Between the Lines

press release: J.M. Silver series

USA | 1977 | DCP | 102 min.

Director: Joan Micklin Silver; Cast: John Heard, Lindsay Crouse, Jeff Goldblum

Silver's ode to the counterculture alternative weeklies that sprung up across the US in the 1960s depicts how the newspapers struggled to maintain their financial solvency while staying on mission in the 1970s. The journalists, photographers, and office staff of the (fictional) Boston weekly, The Back Bay Mainline, are unflinchingly depicted in seriocomic episodes that show how they spend their time exploring romantic dalliances and plotting their escape to greener pastures. Along with Heard, Crouse, and Goldblum, the cavalcade of future stars is impressive, and includes Bruno Kirby, Joe Morton, Jill Eikenberry, and a scene-stealing turn from Marilu Henner as a stripper with a heart of gold.

Screenings mostly take place at 4070 Vilas Hall, 821 University Avenue. Once-a-month Sunday afternoon screenings take place at the Chazen Museum of Art, 750 University Avenue. In accord with current UW Madison policies, masks are required for entry to our venues. All Cinematheque screenings are free and open to the public. Please visit our website for a complete listing of programs and descriptions from September 3 through December 18.

REMEMBERING JOAN MICKLIN SILVER

The sole series tribute to a director on our fall calendar will honor a true American cinema pioneer, Joan Micklin Silver, who passed away on December 31, 2020. In the mid-to-late 1970s, almost fifty years since the evolution from silence to talkies, less than a dozen women had been hired to direct movies for Hollywood studios. In a 1979 interview, Silver said a top movie executive told her “Feature films are very expensive to mount and distribute, and women directors are one more problem we don’t need."

Learning her craft making a few short children’s films for Encyclopedia Brittanica, Silver ignored the sexist system and made the independent, low budget immigrant drama Hester Street (1975), earning Silver critical acclaim, and the film was recognized by the industry when Hester’s star Carol Kane received an Academy Award nomination for Best Actress. Silver’s ambitious follow-up, Between the Lines (1977), was another independent project that used a large ensemble cast of stars-to-be (including Jeff Goldblum and Marilu Henner) to tell the story of a Boston alternative weekly newspaper that’s about to fold. By the 1980s, Silver was making movies and finding larger audiences within the Hollywood system, where she still had to struggle to continue making the kind of personal projects she was accustomed to making, like the 1988 romantic comedy released by Warner Bros., Crossing Delancey. Silver had a close ally and producer in her husband, Raphael Silver, who grew motivated to help his wife when he became frustrated seeing her denied so many opportunities. Our series will also include the excellent 1978 prison drama On the Yard, directed by Raphael Silver and produced by Joan Micklin Silver.