#1176: SILVER, Joan Micklin: Chilly Scenes of Winter (1979)

SILVER, Joan Micklin (United States)
Chilly Scenes of Winter [1979]
Spine #1176
Blu-ray


The trailblazing Joan Micklin Silver — one of only five women to direct a film for a Hollywood studio in the 1970s — digs fearlessly into the psychology of a thorny relationship in this anti–romantic comedy, based on Ann Beattie’s best-selling novel, about lovelorn civil servant Charles (John Heard) and his married-but-separated coworker Laura (Mary Beth Hurt). Months after their affair has ended, Charles is haunted by memories as he desperately attempts to rekindle a love that perhaps never was. Switching deftly between past and present, Micklin Silver guides this piercing deconstruction of male wish-fulfillment fantasy beyond standard movie-romance tropes into something more complicated and cuttingly truthful.

95 Minutes
Color
Monaural
1:85:1
Criterion Release 2023


Director/Writers

Based on the novel by Ann Beattie.
Joan Micklin Silver was 44 when she wrote and directed Chilly Scenes of Winter.

The Film

a

Film Rating (0-60):

60

The Extras

The Booklet

Ten-page wraparound featuring an essay by scholar Shonni Enelow.

Commentary

None.

Program

Featuring producers Griffin Dunne, Mark Metcalf, and Amy Robinson.

Documentary

From 1983 by Katja Raganelli about director Silver.

Excerpts

From a 2005 Directors Guild of America interview with Silver.

Original ending of the film

Cut by Silver for its rerelease in 1982.

Trailer

Extras Rating (0-40):

39

60 + 39 =

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