Searching for Debra Winger

Last updated
Searching for Debra Winger
SearchingForDebraWinger.JPG
Original poster
Directed by Rosanna Arquette
Cinematography Jean-Marc Barr
Edited byGail Yasunaga
Distributed by Lions Gate Entertainment
Release date
  • July 13, 2002 (2002-07-13)
CountryUnited States
LanguageEnglish

Searching for Debra Winger is a 2002 American documentary film conceived and directed by Rosanna Arquette. The film presents an interview with actress Debra Winger about why she suddenly retired from the film industry at the height of her career. It also features interviews with other leading actresses, who discuss the various pressures they face as women working in the film industry as well as their attempts to juggle their professional commitments with their personal responsibilities to their families and themselves. Debra Winger has since returned to acting.

Contents

Inspiration and concept

Arquette's inspiration for the project was twofold. The first film she ever saw was The Red Shoes , the story of a woman unable to choose between her dedication to her art and the prospect of lifelong love. The character's emotional struggle left an indelible impact on Arquette. She also was dismayed by Debra Winger's self-imposed retirement from the Hollywood scene (although she has since resumed acting). Curious as to how many other female performers felt pressured to abandon their careers and for what reasons they might opt to do so, Arquette engaged in a lively discussion with many of her peers, either one-on-one or in small groups, and their edited comments resulted in this film.

Winger herself explains her decision to quit acting was not so much a matter of running away from something as it was embracing a personal life she felt she had been missing. She says she's open to the possibility of returning to the screen for the right roles, and since the documentary's release she has worked in a few films, notably Rachel Getting Married which earned her critical acclaim.

Interviews

Roger Ebert is the sole male to be interviewed by Arquette. He expresses his belief that studio executives greenlight projects based on the tastes of adolescent boys and young men, who tend to favor light comedies, laced with bathroom humor, and action films. Neither of these genres offers substantial roles for women, especially older women.

Arquette's other subjects include her sister Patricia Arquette, Emmanuelle Béart, Katrin Cartlidge, Laura Dern, Jane Fonda, Teri Garr, Whoopi Goldberg, Melanie Griffith, Daryl Hannah, Salma Hayek, Holly Hunter, Diane Lane, Kelly Lynch, Julianna Margulies, Chiara Mastroianni, Samantha Mathis, Frances McDormand, Catherine O'Hara, Julia Ormond, Gwyneth Paltrow, Martha Plimpton, Charlotte Rampling, Vanessa Redgrave, Theresa Russell, Meg Ryan, Ally Sheedy, Adrienne Shelly, Sharon Stone, Tracey Ullman, JoBeth Williams, Alfre Woodard, and Robin Wright Penn.

The film was screened out of competition at the 2002 Cannes Film Festival. [1]

Critical reception

David Rooney of Variety observed, "Many of the actresses on tap here provide illuminating insights, intelligence and humor. But while the subject is rich in potential and such high-caliber celebrity access commands an automatic audience, there's no escaping the sensation this could have been a far more revealing experience in the hands of a more savvy, probing interviewer . . . Arquette spends most of her time tossing out adjectives like 'amazing' or banal statements about 'the journey' she's on, making her a rather weak link with her frequently more interesting subjects." [2]

The Entertainment Weekly review of the 2004 DVD release stated, "The dialogue verges on sappy at times and the editing is choppy, but the discussion of universal women's issues is articulate and frank." [3]

Related Research Articles

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Faye Dunaway</span> American actress

Dorothy Faye Dunaway is an American actress. She is the recipient of many accolades, including an Academy Award, a Primetime Emmy Award, three Golden Globe Awards, and a BAFTA Award. In 2011, the government of France made her an Officer of the Order of Arts and Letters.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Debra Winger</span> American actress (born 1955)

Debra Lynn Winger is an American actress. She starred in the films An Officer and a Gentleman (1982), Terms of Endearment (1983), and Shadowlands (1993), each of which earned her a nomination for the Academy Award for Best Actress. Winger won the National Society of Film Critics Award for Best Actress for Terms of Endearment, and the Tokyo International Film Festival Award for Best Actress for A Dangerous Woman (1993).

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Courteney Cox</span> American actress and filmmaker (born 1964)

Courteney Bass Cox is an American actress and filmmaker. She gained international recognition for her starring role as Monica Geller in the NBC sitcom Friends (1994–2004). Cox received further recognition for starring as Gale Weathers in the horror film franchise Scream (1996–present).

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Rosanna Arquette</span> American actress

Rosanna Lisa Arquette is an American actress. She was nominated for an Emmy Award for her performance in the TV film The Executioner's Song (1982) and won the BAFTA Award for Best Actress in a Supporting Role for the film Desperately Seeking Susan (1985). Her other film roles include After Hours, The Big Blue (1988), Pulp Fiction (1994), and Crash (1996). She also directed the documentary Searching for Debra Winger (2002) and starred in the ABC sitcom What About Brian? from 2006 to 2007.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Patricia Arquette</span> American actress (born 1968)

Patricia Arquette is an American actress. She made her feature film debut as Kristen Parker in A Nightmare on Elm Street 3: Dream Warriors (1987) and has since starred in several film and television productions. She has received several awards including an Academy Award, two Primetime Emmy Awards, and three Golden Globe Awards.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Alexis Arquette</span> American actress (1969–2016)

Alexis Arquette was an American actress.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Lee Grant</span> American actress and director

Lee Grant is an American actress, documentarian, and director. For her film debut in 1951 as a young shoplifter in William Wyler's Detective Story, Grant earned an Oscar nomination for Best Supporting Actress and won the Best Actress Award at the 1952 Cannes Film Festival. Grant won the Best Supporting Actress Oscar for her role as Warren Beatty's older lover in Shampoo (1975).

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Margarethe von Trotta</span> German film director

Margarethe von Trotta is a German film director, screenwriter, and actress. She has been referred to as a "leading force" of the New German Cinema movement. Von Trotta's extensive body of work has won awards internationally. She was married to and collaborated with director Volker Schlöndorff. Although they made a successful team, von Trotta felt she was seen as secondary to Schlöndorff. Subsequently, she established a solo career for herself and became "Germany's foremost female film director, who has offered the most sustained and successful female variant of Autorenkino in postwar German film history". Certain aspects of von Trotta's work have been compared to Ingmar Bergman's features from the 1960s and 1970s.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Sienna Miller</span> British-American actress (born 1981)

Sienna Rose Diana Miller is a British and American actress. Born in New York City and raised in London, she began her career as a photography model, appearing in the pages of Italian Vogue and for the 2003 Pirelli calendar. Her acting breakthrough came in the 2004 films Layer Cake and Alfie. She subsequently portrayed socialite Edie Sedgwick in Factory Girl (2006) and author Caitlin Macnamara in The Edge of Love (2008), and was nominated for the 2008 BAFTA Rising Star Award. Her role as The Baroness in G.I. Joe: The Rise of Cobra (2009) was followed by a brief sabbatical from the screen amid increased tabloid scrutiny.

Kayo Hatta was an American filmmaker, writer, and community activist. She directed and co-wrote the independent dramatic feature-length film Picture Bride, which won the Sundance Film Festival Audience Award in 1995 for Best Dramatic Film.

<i>The Gleaners and I</i> 2000 French film

The Gleaners and I is a 2000 French documentary film by Agnès Varda that features various kinds of gleaning. It screened out of competition at the 2000 Cannes Film Festival, and later went on to win awards around the world. In a 2014 Sight & Sound poll, film critics voted The Gleaners and I the eighth best documentary film of all time. In 2016, the film appeared at No. 99 on BBC's list of the 100 greatest films of the 21st century. The film was included for the first time in 2022 on the critics' poll of Sight and Sound's list of the greatest films of all time, at number 67.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Hiam Abbass</span> Palestinian-French actress (born 1960)

Hiam Abbass, also spelled Hiyam Abbas, is a Palestinian and French actress and film director. She is known for her roles in films such as The Syrian Bride (2004), Paradise Now (2005), Free Zone (2005), Munich (2005), The Visitor (2007), Lemon Tree (2008), Insyriated (2017), and Blade Runner 2049 (2017). She gained prominence for her role as Marcia Roy in the HBO drama series Succession (2018–2023). She has also acted in the Channel 4 series The Promise (2011), the Lifetime miniseries The Red Tent (2014), the Hulu comedy series Ramy (2019–present), and the Hulu drama series The Old Man (2022).

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Nadine Labaki</span> Lebanese actress, director and activist (born 1974)

Nadine Labaki is a Lebanese and Canadian actress, director, and activist. Labaki first came into the spotlight as an actress in the early 2000s. Her filmmaking career began in 2007 after the release of her debut film, Caramel, which premiered at the Cannes Film Festival. She is known for demonstrating everyday aspects of Lebanese life and covering a range of political issues such as war, poverty, and feminism. She is the first female Arab director to be nominated for an Oscar in the category for Best Foreign Language Film for third directorial effort, Capernaum (2018).

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Debra Granik</span> American film director, screenwriter and cinematographer (born 1963)

Debra Granik is an American filmmaker. She is most known for 2004's Down to the Bone, which starred Vera Farmiga, 2010's Winter's Bone, which starred Jennifer Lawrence in her breakout performance and for which Granik was nominated for the Academy Award for Best Adapted Screenplay, and 2018's Leave No Trace, a film based on the book My Abandonment by Peter Rock.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Rooney Mara</span> American actress (born 1985)

Patricia Rooney Mara is an American actress. She has received various accolades, including nominations for two Academy Awards, a British Academy Film Award, and two Golden Globe Awards. Born into the Rooney and Mara families, Mara began her career acting in television and independent films, such as the coming-of-age drama Tanner Hall (2009). She first gained recognition for her supporting role in David Fincher's drama film The Social Network (2010).

<i>Precious</i> (film) 2009 film by Lee Daniels

Precious: Based on the Novel 'Push' by Sapphire, or simply Precious, is a 2009 American drama film, directed and co-produced by Lee Daniels. Its script was written by Geoffrey S. Fletcher, adapted from the 1996 novel Push by Sapphire. The film stars Gabourey Sidibe and Mo'Nique, alongside Paula Patton, Mariah Carey, Sherri Shepherd, and Lenny Kravitz. This marked the acting debut of Sidibe, who portrays a young woman struggling against poverty and abuse. Filming took place in New York City from October to November 2007.

<i>Big Bad Love</i> 2001 film by Arliss Howard

Big Bad Love is a 2001 film directed by Arliss Howard, who co-wrote the script with his brother, James Howard, based on a collection of short stories of the same name by Larry Brown. The story recounts an episode in the life of an alcoholic Vietnam veteran and struggling writer named Leon Barlow, who is played by Arliss Howard, and his wife, played by Howard's wife Debra Winger. The soundtrack includes music by Tom Verlaine, the Kronos Quartet, and R. L. Burnside.

<i>Bright Lights: Starring Carrie Fisher and Debbie Reynolds</i> 2016 American film

Bright Lights: Starring Carrie Fisher and Debbie Reynolds is a 2016 documentary about the relationship between entertainer Debbie Reynolds and her daughter, actress and writer Carrie Fisher. It premiered at the 2016 Cannes Film Festival and on January 7, 2017, on HBO.

<i>Searching</i> (film) 2018 film by Aneesh Chaganty

Searching is a 2018 American screenlife mystery thriller film directed by Aneesh Chaganty in his feature debut, written by Chaganty and Sev Ohanian and produced by Timur Bekmambetov. Set entirely on computer screens and smartphones, the film follows a father trying to find his missing 16-year-old daughter with the help of a police detective. This was the first mainstream Hollywood thriller headlined by an Asian-American actor.

Marina Zenovich is an American filmmaker known for her biographical documentaries. Her films include LANCE, Robin Williams: Come Inside My Mind, Richard Pryor: Omit the Logic and Roman Polanski: Wanted and Desired, which won two Emmy awards.

References

  1. "Festival de Cannes: Searching for Debra Winger". festival-cannes.com. Retrieved 2009-11-04.
  2. Variety review
  3. Entertainment Weekly review