Anchor ads are not supported on this page.

4S Ranch Allied Gardens Alpine Baja Balboa Park Bankers Hill Barrio Logan Bay Ho Bay Park Black Mountain Ranch Blossom Valley Bonita Bonsall Borrego Springs Boulevard Campo Cardiff-by-the-Sea Carlsbad Carmel Mountain Carmel Valley Chollas View Chula Vista City College City Heights Clairemont College Area Coronado CSU San Marcos Cuyamaca College Del Cerro Del Mar Descanso Downtown San Diego Eastlake East Village El Cajon Emerald Hills Encanto Encinitas Escondido Fallbrook Fletcher Hills Golden Hill Grant Hill Grantville Grossmont College Guatay Harbor Island Hillcrest Imperial Beach Imperial Valley Jacumba Jamacha-Lomita Jamul Julian Kearny Mesa Kensington La Jolla Lakeside La Mesa Lemon Grove Leucadia Liberty Station Lincoln Acres Lincoln Park Linda Vista Little Italy Logan Heights Mesa College Midway District MiraCosta College Miramar Miramar College Mira Mesa Mission Beach Mission Hills Mission Valley Mountain View Mount Hope Mount Laguna National City Nestor Normal Heights North Park Oak Park Ocean Beach Oceanside Old Town Otay Mesa Pacific Beach Pala Palomar College Palomar Mountain Paradise Hills Pauma Valley Pine Valley Point Loma Point Loma Nazarene Potrero Poway Rainbow Ramona Rancho Bernardo Rancho Penasquitos Rancho San Diego Rancho Santa Fe Rolando San Carlos San Marcos San Onofre Santa Ysabel Santee San Ysidro Scripps Ranch SDSU Serra Mesa Shelltown Shelter Island Sherman Heights Skyline Solana Beach Sorrento Valley Southcrest South Park Southwestern College Spring Valley Stockton Talmadge Temecula Tierrasanta Tijuana UCSD University City University Heights USD Valencia Park Valley Center Vista Warner Springs

Expired, Then She Found Me, Smooth Talk

Holly Jones
Curator, San Diego Women’s Film Festival, sdwff.org

Expired, by Cecilia Miniucchi, is one of those under-the-radar movies that went to DVD before even reaching a San Diego theater. Luckily, this impressive directorial debut will have its theatrical premiere at the San Diego Women’s Film Festival on Saturday, October 5. Big names Samantha Morton and Jason Patric are the love-struck parking-meter attendants in this cringe-inducing romance.

Miniucchi keeps good company. She was trained by Lina Wertmüller. Wertmüller’s own film Seven Beauties earned her the honor of being first woman ever nominated for an Academy Award as Best Director.

For other female firsts, revisit The Piano for which director Jane Campion became the first woman to win the prestigious Palme d’Or at the Cannes Film Festival.

Sponsored
Sponsored

Expired (USA), 2007, Blockbuster
Seven Beauties (Italy), 1976, Koch Lorber
The Piano (Australia), 1993, Lionsgate

Renee Herrell
Founder, San Diego Women’s Film Festival

I just saw Roman Holiday for the first time and loved it for its inspiring leading lady, Audrey Hepburn, and the thrill of a summer romance. It’s all summed up in the famous scene of her (complete with stylish new ’do) riding around Rome with Mr. Peck on the motor scooter.

I was excited to see Helen Hunt make her directing debut with Then She Found Me, adding one more woman filmmaker to Hollywood — one step forward! The movie is made in its last 30 seconds.

Like many other twenty-somethings, I’d been anticipating the feature film Sex and the City and the reunion of the fab four (finally!). I wasn’t the only one in the theater who welled up during the heart-wrenching moment when Sarah Jessica Parker streams down the middle of the street in her Vivienne Westwood wedding dress and beats Mr. Big with her bouquet.

Roman Holiday (USA), 1953, Paramount
Then She Found Me (USA), 2007, THINKFilm
Sex and the City (USA), 2008, New Line

Cathy de la Cruz
Filmmaker, MFA candidate UCSD, and staff member, San Diego Women’s Film Festival

Morvern Callar is a rare instance where the trailer does justice to the film: Samantha Morton shopping for groceries to a Velvet Underground song. Directed by Lynne Ramsay, it’s one of the few from recent years that I never tire of revisiting — impressive, since it features very little dialogue.

Vagabond, by Agnes Varda (known for her French New Wave classic, Cleo From 5 to 7, and the documentary The Gleaners and I), sits appropriately in the middle of her career. A fictionalized narrative told in documentary form, the film — like Morvern Callar — follows one very silent woman as she travels but doesn’t tell us much about herself.

Joyce Chopra’s Smooth Talk features a teenage Laura Dern stalked by a very scary Treat Williams. While the violence and sexuality are off-screen, talking through a screen door never looked so scary or felt so real.

Morvern Callar (England), 2002, Palm Pictures

Vagabond - Criterion Collection (France), 1986, Criterion

Smooth Talk (USA), 1986, MGM

The latest copy of the Reader

Here's something you might be interested in.
Submit a free classified
or view all
Previous article

East Village Tree Lighting & Holiday Market, Holiday Gondola Cruise

Events November 30-December 4, 2024
Next Article

Gonzo Report: Jazz jam at a private party

A couple of accidental crashes at California English

Holly Jones
Curator, San Diego Women’s Film Festival, sdwff.org

Expired, by Cecilia Miniucchi, is one of those under-the-radar movies that went to DVD before even reaching a San Diego theater. Luckily, this impressive directorial debut will have its theatrical premiere at the San Diego Women’s Film Festival on Saturday, October 5. Big names Samantha Morton and Jason Patric are the love-struck parking-meter attendants in this cringe-inducing romance.

Miniucchi keeps good company. She was trained by Lina Wertmüller. Wertmüller’s own film Seven Beauties earned her the honor of being first woman ever nominated for an Academy Award as Best Director.

For other female firsts, revisit The Piano for which director Jane Campion became the first woman to win the prestigious Palme d’Or at the Cannes Film Festival.

Sponsored
Sponsored

Expired (USA), 2007, Blockbuster
Seven Beauties (Italy), 1976, Koch Lorber
The Piano (Australia), 1993, Lionsgate

Renee Herrell
Founder, San Diego Women’s Film Festival

I just saw Roman Holiday for the first time and loved it for its inspiring leading lady, Audrey Hepburn, and the thrill of a summer romance. It’s all summed up in the famous scene of her (complete with stylish new ’do) riding around Rome with Mr. Peck on the motor scooter.

I was excited to see Helen Hunt make her directing debut with Then She Found Me, adding one more woman filmmaker to Hollywood — one step forward! The movie is made in its last 30 seconds.

Like many other twenty-somethings, I’d been anticipating the feature film Sex and the City and the reunion of the fab four (finally!). I wasn’t the only one in the theater who welled up during the heart-wrenching moment when Sarah Jessica Parker streams down the middle of the street in her Vivienne Westwood wedding dress and beats Mr. Big with her bouquet.

Roman Holiday (USA), 1953, Paramount
Then She Found Me (USA), 2007, THINKFilm
Sex and the City (USA), 2008, New Line

Cathy de la Cruz
Filmmaker, MFA candidate UCSD, and staff member, San Diego Women’s Film Festival

Morvern Callar is a rare instance where the trailer does justice to the film: Samantha Morton shopping for groceries to a Velvet Underground song. Directed by Lynne Ramsay, it’s one of the few from recent years that I never tire of revisiting — impressive, since it features very little dialogue.

Vagabond, by Agnes Varda (known for her French New Wave classic, Cleo From 5 to 7, and the documentary The Gleaners and I), sits appropriately in the middle of her career. A fictionalized narrative told in documentary form, the film — like Morvern Callar — follows one very silent woman as she travels but doesn’t tell us much about herself.

Joyce Chopra’s Smooth Talk features a teenage Laura Dern stalked by a very scary Treat Williams. While the violence and sexuality are off-screen, talking through a screen door never looked so scary or felt so real.

Morvern Callar (England), 2002, Palm Pictures

Vagabond - Criterion Collection (France), 1986, Criterion

Smooth Talk (USA), 1986, MGM

Comments
Sponsored

The latest copy of the Reader

Here's something you might be interested in.
Submit a free classified
or view all
Previous article

Tuna within 3-day range Back in the Counts

Mind the rockfish regulations
Next Article

San Diego seawalls depend on Half Moon Bay case

Casa Mira townhomes sued after losing 20 feet of bluffs in storm
Comments
Ask a Hipster — Advice you didn't know you needed Big Screen — Movie commentary Blurt — Music's inside track Booze News — San Diego spirits Classical Music — Immortal beauty Classifieds — Free and easy Cover Stories — Front-page features Drinks All Around — Bartenders' drink recipes Excerpts — Literary and spiritual excerpts Feast! — Food & drink reviews Feature Stories — Local news & stories Fishing Report — What’s getting hooked from ship and shore From the Archives — Spotlight on the past Golden Dreams — Talk of the town The Gonzo Report — Making the musical scene, or at least reporting from it Letters — Our inbox Movies@Home — Local movie buffs share favorites Movie Reviews — Our critics' picks and pans Musician Interviews — Up close with local artists Neighborhood News from Stringers — Hyperlocal news News Ticker — News & politics Obermeyer — San Diego politics illustrated Outdoors — Weekly changes in flora and fauna Overheard in San Diego — Eavesdropping illustrated Poetry — The old and the new Reader Travel — Travel section built by travelers Reading — The hunt for intellectuals Roam-O-Rama — SoCal's best hiking/biking trails San Diego Beer — Inside San Diego suds SD on the QT — Almost factual news Sheep and Goats — Places of worship Special Issues — The best of Street Style — San Diego streets have style Surf Diego — Real stories from those braving the waves Theater — On stage in San Diego this week Tin Fork — Silver spoon alternative Under the Radar — Matt Potter's undercover work Unforgettable — Long-ago San Diego Unreal Estate — San Diego's priciest pads Your Week — Daily event picks
4S Ranch Allied Gardens Alpine Baja Balboa Park Bankers Hill Barrio Logan Bay Ho Bay Park Black Mountain Ranch Blossom Valley Bonita Bonsall Borrego Springs Boulevard Campo Cardiff-by-the-Sea Carlsbad Carmel Mountain Carmel Valley Chollas View Chula Vista City College City Heights Clairemont College Area Coronado CSU San Marcos Cuyamaca College Del Cerro Del Mar Descanso Downtown San Diego Eastlake East Village El Cajon Emerald Hills Encanto Encinitas Escondido Fallbrook Fletcher Hills Golden Hill Grant Hill Grantville Grossmont College Guatay Harbor Island Hillcrest Imperial Beach Imperial Valley Jacumba Jamacha-Lomita Jamul Julian Kearny Mesa Kensington La Jolla Lakeside La Mesa Lemon Grove Leucadia Liberty Station Lincoln Acres Lincoln Park Linda Vista Little Italy Logan Heights Mesa College Midway District MiraCosta College Miramar Miramar College Mira Mesa Mission Beach Mission Hills Mission Valley Mountain View Mount Hope Mount Laguna National City Nestor Normal Heights North Park Oak Park Ocean Beach Oceanside Old Town Otay Mesa Pacific Beach Pala Palomar College Palomar Mountain Paradise Hills Pauma Valley Pine Valley Point Loma Point Loma Nazarene Potrero Poway Rainbow Ramona Rancho Bernardo Rancho Penasquitos Rancho San Diego Rancho Santa Fe Rolando San Carlos San Marcos San Onofre Santa Ysabel Santee San Ysidro Scripps Ranch SDSU Serra Mesa Shelltown Shelter Island Sherman Heights Skyline Solana Beach Sorrento Valley Southcrest South Park Southwestern College Spring Valley Stockton Talmadge Temecula Tierrasanta Tijuana UCSD University City University Heights USD Valencia Park Valley Center Vista Warner Springs
Close

Anchor ads are not supported on this page.

This Week’s Reader This Week’s Reader