Sleeping Beauties | |
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![]() Opening title | |
Directed by | Jamie Babbit |
Produced by | Victoria Robinson Andrea Sperling |
Starring | Sarah Lassez Radha Mitchell |
Cinematography | Jules Labarthe |
Edited by | Dody Dorn |
Music by | Blake Leyh |
Release date |
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Running time | 13 minutes |
Country | United States |
Language | English |
Budget | $10, 000 |
Sleeping Beauties is a 1999 short comedy film directed by Jamie Babbit. It premiered at the 1998 Sundance Film Festival. It stars Sarah Lassez as a morgue beautician trying to get over her ex-girlfriend, played by Radha Mitchell. Babbit made the film with help from David Fincher and Michael Douglas. It played at several film festivals during 1998 and 1999, and was later distributed on a DVD collection of short films by production company POWER UP. Babbit won a Channel 4 award for the film.
A mother tells her daughter a real life fairy tale of a "Princess Charming" and her Sleeping Beauty. Heather (Lassez) is in love with her girlfriend Cindy (Mitchell) until one day Cindy "wakes up" and breaks up with Heather, saying she wants a "real prince".
Heather works as a make up artist at Rolling Headstones Funeral Home in Los Angeles, "making dead rock-stars look good" for their next album covers. One day she is working on the body of musician Sno Blo (Rose McGowan). Her co-worker Vince (Vince Vieluf) brings his new girlfriend to the funeral home. It is Cindy, who is moving back to Los Angeles and wants to be friends with Heather.
Before Sno Blo is buried, the members of her band have a photo shoot with her at her grave side. Heather does the makeup. The photographer's assistant Clea (Clea DuVall) flirts with Heather and gives her her telephone number, but Heather can only think about Cindy. Cindy arrives with Vince and tries to persuade the remaining members of the band to let her be their manager. When Vince ruins the opportunity for her, she gets angry with him and tells Heather she'll be staying with her.
When Heather gets home, she finds Cindy sleeping in her bed. She kisses Cindy to wake her up, and asks for some kind of a response. Cindy tells Heather that she can kiss her if she wants to, but not to expect anything back from her. Heather tells Cindy to get out of her bed and telephones Clea. Later, Heather practices her makeup techniques on Clea and they kiss.
At the end, the narrator (Heather) is joined by Clea to finish telling the story to their daughter.
Director Jamie Babbit was a script supervisor on David Fincher's 1997 film The Game . While working on The Game, she discussed her idea for a short film based on a fairy tale with Fincher. He was interested in the project, and gave Babbit about 6,000 feet of 35mm film. His editor gave her free use of an Avid editing machine. The star of The Game, Michael Douglas, wrote to Paramount and asked them to give Babbit access to their costume department. As a result, she was able to make Sleeping Beauties for about $10,000. [1] The soundtrack of Sleeping Beauties features the song "Pity Rock" by Madigan Shive. [2]
Sleeping Beauties premiered at the 1998 Sundance Film Festival and went on to play at over thirty film festivals including the Los Angeles Film Festival and the London Lesbian and Gay Film Festival. [3] [4] The film features on Girls on Film, a DVD compilation of short films released by production company POWER UP. [5] Writing for The Village Voice , Amy Taubin called Sleeping Beauties an embryonic version of Babbit's feature debut But I'm a Cheerleader and said that it has a "raunchy edge" that But I'm a Cheerleader lacks. [6] In 1999, Sleeping Beauties won the C4TX award for best short film from British television station Channel 4. [7]
Clea Helen D'Etienne DuVall is an American actress and filmmaker. She is known for her appearances in films such as The Faculty (1998); But I'm a Cheerleader, Girl, Interrupted ; Ghosts of Mars (2001); Identity, 21 Grams ; The Grudge (2004); Zodiac (2007); and Argo (2012). She starred as Emma Borden in Lizzie Borden Took an Ax (2014) and its miniseries spinoff, The Lizzie Borden Chronicles (2015). Other television roles include Sofie on Carnivàle (2003–2005), Audrey Hanson on Heroes (2006–2007), Wendy Peyser on American Horror Story (2012–2013), Lara Cruz on Better Call Saul (2015–2017), Marjorie on Veep (2016–2019), and Sylvia on The Handmaid's Tale (2018–2022).
But I'm a Cheerleader is a 1999 American satirical teen romantic comedy film directed by Jamie Babbit in her feature directorial debut and written by Brian Wayne Peterson. Natasha Lyonne stars as Megan Bloomfield, a high school cheerleader whose parents send her to a residential in-patient conversion therapy camp to "cure" her lesbianism. At camp, Megan realizes that she is indeed a lesbian and, despite the "therapy", comes to embrace her sexuality. The supporting cast includes Clea DuVall, RuPaul, and Cathy Moriarty.
Committed is a 2000 comedy film directed and written by Lisa Krueger and stars Heather Graham, Casey Affleck, and Luke Wilson.
Little Witches is a 1996 Canadian-American horror film directed by Jane Simpson and written by Brian DiMuccio and Dino Vindeni. It has a similar plot to The Craft and released in the same year, though Little Witches had a much smaller budget.
Jennifer "Jen" Wood is an American indie rock musician based in Seattle, Washington. A solo artist since 1996, she was previously a member of alternative rock band Tattle Tale.
Tattle Tale was an American musical group that existed between 1992 and 1995. Composed of Jen Wood and Madigan Shive, they were active in the grrrl pop scene, playing what was later to be termed folk punk.
Good Advice is a 2001 romantic comedy film starring Charlie Sheen, Angie Harmon, and Denise Richards. The film also features Jon Lovitz and Rosanna Arquette as a married couple in supporting roles.
Itty Bitty Titty Committee is a 2007 American comedy film directed by Jamie Babbit. It follows the political awakening of Anna, a young, mild-mannered lesbian woman who joins a radical feminist group. The film is produced by non-profit organization POWER UP.
Jamie Merill Babbit is an American director, producer and screenwriter. She directed the films But I'm a Cheerleader (1999), The Quiet (2005), and Itty Bitty Titty Committee (2007). She has also directed episodes of such television series as Russian Doll, Gilmore Girls, Malcolm in the Middle, United States of Tara, Looking, Nip/Tuck, The L Word, Silicon Valley, The Marvelous Mrs. Maisel, The Orville, and A League of Their Own.
Stuck is a 2001 short film directed by Jamie Babbit and starring Jennie Ventriss, Jeanette Miller, and Eden Sher. It tells the story of an elderly lesbian couple traveling across the desert, who are on the verge of ending their unhappy relationship. It was the first film produced by production company POWER UP and won three film festival awards.
Night of the Demons 3 is a 1997 Canadian comedy horror film directed by Jimmy Kaufman and starring Amelia Kinkade, Vlasta Vrána, Gregory Calpakis, Tara Slone, Christian Tessier, Joel Gordon, Larry Day, Kris Holden-Reid, Stephanie Bauder, and Patricia Rodriguez. It is the third and final film in the Night of the Demons series before the 2009 remake, and follows a group of teenagers who are pursued by the demon-possessed Angela Franklin while hiding out in Hull House on Halloween night.
Brian Wayne Peterson is an American screenwriter, television producer, and showrunner. After finding success writing the script for 1999 film But I'm a Cheerleader, he and his writing partner Kelly Souders wrote and produced the television series Smallville, Beauty and the Beast, Salem, Genius, and The Hot Zone.
On the Edge of Innocence is a 1997 television drama film directed by Peter Werner. It stars Kellie Martin as a manic-depressive teenager.
Andrea Sperling is an independent film producer based in Los Angeles. The films she has produced include Totally Fucked Up, But I'm a Cheerleader, D.E.B.S. and Itty Bitty Titty Committee and the Sundance Top Prize-winning Like Crazy.
Jules Labarthe is a cinematographer, film producer and photographer. He studied film at New York University. He met director Jamie Babbit in a coffee shop in Los Angeles and as a result of this meeting was the cinematographer on her 1996 short film Frog Crossing. He has collaborated with Babbit on several other projects including her 1999 feature film But I'm a Cheerleader. He has been the cinematographer on MTV's Undressed and new ABC Family series Greek. He has also produced two short films and one feature, Too Pure (1998).
Madigan Shive, also known as Bonfire Madigan Shive, is an American songwriter, performing artist, community organizer, and musician.
Addicted to Fresno is a 2015 American dark comedy film directed by Jamie Babbit and written by Karey Dornetto. The film stars Natasha Lyonne and Judy Greer as two sisters that find themselves in trouble after housekeeper Shannon Jackson (Greer) accidentally kills a guest at the hotel employing her and younger sister Martha (Lyonne). The film had its world premiere on March 14, 2015, at South by Southwest. It was released in the United States on September 1, 2015, through video on demand, and was given a limited theatrical release on October 2, 2015, by Gravitas Ventures.
Karey Dornetto is an American screenwriter who has written for television series such as Arrested Development, Community, Portlandia and South Park. She also wrote the script for the feature-length film Addicted to Fresno.
The Intervention is a 2016 American comedy-drama film written and directed by Clea DuVall in her directorial debut. The film stars DuVall, Melanie Lynskey, Natasha Lyonne, Vincent Piazza, Jason Ritter, Ben Schwartz, Alia Shawkat and Cobie Smulders. The Intervention had its world premiere at the 2016 Sundance Film Festival on January 26, 2016. It was released in a limited release and through video on demand on August 26, 2016, by Samuel Goldwyn Films and Paramount Pictures.