Holding My Own in No Man's Land: Women and Men and Film and Feminists Book + PRICE WATCH * Amazon pricing is not included in price watch

Holding My Own in No Man's Land: Women and Men and Film and Feminists Book

Noted film critic and essayist Molly Haskell has assembled some of her finest articles of the past 20 years into a cohesive collection focusing on the roles women play on film and in the film business. Holding My Own in No Man's Land features essays on Mae West, Marlene Dietrich, Doris Day, and other actresses; thoughtful pieces on literary characters such as Jane Austen's Emma; and a section entitled "Guys," which features a profile of Truman Capote and a surprising and thoughtful essay based on an interview with John Wayne. As one of America's finest writers on film, Haskell's collection of essays is a must for those who regard film as something worth thinking about.Read More

from£N/A | RRP: £15.99
* Excludes Voucher Code Discount Also available Used from £N/A
  • Product Description

    Molly Haskell, one of America's leading film critics, has been delighting readers for decades with her intelligence and insight. Her landmark book, From Reverence to Rape: The Treatment of Women in the Movies, praised for its "wit and style" and called "a valuable contribution to film scholarship," is still considered among the most stimulating and important books on the subject of women and film. In Holding My Own in No Man's Land, a series of pieces written in the twenty years since the publication of From Reverence to Rape, Haskell once again explores the relationship between women and men, and between the movies and those who watch them.

    Haskell remains a controversial figure in both feminist and film circles, accused of "uncritically celebrating heterosexual romance"--a charge to which Haskell cheerfully pleads guilty. Holding My Own In No Man's Land challenges the conventional feminist wisdom that the classic films of the Thirties, Forties, and Fifties were made by an industry which was controlled by men and which victimized women. Instead, she says that women were better served by the notoriously tyrannical studio system than they are in the "newer, freer, hipper Hollywood of the present." A fascinating interview with Doris Day points out that, despite her current image as a symbol of all that was repressive about the suburban Fifties, she played a series of roles as--and was herself--a successful career woman who worked because she enjoyed it. In another brilliant portrait, Haskell describes the mesmerizing power the sultry, self-parodying sex symbol Mae West had on screen, and the financial clout she had off screen. And she writes about Howard Hawks's screwball comedies, such as His Girl Friday and Man's Favorite Sport from the Thirties, where assertive women were equal to men, and more than held their own in the battle of the sexes.

    Holding My Own in No Man's Land ranges from interviews with Hollywood legends such as Gloria Swanson and John Wayne, to portraits of brilliant comediennes such as Lucille Ball and Carol Burnett, to ruminations on literary figures such as Truman Capote and his Holly Golightly, and Jane Austen's Emma. We learn that the cleaning woman of The Carol Burnett Show logo was a reminder of the days when Burnett and her grandmother, "out of spoons and relief money," worked nights as cleaning women in the Warner executive offices. We see Meryl Streep "hiding in the spotlight" in a brilliant analysis of Streep's determination to be an actress rather than a star. Finally, Haskell closes with a wickedly funny section on recent fashion and style, including pieces on "Lipstick Envy" and "Nude With Attitude."

    Haskell describes Holding My Own in No Man's Land as "a kind of continuing set of ruminations, encounters, insights, and images of people and characters who have had an influence on our lives." With wit and style she illuminates the hopes and fears we project onto these larger-than-life figures-- the grand dames, the stoic heroes, the dueling couples--and the lesons we learned from them about how to fall in love, how to act as adults, and how to live in this complex world.

  • 0195053095
  • 9780195053098
  • Molly Haskell
  • 31 January 1997
  • Oxford University Press Inc, USA
  • Hardcover (Book)
  • 216
As an Amazon Associate we earn from qualifying purchases. If you click through any of the links below and make a purchase we may earn a small commission (at no extra cost to you). Click here to learn more.

Would you like your name to appear with the review?

We will post your book review within a day or so as long as it meets our guidelines and terms and conditions. All reviews submitted become the licensed property of www.find-book.co.uk as written in our terms and conditions. None of your personal details will be passed on to any other third party.

All form fields are required.