ladies if ur husband has gone off to war and ur at home pacing the drawing room simply unable to recall what his face looks like...u might be a homosexual. if its the 1910s & ur man is sending u beefy letters from exotic european locales & u cannot put down ur needlepoint for five minutes 2 delve in....i have 2 break this news: u may b battin for the wrong team.
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| amy sits at the piano, trying to remember if she has a husband or not |
"the war widow" (1976) might possibly be the originator of a handful of lesbian movie tropes: the artist lover who "needs" the object of her desire to sit for a portrait, the flirtatious but far-too-long staredown (more to come on this), the HANDS shot, the scene where an ex or friend establishes some kind of gay milieu that throws the newly-realized queer into a world they may not be ready for just yet. "the war widow" is an episode of visions, an ambitious late-seventies tv series of standalone dramas featuring not necessarily "tough topics" but new vantage points w radical impulses. ucla has been showing episodes of visions as a part of their virtual programming, starting with a brilliant alexis deveaux/maya angelou episode a few months back ("tapestry") that worked thru the story of a young black woman studying law and navigating dating and societal expectations w/ brilliant avant-garde theatrics (incredible scenes involving her childhood congregation haunting her bathroom) and sharp writing. clocking in at the perfect runtime of 90 minutes, each ep is kinda like an emotional smoothie—a steady jumble, if u will—and more closely resembles a play than a film, taking cues and casts from the theater community. before i go any further, i will say that a generous genius has made "the war widow" available to watch on youtube.
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| the kind of font that makes u a homosexual |
this episode was directed by paul bogart and written by harvey perr, the latter joining actress frances lee mccain (jennie) & historian/filmmaker jenni olson for a discussion after the film. perr shared that this story was written from his own experiences as gay man discovering his sexuality and ending a marriage and that bogart was working through similar things around the time of filming. the newness of this emotional realization is perhaps the sweet undercurrent dutifully joining naïve-but-pure sentimentality with a vibrant (but admittedly unrealistic lol) kind of hope. "the war widow" chronicles a lonely wife and mother, amy, who meets a mysterious photographer, jennie, one day while she's having a crisis in a tearoom. with amy's husband away in wwi and her mother conveniently always watching her daughter at their very plush estate, amy and jennie get to know each other and slowly fall in love. it's something altogether cute and wild for an hour of tv drama during a still-hostile time for queer women. (during the discussion, olson resurrects this new york times article that contextualizes how unique & revelatory this play was.)
most of the contemporary impulse to make lesbian period pieces is just the easy plot—the will-they, won't-they given a weight that has no parallel in modern times. women's livelihoods were inextricable from their family units and to be queer was always to step out of the neat and secure system of family and into a wilderness filled with (in the most optimistic case) people like jennie's friend who shows up in a bonkers mustard number at the eleventh hour to wag her homosexuality around the room like a matador's cape. to be caught between a rock and a tidal wave of floam... anyway, we have entered into a moment in contemporary cinema where (mostly out of lazy writing) many woman-woman relationships come in2 fruition via looks and whispers in the parlor. "the war widow" was ahead of its time!!! it didn't need the drama as much as the situation—a reason for these women to seek each other out, a catalyst for difference. in the 70s, a period piece had the potential to evoke a time before the lavender scare gave queer relationships state-sanctioned repulsion and a DSM listing. the viewer is invited to imagine some parallel unknown that lie ahead, where one's self would be the only barrier to love.
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| trying 2 find this outfit let me know if u have any leads |
"the war widow" is filled w/ incinerating glances and some of the shots leave us helpless recipients of the singe. & when i say glances im talkin looks of INVASIVE PIERCING DESIRE. frances lee mccain was born 2 stare. there's, of course, great tension between what we get to see and what we wonder about but even more than the nights of passion we want to view the photos that the women hold in intimate dissection. we want to see what jennie sees w/ those laser-focused eyes. for amy, whose interior life has corroded with idleness and isolation, its not the object-creation and authoritative power of jennie's photography career that piques her interest but seemingly the small community it has allowed jennie to cultivate. a talented pianist in her own right, for amy to have an audience would give her a real sense of creation—no proper music made in a void. “ive never had a friend before; i just realized that this afternoon,” amy says at one point, finding some simple solace in company—real companionship, regardless of romance and devoid of the toxic baggage of family.
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| jennie's stares make up about 45 minutes of the film |
visions seems to have at least one small-but-bold compositional experiment in each episode. a strange standout scene (for perhaps its length and desire to reverse the aforementioned gaze) is a montage of photos shown from jennie's portrait session with amy and amy's mother and child. this slideshow is quite long considering the general economy of the episode and is immediately juxtaposed with a lengthy scene of amy playing piano. ultimately it's a conversation of sorts in a corny but soulful way—an intermission with purpose. the soundtrack for this episode was done by mark snow whose most famous project is the x-files and i will say—as an unfortunately studied x-files fanatic—the man is a saccharine tyrant with a loose emotional compass and he really does not change a wink in the 20 years between these projects. a space ship really is a hotel lobby when mark snow has his say.
with visions, i always anticipate melodrama, but am met with sincerity. "the war widow" is a truly charming story and we get so many great moments from amy as she comes into certainty about her needs. amy & jennie, lying on the floor in a ripped-from-your-daydreams slumber party type of way, get to know each other after such a silent first few acts and amy says, "tell me the color of wheat" in that perfectly stupid way you'll say just about anything when you're too desperate to know someone. much earlier, amy says, "i think i'd die if there wasn't some mystery in all of us," almost to explain why the exposition has been so quiet and it truly satisfies. i also love amy's "i'm ashamed because i feel such little shame with you" and when she turns to her mother and says "the thing we had in common was neither one of us could feel anything." so much to expose how her depression has idled a perceptive soul. i love to watch a character smack someone across the face w/ their own vulnerability!!! this play wants us to know amy isn't naive, she understands how the world works and her decision at the end of the episode is made with full knowledge of its consequences. one final shout out to the cracked teacup extended metaphor that had me weary and teary.
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 | | the hands...the tulle....what VISION |
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i can't believe this was only the second episode of visions; something totally audacious to announce the series' intention to do as it pleased, and with heaps of empathy, force, and....dare i say.....vision. ultimately, "the war woman" is a totally engrossing play about not just lesbianism but women and all of the relationships and obligations they fall into. (i didn't even get into amy's relationship with her mother!!!) visions makes you hungry for what TV could have looked like in the seventies, energized by radical writers, ambitious in its record of truthful but compelling history. "the war widow" especially inviting us to look outside the itchy american family & reach 4 real desire w/ a confident zeal.
