Women Who Lie To Themselves™ Box Set
Thursday, December 6, 2012 at 8:00PM 
Geraldine Page in "Interiors"Years ago I took a weekend writing retreat to visit my great friend Nick (who you know and love as the man behind Nick's Flick Picks) and while discussing Julianne Moore in Safe and that weirdly specific mini Jodie Foster genre of Women Trapped in Small Spaces (planes, panic rooms... closets) we agreed that our mutual favorite kind of movie was not Dramas, Comedies, Musicals, or Horror but the rarely discussed Women Who Lie To Themselves™ subgenre -- we had to name it but it is so a genre!
You've seen multiple movies from this collection even if you didn't know it existed. In these awesome films, the female protagonist spends more time conversing with her own self delusion than with any actual co-star. The musical anthem of this celluloid sisterhood is Sally Bowles "Maybe This Time" from Cabaret (1972) and the patron saint is surely Eve from Woody Allen's Interiors (1978) who spends the entire film telling herself and everyone who will listen that her husband who left decades ago still loves her and is coming right back. Geraldine Page is absolutely brilliant in the role and if you haven't seen it you're only lying to yourself about your life being complete.
Recently on twitter Yaseen asked Nick and I for a "Women Who Lie To Themselves Box Set" which Nick than promptly retitled because Nick is brilliant.
The box set will include:
- Birth (2004)
- Far From Heaven (2002)
- Three Women (1977)
- Safe (1995)
- Black Swan (2010)
- Cries and Whispers (1972)
- Notes on a Scandal (2006)
- The Prime of Miss Jean Brodie (1969)
- The Story of Adele H (1975)
- The Earrings of Madame de... (1953)
- audio commentary on every film by Rosanna Arquette and the cast of Searching For Debra Winger (2002)
- ...and seven copies of Interiors (1978), one for each lie you regularly tell yourself.
Would you like to pre-order a copy?
Reader Comments (32)
I would buy this box set in a heartbeat.
Undoubtedly!
I sure would, if I didn't already own most of them... And can I just say that Tilda's Julia needs to be a part of this box set.
Somebody get the folks over at Criterion to make this a real thing! I own a few of these movies and I would still shell out the money for this box set. These are my favorite types of films to watch as well.
I think Young Adult and The Deep Blue Sea would make great recent additions to this too! Also Francois Ozon's Swimming Pool (with Charlotte Rampling) and Mulholland Drive!
Eve not Ivy. Diehard page fan lol sorry for being persnickety.
OMG I already have all these films (with one exception, and i will rewatch that one this weekend).
I LOVE the Geraldine Page love! Love when she tells Mary Beth Hurt not to breathe so hard!
Add Edith Evans in The Whiperers and the set is complete!
And, not limiting yourself to films, the early Harley Quinn solo comics would also fit. She pretends the universe is a Looney Tune where no one dies.
tell me how, I have my credit card ready!
Single. Greatest. Blog post. Ever.
That is all.
Anna, surely.
Georgia.
Letter from an Unknown Woman.
I'm so glad you've contacted Rosanna about doing the commentaries. She is my FAVORITE, EVER. I can't wait to hear what she has to say about The Shop on Main Street.
I would adore this box set. And perhaps it could include Sunset Boulevard.
The additional films mentioned in the comments section would make a great Women Who Lie to Themselves Box Set 2
Nick - I can't believe I didn't think of Letter from an Unknown Woman! Probably the most representative (is that the word?) of that genre.
All My Sons would be one of those movies if it had been adapted into a film. Has it?
Do not forget Women on the Verge of a Nervous Breakdown please. Being in denyal can also be funny!
Opening Night, Sunset Blvd and all movies about 40-something divas
Jezebel is a great one.
Oops! Denial. Sorry about that.
Naruse's "When a Woman Ascends the Stairs"!
AMAZING! I would buy this in a heartbeat, if only for the Rosanna Arquette commentary!
The box set (or its sequel) should also include:
All My Sons (yes, it was made into a movie, even though the Father Who Lies to Himself is the main character)
The Shop on Main Street
Jeanne Dielman
Vivien Leigh Lies to Herself Double Feature: A Streetcar Named Desire and Gone With the Wind
The Trip to Bountiful (add it to one copy of Interiors for a Geraldine Page Lies to Herself Double Feature)
I'm sure I can think of more... This is the stuff an actressexual's dreams are made of!
I know what I want for Christmas now. (And let's have a film festival of this genre, too!)
I request that this set be out immediately, preferably before Christmastime, and may I request copies of The Hours, Imitation of Life, The Kids Are All Right, The Bridges of Madison County, A Star is Born, and The Deer Hunter, but a version that's only a montage of Meryl's scenes. Also, a reunion of the Hours ladies that can be an added commentary or even just sound bites of Meryl, Nicole, and Julianne infectiously laughing together and which play on one endless loop, since that'd easily be just as enjoyable.
....the gift that keeps on giving:
FYC - these are all ones that I couldn't decide on, either through poor memory or subject matter that merely glances on Women Lying to Themselves (the sub-sub-genre of Women Who Love Above/Below Their Station, anyone?); do they really fit the bill?
Rachel Getting Married
Heavenly Creatures
Brave
Another Year
Mildred Pierce
Brief Encounter
Black Narcissus
Remains of the Day
Fatal Attraction
Suddenly, Last Summer
Persona
Summertime
Ordinary People
Sandy Dennis' sublime craziness in "Come Back to the Five & Dime, Jimmy Dean!"
How central does the "lying" need to be? I mean in a way, it's applicable to a lot of movies, even as mainstream as The Sound Of Music (first half only?), All About Eve (until Margot wises up, but then Eve starts lying to herself after that), Kate Winslet in Sense & Sensibility, Baby Jane, etc.
So I'm guessing it has to be THE plot to make it on to the list like Adele H.?
Dave -- yes, it has to be central to the narrative :)
Er.. hello, Nights of Cabiria has to be on this set, and so does A Dreamlife of Angels
denny: Jeanne Dielman? Um...sorry. I tried to get that movie, and I almost did until the HORRIBLE last half hour. Four questions: Why is someone so afraid of having an orgasm that she'd actually kill the person who did it working as a prostitute? Why do they refuse to have any follow through on this very dramatic event, spending fifteen minutes with her just sitting at the kitchen table, oscillating between varying emotions and give no lip service to her son's reaction? Why didn't Ackerman cut to black after we see her having sex but before we see her murder? (If they DID cut to black after the sex but before the murder, my grade would jump up a whole letter grade, netting the movie a B+ instead of a C+.) Why is the editing and framing on her kill so terrible if Ackerman wanted to go there?
Madame Bovary--Minnelli's ultimate version with Ms. Jennifer Jones
Also Nicole Kidman in "The Others"
Want it, need it, covet it.