That helped me understand it, and that understanding came out of these conversations I had with this witch consultant. So I had three generations of formidable women and when I got that into my head, I realized it’s not really about spells and spell books and all that - it’s about a legacy being passed from one generation to another. I grew up in a house with a strong mother and my grandmother. But I loved the book and I liked the setting and when I was working with this witch consultant, it occurred to me that I was making a movie about something I do know a lot about - strong women. While I was developing it, I was never quite sure I had a real handle on the movie because, quite honestly, witches had no great interest to me. There’s something that I’ve never told anyone about before, it’s an interesting story and kind of scary too. How did that feel at the time? And what do you make of the movie’s rise to cult classic?
When Practical Magic first came out, it was panned. Why the Witch Is the Pop-Culture Heroine We Need Right Now
But he does have a theory about why an actual witch’s curse might be to blame for the movie’s “weird reputation” as a flop. (He’s also been doing press for his documentary, Joan Didion: The Center Will Not Hold.) He says Practical Magic didn’t do much for his career - in fact, he hasn’t worked as a director for a major studio since its release. These days, Dunne is better known for his supporting role in Jill Soloway’s adaptation of another feminist classic, I Love Dick. “It’s an unexpected pleasure,” he tells Vulture. It’s a remarkable turn for a movie that was derided by critics and even knocked as anti-feminist because its magic revolves around love spells - and no one is more surprised by this newfound cult status than its director, Griffin Dunne. Entertainment Weekly, to pick one example of many, called the film “so slapdash, plodding, and muddled it seems to have had a hex put on it.” But in recent years, a growing fandom has developed around Practical Magic and its pair of witch sisters, played by Nicole Kidman and Sandra Bullock, who live in a glorious house on an island off the Massachusetts coast, dance to Harry Nilsson records, and drink margaritas at midnight. When the witchy rom-com Practical Magic hit theaters in 1998, the critical response was brutal. The ingredients that turn a flop into a cult classic are difficult to divine. In TV, movies, and real life, women have been at the forefront of the year’s biggest stories - so this Halloween season, we’re looking at pop culture’s most wicked depiction of female power.
0 kommentar(er)
