DVD/150: DESPERATELY SEEKING SUSAN (Susan Seidelman, 1985)

Susan Seidelman's delicious comedy of mistaken identities in the through-the-looking-glass world of downtown Manhatten in the mid-1980s is still an utter joy.

Unfulfilled New Jersey housewife Roberta follows the helter-skelter life of free spirit Susan and her musician boyfriend Jim through the personals ads that they leave for each other.

Unknown to all, Susan is being followed by a murderous criminal who wants the elaborate earrings she stole from a one-night stand; the men stole Nefertiti's ear-rings from a museum and he knows Susan has them. 

After Roberta obtains Susan's jacket, the criminal mistakes her for Susan but as Roberta escapes him, she hits her head and wakes up with amnesia.

Dez, Jim's best friend, rescues her and, also thinking she is Susan finds himself drawn to her... 

Rosanna Arquette and Madonna are glorious protagonists in this magical alternative update on screwball comedies.

Shelf or charity shop? A keeper as SUSAN is one of my most favourite films ever.  Susan Seidelman cast Madonna over actresses like Jennifer Jason Leigh and Melanie Griffith as she was an upcoming name - midway through filming, LIKE A VIRGIN was released and suddenly the focus was totally on Madonna, much to Rosanna Arquette's ire as she had the starring role.  Truth be told, the film has space for both of them to shine as they only really meet at the film's climax.  When she heard Seidelman needed a music track for the club scene, Madonna gave her a demo she had just finished, INTO THE GROOVE explodes on the film soundtrack and over the end credits too.  Seidelman makes Lower Manhattan a Wonderland for Arquette's Roberta to explore and now feels like a lost place in time; she also cast alternative NY actors and performers in cameo roles to give it a real tang: Anne Carlisle, Shirley Stoller, Victor Argo, John Lurie, Ann Magnuson, Steven Wright, Richard Edson, Annie Golden, Richard Hell, Rockets Redglare, Giancarlo Esposito and John Turturro all pop out.  She was also blessed with wonderful Aidan Quinn as the lovely Dez, the late Mark Blum as Arquette's dull husband, Robert Joy at his eye-popping best as Jim and the glorious Laurie Metcalf (in only her second film) as Roberta's bitchy sister-in-law.  

DVD/150: SEARCHING FOR DEBRA WINGER (Rosanna Arquette, 2002)

Rosanna Arquette's documentary about actresses is a curious time capsule when seen 18 years on.

Arquette interviews 34 actresses about their lives as actresses and women; her starting point being THE RED SHOES which she saw when young and it's dancer heroine torn between her career or becoming a wife.

It culminates in her interviewing Debra Winger who in the mid-1990s stopped making films to raise her children.

The participants are Patricia Arquette, Emmanuelle Béart, Katrin Cartlidge (who died soon after), Laura Dern, Jane Fonda, Teri Garr, Whoopi Goldberg, Melanie Griffith, Daryl Hannah, Salma Hayek, Holly Hunter, Diane Lane, Kelly Lynch, Julianna Marguiles, Chiara Mastroianni, Samantha Mathis, Frances McDormand, Catherine O'Hara, Julia Ormond, Gwyneth Paltrow, Martha Plimpton, Charlotte Rampling, Vanessa Redgrave, Theresa Russell, Meg Ryan, Ally Sheedy, Adrienne Shelly, Hilary Shepard, Sharon Stone, Tracey Ullman, JoBeth Williams, Alfre Woodard and Robin Wright.

Laudable but it's flat tone is regrettable.

Shelf or charity shop?  The film certainly has it's highpoints - Jane Fonda's rapturous monologue on the magic of getting it right on a film set - are worth maybe keeping this in the DVD limbo of the plastic storage box but these are few amid the usual - and timeless - talk of no roles for older women and the pressures put on young actresses,  Bearing in mind Rosanna Arquette has said that Harvey Weinstein had her career ruined when she refused to have sex with him in the early 1990s - one wonders that if she made this film today would the result be more hard-hitting?