The Women Who Write the Movies: From Frances Marion to Nora Ephron - Hardcover

What changed the screenwriter imbalance from women outnumbering men ten to one until the mid-1920s to the current situation in which there are only 33 women screenwriters and over 1500 men. These two histories of women screenwriters in American films both approach that same question by different routes. Both works examine specific screenwriters starting with the early silents and continuing to the present day. With some exceptions, they discuss the same writers and frequently use the same quotes. In her briefer title, McCreadie, a reviewer of independent films, aims to offer more of a fleeting survey than an in-depth study. She uses examples from some of her subjects' scripts to give a taste of each screenwriter's distinct style. Developed from the basis of a film series that the author programmed for the National Film Theater, Script Girls is a trifle more optimistic and celebratory of the subject. Francke, a British film lecturer and writer, is interested in rescuing the image of the female screenwriter from contemporary obscurity. Toward that end, her section on current screenwriters is the book's strong point. Yet, while she examines in greater detail the lives and works of the women writers she considers, the regular errors in descriptions of films in the earlier sections don't promote confidence in her scholarship. Both titles are recommended only for academic libraries.
Marianne Cawley, Enoch Pratt Free Lib., Baltimore
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