Searching for Debra Winger (2002)

Director:

Rosanna Arquette

Writer:

Rosanna Arquette (experiencer)

Release Date:

13 July 2002 (USA)

Genre:

Documentary

Plot:

Rosanna Arquette talks to various actresses about the pressures they face as women working in the entertainment industry.

Plot Keywords:

Interview | Actress | Stereotyping | Female Stereotype | Motherhood

Cast

Patricia Arquette	...	Herself
Rosanna Arquette	...	Herself
Emmanuelle Béart	...	Herself
Katrin Cartlidge	...	Herself
Laura Dern	...	Herself
Roger Ebert	...	Himself
Jane Fonda	...	Herself
Teri Garr	...	Herself
Whoopi Goldberg	...	Herself
Melanie Griffith	...	Herself
Daryl Hannah	...	Herself
Salma Hayek	...	Herself
Holly Hunter	...	Herself
Diane Lane	...	Herself
Kelly Lynch	...	Herself
Julianna Margulies	...	Herself
Chiara Mastroianni	...	Herself
Samantha Mathis	...	Herself
Frances McDormand	...	Herself
Catherine O'Hara	...	Herself
Julia Ormond	...	Herself
Gwyneth Paltrow	...	Herself
Martha Plimpton	...	Herself
Charlotte Rampling	...	Herself
Vanessa Redgrave	...	Herself
Theresa Russell	...	Herself
Meg Ryan	...	Herself
Ally Sheedy	...	Herself
Adrienne Shelly	...	Herself
Hilary Shepard	...	Herself (as Hilary Shepard Turner)
Sharon Stone	...	Herself
Tracey Ullman	...	Herself
JoBeth Williams	...	Herself
Debra Winger	...	Herself
Alfre Woodard	...	Herself
Robin Wright Penn	...	Herself

MPAA:

Rated R for language.

Runtime:

France:100 min | France:97 min (Cannes Film Festival) | USA:99 min (DVD)

Country:

USA

Language:

English

Color:

Color

Sound Mix:

Dolby Digital

Certification:

South Korea:12 | USA:R

Filming Locations:

Cannes, Alpes-Maritimes, France

Company:

Immortal Entertainment

Trivia:

Screened as one of "out-of-competition" films at the Cannes Film Festival, May 2002. Director Rosanna Arquette says she made the documentary when she was struck by the fact that Debra Winger, who earned three Oscar nominations, had left the profession in her 30s.

Quotes:

Debra Winger: For me, when it started to be these schedules, like you get the script and you had to go to work in 4 weeks, 3 weeks, I got lost. It's like, what happened to my 3 months of preparation?

Movie Connections:

References The Stepford Wives (1975)

Soundtrack:

Spy Lover

Arquette's Personal Quest Turns Into a Meandering, Self-Indulgent Look at Hollywood Sexism

In 1996's "The First Wives Club", Goldie Hawn, as an aging actress, has a piercingly perceptive line courtesy of screenwriter Robert Harling, "In Hollywood, women only have three ages: babe, district attorney, and 'Driving Miss Daisy'". Actress Rosanna Arquette has decided to explore this unfortunately true perspective in her 2002 documentary where she speaks with thirty-five renowned actresses of varying ages. Even though it's doubtful any of them are facing economic hardship, their dilemmas would still make a worthy subject for a film, but she makes it such an overly personalized odyssey over her own tenuous success as a 43-year old actress and mother that she is unable to provide anything significantly insightful on the topic.

Instead, we are left with a film with some revealing moments but more commonly, a haphazard structure of interview snippets that seem to make the same set of points over and over again - the incessant struggle to find good roles for women past forty, the precarious balance between managing a career and raising a family, and the myopia of profit-minded studio executives interested in what teenage males want to see (at least according to film critic Roger Ebert, the only male interviewed). The problem is that Arquette, as a documentarian, cannot provide much-needed objectivity to her subject, as she repeatedly interjects with her personal experiences when she is not fawning over her subjects. Her lack of discipline extends into her editing as there is no sense of organization to her narrative other than how she came upon the actresses, whether proactively seeking them out individually, organizing lunches (like what Jon Favreau does with his TV series, "Dinner for Five") or happening upon them at Cannes (like surprising a thankfully good-humored Frances McDormand in the ladies room). Truth be told, some come off quite badly as they express unformed thoughts with mind-numbing analogies. Meg Ryan, Gwyneth Paltrow and Emmanuelle Béart come to mind.

Some like Robin Wright Penn and Charlotte Rampling reveal so little about themselves that their inclusion provides questionable value, and a self-consciously glamorous Sharon Stone comes across as rather disingenuous when she talks about her abandonment of vanity. But others provide nuggets of wisdom like Holly Hunter, Diane Lane, Salma Hayek, Martha Plimpton (who has forsaken movies for the stage) and a predictably funny Whoopi Goldberg. Leave it to veterans Vanessa Redgrave and Jane Fonda to offer the film's most honest, insightful comments, the latter especially revealing in how former husband Ted Turner encouraged her retirement and then sharing how she feels when she nails a pivotal scene in a movie. Fortunately, Debra Winger, whose self-imposed (and ultimately short-lived) retirement inspired the film's eponymous title, shows herself to be the trenchantly sardonic, perceptive non-conformist she obviously is. The film really contains very little when it comes to revelations about the inherent sexism of the film industry, and Arquette's personal catharsis frankly does not resonate enough to make the film worthwhile. Other than some trailers, the DVD has no extras.