Madonna and Director Susan Seidelman on the set of Desperately Seeking Susan. "She'll love it."Wow. 25 years ago
Desperately Seeking Susan came out. I don't think there has been a movie before or after that I have been so excited for it's release. A life changing experience if you were fortunate enough to see it on the Big Screen - at the height of
Madonna-Mania! Seriously, nothing has been like
Desperately Seeking Susan and it never will be. It is, by far, the greatest Madonna movie. It's really what separated Madonna from her contemporaries - the role that made her immortal.
Actors search their entire career to get a role as defining as Susan was for Madonna. It was like Gloria Swanson landing Norma Desmond in Billy Wilder's
Sunset Blvd. - a role she will forever be known for. For Swanson,
Sunset Blvd. was a blessing for it was a comeback and much later in her career. For Madonna,
Desperately Seeking Susan was almost a curse - for it was in the beginning of her career and she was so arresting and her presence so strong that she has really been unable to escape it. In fact, it was Gloria Swanson who said, "that corniest of all theatrical cliches - that on very rare occasions the actor actually becomes the part. Barrymore
is Hamlet. Garbo
is Camille. Swanson
is Norma Desmond." Well, I will add to that..."Madonna
is Susan." I still believe there is a role for Madonna that may come later, several generations away from
Susan, that may have that same high level impact.
The Los Angeles Times Kevin Thomas review, The Calendar Section still completely intact after 25 years, scanned especially for you all. The movie is mesmerizing. From the acting, cinematography, set design, script, humor, sexiness...just about everything in this movie is wonderful - no stone was left unturned in regard to detail. Every character down to the sax player (John Lurie from the Lounge Lizards), shown for millisecond through a window while Dez and Roberta are eating chinese food on the roof, was a fixture on the downtown New York scene at that time. Not only is the movie brilliant, it's also historical for these reasons never to be captured again in Hollywood History:
1. This is the first major motion picture in the history of Hollywood directed by a woman (Susan Seidelman), produced by two women (Sarah Pillsbury, Midge Sanford), about two women with the lead roles (Rosanna Arquette, Madonna) . It's a true feminist film and that was their demographic until Madonna's star blew up mid-production and she was known as 'the slut'. When production began for
Susan, Madonna only had her first album out and although she was already the biggest and greatest star to have ever lived to me,
Like a Virgin hadn't happened yet.
Mid-production, her legendary bawdy performance of
Like a Virgin at the 1984 MTV Music Awards happened and the
album of the same name was released . Security was brought in because they were filming on the streets of New York and
Madonna-Mania had hit. Historical fact: the feminists in those days, mainly Gloria Steinem, vocalized very loudly that Madonna was setting the women's movement back 30 years. The audience for
Desperately Seeking Susan had changed before the movie was even finished. It was a character-driven, art house feminist film that suddenly had a mainstream appeal.
Ms. magazine women and art farts weren't going anymore - Madonna was their nemesis. Camille Paglia wouldn't come around until a little later proclaiming Madonna as the 'future of feminism'. Even then, Camille wasn't on same page as the 'Germaine Greers' or 'Steinems' and this debate would continue well into the 1990's.
2. That particular time in New York City captured forever on celluloid.
That New York scene has never been captured on film in the way it was in
Desperately Seeking Susan. It's just a time but a very special time and the way director Seidelman, cinematographer Edward Lachman, and production designer Santo Loquasto created it was as if the viewer was living in the east village of New York City at the time. Everyone's been chasing
that New York dragon but there is nothing like the first high. We could taste and smell it. So impressive was Loquato's work in capturing "that look" that he's been on virtually every Woody Allen film since. We are even invited into the
Danceteria, the dance club made world famous by Madonna herself. So, thank God for the above mentioned for participating and capturing it properly.
Listen this can go on and on so, I'm going to add read more and any freak interested in more of my perpetual Madonna drivel, pictures, scans and personal Rosanna Arquette video from DSS screening can read on.
