Women of a certain age
The character played by Goldie Hawn in “The First Wives Club” described the plight of actresses in Hollywood with an often repeated line — “There are only three ages for women in Hollywood: babe, district attorney and ‘ Driving Miss Daisy.’”
Things have only gotten worse since the comedy came out in 1996. With the notable exception of Meryl Streep, there are virtually no women over the age of 50 playing leading roles in Hollywood studio films.
Streep’s peers who rose to stardom in the 1980s — Jessica Lange, Sissy Spacek, Debra Winger, Holly Hunter et al — have either shifted to television or semi- retired from movies.
One of the things the audience at our recent Avon Theatre screening of the French film “Let the Sunshine In” liked most about the romantic comedy- drama is the fact that it is all about the character played by Juliette Binoche, who happens to be 54. The appeal of the movie and its star were also demonstrated by the fact that it drew the biggest crowd we’ve ever had for one of our French Cinematheque/ Hearst Movie & A Martini events — more than 150 people.
Not only does the film have a mid- 50s female protagonist, it violates another Hollywood taboo by exploring the sex life of that middle- aged woman. The fanmous single artist Isabelle, played by Binoche, is tired of depending on undependable men for her erotic gratification.
In an early scene, we share the character’s revulsion for her banker lover when he tells her he will never leave his “extraordinary wife,” but that the artist is a more pliant and satisfying sex partner. He also annoys Isabelle with his disdainful treatment of the bartender who is serving them as they talk ( the man is angry that the server has no “vegan olives”).
Isabelle doesn’t have much better luck with an actor ( Nicolas Duvauchelle), who is younger than her, and who expresses im- mediate remorse after they have sex. He wishes they could go back to the flirtatious, non- sexual period in their relationship.
“Let the Sunshine In” is written and directed by a woman — Claire Denis — a common occurence in French cinema but still rare for a major studio film in Hollywood. The explicit but sensitive sex scenes — which physically expose both lovers — have none of the teasing, prurient quality we get in the few U. S. pictures daring enough to risk an NC- 17 rating.
Renee Ketcham, the president of the Alliance Francaise of Greenwich, which sponsored the French Cinematheque screening, agreed that both the French film industry and the audience there have no problem with stories centered on middle- aged woman. Indeed, some of the biggest movie stars in France are women who are now well past 60, including Isabelle Huppert, Nathalie Baye and Catherine Deneuve.
Like Binoche, those three performers are as busy as ever, averaging two or three films each year. In many cases, the films they make now are about the emotional and sexual lives of women over 60, a topic you never see in a Hollywood film, and one that is rarely explored in the prestige TV series that have been done by Lange, Spacek and Susan Sarandon.
The audience at “Let the Sunshine In” was not completely in alignment with Isabelle’s confusion over the men in her life — some thought the woman didn’t recognize her own privilege as a wealthy artist — but they seemed to enjoy being provoked by a movie ( something that won’t happen to you at a Marvel comic book action film or even the best Pixar animated production from Disney Studios).
One audience member recalled the 18- month period in the late 1970s when a series of films about women were released by 20th Century Fox, including “Julia,” “The Turning Point,” “An Unmarried Woman” and “Norma Rae.” All of them were critically acclaimed, received strong reviews and won Oscars.
Fox studio chief Alan Ladd Jr. knew audiences loved women’s stories in the 1930s and 1940s and there was no good reason those stories wouldn’t work in 19771979, and he was right. Ladd also approved the sex change of the leading character in the 1979 science- fiction hit “Alien” with Sigourney Weaver taking on a role originally intended for Paul Newman.
“Why can’t we have movies like that again?,” one woman asked me on her way out of the theater, adding that she found more to identify with in “Let the Sunshine In” — a movie made in another country in a different language — than any recent Hollywood movie she had seen.