"Now, the media and everybody else is addicted to the box office grosses. It's all they care about. I think it hurts all aspects of the motion picture industry, down to film criticism, which certainly isn't what it was in the '70s. It's hard to wax poetic about the latest super hero movie. You had films then that attracted audiences and didn't cost so much that they could never make money. I'm not really criticizing, just observing it's different. American cinema is now largely based on comic-book franchises." Director William Friedkin


It took 15 years for Adriana Trigiani to bring "Big Stone Gap" to the screen. That long gestation period is certainly related to what William Friedkin discusses in the above quote. The film is a romantic drama/comedy meant to appeal to a female audience. The budget for the film was under $3.5 million. The producers earned about $1 million back in tax incentives and the box office receipts were another $1.1 million. Combined with DVD, online streaming, and possible television sales, the movie should recoup its costs.

Trigiani is one of the approximately 8% of female directors who helmed a feature film release in 2015. She has plenty of room to grow as a director, but that could be said of many first-time male directors, as well.

"Vanity Fair" is out with its annual Hollywood issue. This year's cover, photographed by Annie Leibovitz, is strictly female. Jane Fonda, Cate Blanchett, Viola Davis, and Jennifer Lawrence are among the actresses featured. The inside pages, though, profile some of the women working behind the camera. There is an article on Kathleen Kennedy, who with her husband Frank Marshall, produced most of Steven Spielberg's and George Lucas's films. She is now president of Lucasfilm. There is also a lengthy essay on Joan Didion, who wrote screenplays and also numerous essays on the culture of Los Angeles. Now 81, she is the subject of a forthcoming documentary film.


Here's the latest article from the Drama Movies site at BellaOnline.com.

Big Stone Gap Film Review
Ave Maria Mulligan, single and proud at 40 years old, faces a crisis when her mother dies and a family secret is revealed. Adriana Trigiani wrote and directed this film, based on her best-selling novel "Big Stone Gap".

http://www.bellaonline.com/articles/art65712.asp

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