Complicated Women
Looks at the stereotype-breaking films of the period from 1929, when movies entered the sound era, until 1934 when the Hays Code virtually neutered film content. No longer portrayed as virgins or vamps, the liberated female of the pre-code films had dimensions. Good girls had lovers and babies and held down jobs, while the bad girls were cast in a sympathetic light. And they did it all without apology.
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- Cast：
- Jane Fonda , Frances Dee , Karen Morley , Kitty Carlisle , Mae Madison , Molly Haskell , Barbara Stanwyck
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Reviews
Redundant and unnecessary.
Funny, strange, confrontational and subversive, this is one of the most interesting experiences you'll have at the cinema this year.
The film never slows down or bores, plunging from one harrowing sequence to the next.
Through painfully honest and emotional moments, the movie becomes irresistibly relatable
Complicated Women (2003) *** 1/2 (out of 4) Wonderful look at the women who made Pre-Code films from 1929-34. The film shows clips from the most popular films of the era and shines a spotlight on the women who brought the sexiness to these films. The film doesn't run too long, which is a shame because this era of Hollywood is so interesting but the movie does a good job of introducing this era to those who might not know too much about it. The discussion about the Catholic Church putting an end to this type of film is an interesting one. Jane Fonda narrates.
Complicated Women is the documentary companion to Mick LaSalle's book about women in the pre-code era. The time from the first talkies through to the enforcement of the Production Code is known as the pre-code era, a great time for movie making. Subjects ranging from marital infidelity, prostitution, abortion, nudity, drug use, and other shocking subjects littered films. The public either loved them or hated them, and thanks to groups like the Catholic Legion of Decency, these subjects were censored. However, this documentary praises these films for their modernity and shows clips from films like The Divorcée, Queen Christina, Downstairs, Torch Singer, Mary Stevens MD, The Smiling Lieutenant, Men in White, Female, A Free Soul, Baby Face, Midnight Mary, The Story of Temple Drake, Red Dust, Faithless, Grand Hotel, Gold Diggers of 1933, Ladies They Talk About, I'm No Angel, Tarzan and His Mate, and more.The only problem with this documentary is that it skips around a lot. There are headers for each section, but they all begin to blend together.The film incorporates interviews with many great sources like Mick LaSalle, Molly Haskell, Mark Viera, and several actresses of the era.
The people who are saying that this documentary was in any way exaggerated or inaccurate are themselves inaccurate. This film is historically documented and completely true to the spirit of the pre-Code era. And lest anyone think the film pandered to a modern sensibility, keep in mind: It had three ninety year old ladies in it, and was narrated by 66-year-old JANE FONDA, not Courtney Love. The fact is, the pre-Code was an extraordinary period for women's films -- something that becomes more not less evident after one has seen two hundred or three hundred pictures from this period. And it was not extraordinary only for what it showed or dared but for the points the films made -- for those points that were intrinsic to the MESSAGES of the films -- which go way beyond a flimsy gown or anything that could be edited into tameness. If anything this documentary needed more time -- three or four hours -- to do justice to the range of pre-Code women's films. Still working within the constraints, this was a splendid achievement and yet another laurel for Turner Classic Movies.
Actually, very good clips, and the narrative makes a very good claim to proving its thesis: that the sexy Pre-Code dramas and comedies actually represented a realistic depiction of the 20th century morality until Joseph Breen clamped down, making the Production Code not just voluntary, but mandatory.There is a good claim in that, but it makes its point by looking at the best of the Pre-Code works and the worst of the movies made under the Code. Nor does it go into the reason that Hollywood made those sexy movies in the first place, and stopped making them later: to sell tickets at the box office. Truth has never been the primary concern of the movie industry; and while these clips demonstrate that Hollywood was interested in selling tickets to men who wanted to look at naked women... well, the underwater swimming sequence from TARZAN AND HIS MATE shows Maureen O'Sullivan's stand-in swimming around in the nude, but Weismuller is wearing a loincloth.