traditional Christmas sentimentality, this December I’m taking a chilly winter’s night in with not just one Little Women, but both the 1933 and 1949 film versions. Hold on to your hoop skirts!

Although family audiences and even confident men can enjoy Little Women, women young and old especially adore this 19^th century coming of age tearjerker. For every girl’s fancy, there’s a March sister playing and growing up through the seasons in Concord. Looking for Love Meg, tomboy writer Josephine, shy piano player Beth, and materialistic Amy cherish their Marmee while they befriend wealthy next-door neighbor Theodore Laurence and wait for their Father’s return from the Civil War. What’s not to love?

The 1933 first talkie edition from director George Cukor (My Fair Lady, A Star is Born, Gaslight) adapts Louisa May Alcott’s 1868 by adding several expository scenes and transitions at the opening of the film. Of course, there’s also plenty of Christmas enchantment to be had in this heartwarming tale of family loves and loss during the Civil War. The music and old-fashioned December traditions scattered throughout the film will remind the young at heart and sentimental how things used to be. There’s seriously cold weather, the joy of sausage for Christmas Day dinner, and plenty of wartime generosity to warm any grinch.

Naturally, the black and white cinematography doesn’t allow for the bright styles of other Little Women pictures, but the snowy locations and onscreen holiday music make up for the monochromatic silver screen. The costumes by Academy Award winner Walter Plunkett (An American in Paris, How the West Was Won) are the poor man’s hoops skirts we expect, and the Victorian set decoration looks wonderfully authentic. Ironically, Plunkett would also have costuming credit on the 1949 version, along with more credit to screenwriters Sarah Y. Mason and Victor Heerman (Magnificent Obsession). The couple won the Adapted Screenplay Oscar here, and this 1933 version also saw nominations for Best Picture and Director.

Why is it that in Little Women films, the stars always end up being the ladies who play Jo and Amy? An older Katharine Hepburn made to look younger and a blonde Joan Bennett (We’re No Angels, Dark Shadows) too old to play the littlest March sister battle it out in proper over the top thirties fashion. Hepburn is clearly having a good time with this much beloved character. She gives all of herself in the outspoken, yet classy tomboy fashion old school fans have come to expect from the future star of classics such as The Philadelphia Story and Bringing Up Baby. Of course, the budding icon would win her first of four Best Actress Oscars for the more mature Morning Glory, also released in 1933. It’s not so much the peculiar ages and casting of Hepburn, but that she has the wonderful range for the part.

Bennett, of course, was pregnant and in her early twenties while playing the school aged Amy. Her acting family pedigree, however, strengthens her high-class portrayal of the youngest, most uppity March girl who covets the finest things and wishes her family returned to wealth and good standing. Spring Byington (December Bride, You Can’t Take it With You) is ever charming as the good hearted Marmee, and Edna May Oliver (Drums Along the Mohawk) is delightfully crotchety as Old Aunt March. Jean Parker (The Gunfighter) and Frances Dee (Of Human Bondage- but perhaps better known as Mrs. Joel McCrea) are also wonderfully marshmallow as Meg and Beth, respectively; but the first and third girls are always overshadowed by their star sisters.

The 1949 color extravaganza is no different in its star treatment of Jo and Amy, casting the 32 year old June Allyson (The Glenn Miller Story, Executive Suite) and a be-blonded Elizabeth Taylor (A Place in the Sun, Cleopatra, Butterfield 8)-who’s now the number three March sister instead of the youngest. Wouldn’t you change your literary classic to make room for Elizabeth Taylor?

Traditionally a blonde herself, Allyson dons Jo’s dark hair and spunky style. Despite her being way too old for the part, we can’t help but like feisty little June and her button nose-especially in the famous scene were Jo has sold her hair. Her spontaneity is a treat, too. Unlike other Amys past and future, Elizabeth Taylor is also charming. She’s prim and uppity yes, but somehow likeable in her expressions. Like the rest of the cast, she’s enjoying herself. A very young Janet Leigh (Psycho, Touch of Evil) also looks delightful as Meg, and Margaret O’Brien (Meet Me in St. Louis) is adorable as the now youngest, but still tragic Beth.

Where Douglass Montgomery is a little bland in our 1933 edition, Peter Lawford (It Happened in Brooklyn, Easter Parade) makes his presence known here as Laurie. Well and sure, he’s a fine actor and all of that, but it’s a little more of his Kennedy and Rat Pack connections that have us noting each of his scenes with ‘It’s Peter Lawford!’ Oscar Winner Mary Astor (The Maltese Falcon, The Great Lie) is also perfect as Marmee.

Charming as our prior adaptation is, there’s a little more Christmas here in all its Technicolor glory. The poor, homemade but splendid Victoria décor, the joy of a dollar to spend on presents-and all they could get for their dollars! The onscreen caroling is also delightful, along with snowy escapades, good deeds, and bundles of petticoats. Little Women looks heartwarming despite the March family’s seeming depravity, and this 1949 take won the Color Art and Set Decoration Oscar. In sharing an almost identical script and screenplay, there shouldn’t be that many differences amid these two Little Women takes-but oh, there are. Some of the scenes are in a different order, and there’s no European travels here. Yet, somehow, the 1949 version is longer. Nevertheless, it’s also great fun to hear some of the exact same lines delivered by a different cast. Teachers of the novel or literary fans might enjoy a back-to-back viewing for classroom study or comparison. I don’t know that I could choose between these two versions of Little Women. Some of the 1933 tale is a little more over the top, but it has Katharine Hepburn! Then, again 1949 looks so good. Both features are certainly family friendly to young audiences and classic film fans.

I may still have my old VHS, but DVD editions and video on demand options are available for both Little Women and, hee, Little Women. The sets are a little slim on features, but a digitally restored and preserved film copy is plenty enough. Now, I certainly don’t consider myself the sentimental and super girlie type, but one knows a fine character drama when one sees it. Alcott’s true to her time story of sisters growing to womanhood is still a dang fine tale. Naturally, it makes not one, but three exceptional holiday films. Fans of the novel can certainly enjoy the old school films here, and families can enjoy Little Women at Christmas or throughout the year.

Little Women (1994)

Little Women Great Family Favorite

By Kristin Battestella

It’s not necessarily a Christmas story, but I always tend to think of Little Women during the holidays. The 1868 novel by Louisa May Alcott has been adapted for the screen several times, as has its sequel, Little Men. As much as I love the 1933 version with Katherine Hepburn and the color 1949 film starring June Allyson and Elizabeth Taylor, I tend to favor Gillian Armstrong’s 1994 release for a night of family entertainment.

During the Civil War, the March sisters Meg (Trini Alvarado, The Frighteners), Jo (Winona Ryder), Beth (Claire Daines, My So Called Life), and Amy (Kirsten Dunst and Samantha Mathis) lean on their mother Marmee (Susan Sarandon, Dead Man Walking) for advice and support. Their wealthy neighbor Mr. Laurence (John Neville, The X-Files) and his grandson Laurie (Christian Bale) become attached to the girls as the March family struggles with poverty, illness, and growing up.

Growing up I didn’t like the book Little Women as most young ladies do. My sister and I would attempt to read the near 500 page book aloud, but we never got beyond the first few pages. (It’s a long story, and my sister would kill me if I told the rest of it!) Hence my association with the tale and Christmas from its opening line, “Christmas won’t be Christmas without any presents!” Only when I was older did I read and appreciate Alcott’s semi-autobiographical tale.

Meg is the oldest, but of course Jo is the heart and soul of Little Women. Winona Ryder (Beetlejuice, Remains of the Day, Bram Stoker’s Dracula) received an Oscar nomination for her work here as the writing tomboy. As strong as she is here, part of me also can’t let go of that ‘It’s Winona Ryder’ feeling. It would be nice to have an unknown play Jo sometime, instead of all these spunky chicks, but Ryder does have the weight needed for this period role. Some people just look so silly in such costumes. Trini Alvarado is perfect as elder sister Meg, as is Eric Stolz (Memphis Belle) as her husband John Brooke. Only Kirsten Dunst (Interview with a Vampire) and Samantha Mathis (Broken Arrow) seem misplaced as the younger and older Amy, respectively. The character is a bit of a snoot as it is, but Dunst comes off as a Hollywood brat and Mathis seems to have her nose turned up at the part.

Thankfully, we have lovely support stepping up in Little Women. Susan Sarandon plays the old and wise Marmee with complete appreciation for the character, wearing little make up and layers of drab costumes. Now everybody loves Christian Bale (Batman Begins, American Psycho), but his talent can be seen here as the rich boy next door who falls in love with poor Jo. John Neville and the late Mary Wickes (Sister Act) also add a touch of refinement to the cast. Claire Danes and Gabriel Byrne (The Usual Suspects) give fine performances, but it seems like they are barely there. Considering how important they are to Jo, I expected more screen time for them.

While Gillian Armstrong (Oscar and Lucinda) is well known in her native Australia, her weak direction is the one problem with Little Women. Sometimes I’m in a Bale phase and can’t wait to get to his scenes, but other times it feels as if Armstrong doesn’t know where to take the story. It’s as if she tries to fit every thing from the book into the movie where the focus should be on Jo’s storyline most of the time. Liberties are also taken from the source material by writer and co producer Robin Swicord (The Jane Austen Book Club), changing the time line and lending a little bit of sappy to the tale. Thankfully the talented cast and the innate charm of the story outshine any misses taken behind the scenes.

Visually Little Women has all the Victorian and Dickensian lush we expect from a period piece, and large portions of the film center around Christmas, giving us lovely recreations of where a lot of our holiday traditions originate. I love hoop skirts as it is, but natural garland and bows and candles gives the story an extra attention to detail. The costumes are authentic as well- homely when the story dictates and silk and lavish during the high times. The Oscar nominated score by Thomas Newman (The Shawshank Redemption, American Beauty) also adds a layer of heartstrings throughout the film. We have holiday tunes, orchestral echoes, and period songs adding the perfect level of audio spice.

After seeing the VHS and later the DVD, I finally picked up a used copy of the Collectors Edition at a very affordable price. There’s fun and educational slides, standard commentaries and behind the scenes, and a music only option. I would have liked more from the cast about what drew them to the project other than the brief making of feature, but the detailed costume design segment is a treat.

Naturally I can see that Little Women is not for everyone. Boys who need toys should stay away, but period piece fans will no doubt tune in. Tween girls who have read the source novel will enjoy this timeless tale, and maybe those who haven’t read the book will take a gander after their viewing. Women who love this story can watch Little Women again and again, and hey, Christian Bale, ladies! For a family friendly evening full of merit, worth, and touches of holiday spirit, gather round the television for Little Women at Christmas or anytime of the year.