Debra Winger

"Gloria Steinem had an itinerant childhood. Every fall, her father would pack the family into the car and they would drive across the country, in search of their next adventure. The seeds were planted: Steinem would spend much of her life on the road, asa journalist, organizer, activist, and speaker. In vivid stories that span an entire career, Steinem writes about her time on the campaign trail, from Bobby Kennedy to Hillary Clinton; her early exposure...

In this scalpel-sharp, deliciously grown-up comedy, a husband and wife, each embroiled in a secret, extramarital affair, are sent reeling when they suddenly fall for the least likely person imaginable – one another. Nominated for Best Screenplay at the **Film Independent Spirit Awards**. Official Selection at the **Tribeca Film Festival**. "*Just about every step of the way, the dialogue crackles and the performances are electric.*" - Richard Roeper,...

23 POLITICS: Another aspect of everyday life. From silent cinema to the 21 st Century, movies from the visually astonishing The Enchanted Desna to Divorce Iranian Style to Bigelow’s Strange Days have gained their energy and attack from their politics. 24 GEAR CHANGE: We like to be taken by surprise in films. This short chapter, narrated by Sharmila Tagore, looks at such surprises. 25 COMEDY: Is comedy universal? Who have been the great comedy filmmakers...

29 TENSION: Thrillers, but much more. We look at gripping scenes in films as diverse as Joel DeMott’s documentary Demon Lover Diary, Kathryn Bigelow’s Blue Steel, Carol Morley’s Dreams of A Life, Mimi Leder’s Peacemaker, and Marleen Gorris’ remarkable A Question of Silence. 30 STASIS: Cinema is an action art, isn’t it? Or is it? Directors Angela Schanelec, Anouk Leopold, Kira Muratova, Chantal Akerman, Sharon Lockhart, and Pakistan’s...

09 STAGING: Scene staging is an element of film form pointing clearly to cinema’s origin – theatre. Kinuyo Tanaka in The Moon Has Risen uses staging to shape the scene’s invisible geometry, accentuating the tension between characters. Maren Ade in Toni Erdmann stages the scene through depth, facilitating the tragicomic punchline. And in Maria Schrader’s Stefan Zweig: A Farewell to Europe, the criss-crossing complex staging in the final scene...

18 BODIES: Bodies in cinema can be enticing, dancing or brutalised. Jane Fonda narrates this chapter about how the great directors—including Agnes Varda, Andrea Arnold, Iran’s Marva Nabili, Finland’s Pirjo Honkasalo, Marta Meszaros and Poland’s Wanda Jakubowska—have filmed bodies. 19 SEX: From bodies to sex – the most controversial aspect of film. In this chapter Diane Kurys, Lucile Hadzihalilovic, Jamie Babbit, Safi Faye, Athena Rachel...

03 BELIEVIBILITY: Easy to spot, but not so easy to understand. Believability is about simple human stories, truth about life, real emotions, responding to the world. Howdo directors create a reality without it feeling fake? True stories can help, but what’s the trick? Here are some answers, with a masterclass in believability from Lois Weber’s The Blot to Maren Ade’s Toni Erdmann. 04 INTRODUCING CHARACTER: Going to a house, overhearing people,...

15 POV: Is cinema the art of point of view? Jocelyn Moorhouse, Ida Lupino, Norway’s Edith Carlmar, Sofia Coppola, Italy’s Liliana Cavani, Kelly Reichart, the great Larisa Shepitko, Jennifer Kent and other great directors demonstrate the art of POV in films. 16 CLOSE UP: If close ups give movies their intensity, films from Belgium, Hungary, Australia, Finland, China, America, France, Germany and Ukraine, shot over ten decades, show how best to...

38 DEATH: The biggest subject in life, the most universal subject –no wonder that Japan’s Kinuyo Tanaka, Canada’s Caroline Leaf, Spain’s Ana Mariscal, Holland’s Paula Van der Oest and other great filmmakers in this chapter embrace it. 39 ENDINGS: We begin to end our epic road movie withfilms from Sonja Heiss, Larisa Shepitko, Ida Lupino, Lizzie Borden, Claire Denis and Maya Deren. 40 SONG AND DANCE: End with a song, they say, so our story...

The story of a mother and daughter and their relationship over a thirty-year time span.