To give your students a better perspective on women in American film, you
should probably move past the romantic auteurist notion of the film's
director to a more 90s take on the industry--women producers and studio
heads. A good example of this would be Lindsay Doran, the producer of both
Sense and Sensibility and Sabrina--both films directed by so-called
"auteurs" but both the product of Lindsay's careful and thorough
shepherding. They are HER films as much as and probably MORE than they are
Lumet's and Ang Lee's (read about her friendship with S&S's
writer/actor--which leads me to recommend another useful area of
investigation: writers like Callie Khouri and actors like Susan Sarandon).
Lindsay did S&S and Sabrina with Paramount but is now the head of United
Artists. For more info, see the April(?) edition of Vanity Fair magazine
for a pictorial on women with power in the new Hollywood.
Gene Walz
University of Manitoba
Winnipeg, Manitoba (downstream from Fargo and Grand Forks!!)
