Susan Seidelman

If the late John Hughes is considered the filmmaker who captured the dreams and angst of 1980s teenagers, then it's director Susan Seidelman who best caught the punk, free-wheeling vibe of the decade. The Los Angeles Film Festival is celebrating the 25th anniversary of Seidelman's best-known film, the delightful 1985 romantic comedy "Desperately Seeking Susan," which marked Madonna's first starring role in a studio feature film, Saturday evening at a free screening at the Ernst & Young Plaza at 7+ Fig in downtown L.A. In a recent interview, Seidelman recalled that when she received Leora Barish's script for "Desperately Seeking Susan" from producers Sarah Pillsbury and Midge Sanford, actress Rosanna Arquette was already attached to the project.

Susan Seidelman's "The Hot Flashes" is a post-"Bridesmaids" case of raunch lite, a change-of-life comedy that could have used a change of scripts. We're dropped into a suburban (and caricature-ridden) Texas town about to lose its mobile mammogram clinic to bankruptcy. It spurs menopausal go-getter wife/mom Beth (Brooke Shields) to corral a few of her peers - Wanda Sykes' uptight mayoral candidate, Camryn Manheim's pot-smoking biker chick, Virginia Madsen's chain-smoking divorcee and Daryl Hannah's closeted cowgirl - to play some charity basketball games against the high school girls' team.

"Smithereens" (1982), directed by Susan Seidelman. 90 minutes. No rating. In the spirit of the punk movement that inspired it, this film spews raw spontaneity, stars a mostly non-professional cast and looks like it was made for a few thousand dollars. It focuses on Wren, a hyper, just-out-of-high-school Jersey girl trying to be a part of the New York punk scene, and a band called Smithereens.

If the late John Hughes is considered the filmmaker who captured the dreams and angst of 1980s teenagers, then it's director Susan Seidelman who best caught the punk, free-wheeling vibe of the decade. The Los Angeles Film Festival is celebrating the 25th anniversary of Seidelman's best-known film, the delightful 1985 romantic comedy "Desperately Seeking Susan," which marked Madonna's first starring role in a studio feature film, Saturday evening at a free screening at the Ernst & Young Plaza at 7+ Fig in downtown L.A. In a recent interview, Seidelman recalled that when she received Leora Barish's script for "Desperately Seeking Susan" from producers Sarah Pillsbury and Midge Sanford, actress Rosanna Arquette was already attached to the project.

TV's reigning comedy queen, Roseanne Barr, will make her large-screen debut in the title role of Orion's "She-Devil"--tormenting no less than Meryl Streep. Based on the novel "The Life and Loves of a She-Devil" by Fay Weldon, the story finds housewife Barr exacting sweet revenge on her unfaithful husband and his new lover (Streep). Described as a very black comedy of infidelity, the adaptation was done by "Married to the Mob" writers Barry Strugatz and Mark Burns. The hubbie's now being cast.

In the aftermath of the explosion of punk music and its accompanying lifestyle in the mid-70s to early 1980s, Hollywood began cranking out teen movies like never before. Yet there is no real correlation to be made between the two movements since filmmakers all but ignored the punk phenomenon and the culture it molded.

While growing up in Philadelphia, Susan Seidelman didn't think much about filmmaking. Chases through Independence Hall never popped into her head. Neither did love scenes at the Liberty Bell. But by the time she had started film school at New York University, Seidelman was an aspiring director on the lookout for material: Manhattan was there for the taking.

Sexual politics being what they are in Hollywood, a film with two women producers, a woman director, a woman writer and two female lead characters wasn't destined to be an easy sale. "Our standard joke was that if the film ever got made, no one would be left to see it because everyone had read the screenplay," said Midge Sanford, producer with Sarah Pillsbury of "Desperately Seeking Susan."

If critical praise for "Desperately Seeking Susan" spells fame and fortune for director Susan Seidelman, she's the last person who wants to think about it. Subjects such as fame, fortune and Hollywood tend to be avoided by the 32-year-old film maker.

The term "women's picture" used to have a specific and more than slightly patronizing meaning. It suggested a film of such weepy and romantic sentimentality as to reduce any gents in the audience to a squirming restlessness touched with hostility. It was not simply that the stories featured valiant and long-suffering women instead of valiant and long-suffering men; it was that the operative tone was carefully engineered to evoke floods of appreciative tears.

"Smithereens" (1982), directed by Susan Seidelman. 90 minutes. No rating. In the spirit of the punk movement that inspired it, this film spews raw spontaneity, stars a mostly non-professional cast and looks like it was made for a few thousand dollars. It focuses on Wren, a hyper, just-out-of-high-school Jersey girl trying to be a part of the New York punk scene, and a band called Smithereens (a name used later by a real-life pop band).

In the aftermath of the explosion of punk music and its accompanying lifestyle in the mid-70s to early 1980s, Hollywood began cranking out teen movies like never before. Yet there is no real correlation to be made between the two movements since filmmakers all but ignored the punk phenomenon and the culture it molded.

In "She-Devil" (selected theaters), the feminine mystique meets its match. As Ruth, the dumpy malcontent whose accountant husband Bob (Ed Begley Jr.) leaves her for Mary Fisher (Meryl Streep), a famously frilly authoress of romance novels, Roseanne Barr swaggers into frame and wreaks ungodly revenge. Her mission has rabble-rousing mass appeal. She's intended as a humongous stand-in for all the women who have ever been rejected in favor of someone younger, shapelier, fluffier.

While growing up in Philadelphia, Susan Seidelman didn't think much about filmmaking. Chases through Independence Hall never popped into her head. Neither did love scenes at the Liberty Bell. But by the time she had started film school at New York University, Seidelman was an aspiring director on the lookout for material: Manhattan was there for the taking.

TV's reigning comedy queen, Roseanne Barr, will make her large-screen debut in the title role of Orion's "She-Devil"--tormenting no less than Meryl Streep. Based on the novel "The Life and Loves of a She-Devil" by Fay Weldon, the story finds housewife Barr exacting sweet revenge on her unfaithful husband and his new lover (Streep). Described as a very black comedy of infidelity, the adaptation was done by "Married to the Mob" writers Barry Strugatz and Mark Burns. The hubbie's now being cast.

Maybe if she'd been shooting a war picture out there among the abandoned waterfront warehouses of Brooklyn, Susan Seidelman might have actually welcomed the commotion. But since "Cookie," the Lorimar film she'd been directing almost entirely on location since the beginning of the year, is supposed to be a gangster comedy, the helicopter that was buzzing her set that afternoon wasn't exactly appreciated.

For a woman working in a world still dominated by men, Susan Seidelman has come a long way in a short time. What's more, her independent spirit still seems to be intact. Seidelman has moved from the ranks of independent film makers, where she was in 1982 when she made her first film, the low-budget "Smithereens," to being the director of Orion Pictures' $5-million film "Desperately Seeking Susan," released last year.

"I don't photograph well," said Argentine novelist Manuel Puig in fluent English. "I always end up looking . . ." and he bugs and rolls his large, dark eyes, imitating a horrific character out of a 1930s B movie. Puig loves those movies, and the plots of two of them, "The Cat People" and "I Walked With a Zombie," form part of his best-known novel, "Kiss of the Spider Woman."