50s movie from a book?
November 7, 2015 1:30 PM Subscribe
I was listening to Kirsten Dunst on the Nerdist podcast and she said that she was writing a screenplay based on a book set in the 50s. Hardwick was pressing her for the details and she was like "I can't say yet, but let's say it's based on a book most women have read." What is it?
I know we'll know soon enough but I just wanted to try to figure it out based on her description. My guess is that it's the Bell Jar?
Also: Kirsten Dunst is not going to be in the movie, she's just writing it, so her age/race/overall look isn't a factor. She said she's got an actress.
At first I thought it was definitely a novel, but looking at this article it might be nonfiction, so maybe more of a Mean Girls type adaptation:
“It’s based on a book, but… it really could make it any way you [wanted],” she teased. “It’s the kind of book that — it could be so, so didactic and bad or you could really make a life of something [from it]. So you really need to make your own scenes up.”
“It’s a book that most women have read,” she continued. “I’m approaching it in a funny way. It’s going to be a dark comedy and I already have my actress — I’ve wanted to direct for a long time.”
I know we'll know soon enough but I just wanted to try to figure it out based on her description. My guess is that it's the Bell Jar?
Also: Kirsten Dunst is not going to be in the movie, she's just writing it, so her age/race/overall look isn't a factor. She said she's got an actress.
At first I thought it was definitely a novel, but looking at this article it might be nonfiction, so maybe more of a Mean Girls type adaptation:
“It’s based on a book, but… it really could make it any way you [wanted],” she teased. “It’s the kind of book that — it could be so, so didactic and bad or you could really make a life of something [from it]. So you really need to make your own scenes up.”
“It’s a book that most women have read,” she continued. “I’m approaching it in a funny way. It’s going to be a dark comedy and I already have my actress — I’ve wanted to direct for a long time.”
A book written in the 50s or set in the 50s?
posted by phunniemee at 1:42 PM on November 7, 2015
posted by phunniemee at 1:42 PM on November 7, 2015
Response by poster: Also keep in mind, Kirsten Dunst was born in 1982 so I think she's thinking of women between 25-65 or so, which would include women younger than her and her mom's generation.
posted by sweetkid at 1:43 PM on November 7, 2015
posted by sweetkid at 1:43 PM on November 7, 2015
The Feminine Mystique?
posted by LobsterMitten at 1:44 PM on November 7, 2015 [8 favorites]
posted by LobsterMitten at 1:44 PM on November 7, 2015 [8 favorites]
Nancy Drew mysteries. Pearl Buck's books. Tarzan series.
posted by Oyéah at 1:48 PM on November 7, 2015 [1 favorite]
posted by Oyéah at 1:48 PM on November 7, 2015 [1 favorite]
The Womanly Art of Breastfeeding?
posted by daisystomper at 1:54 PM on November 7, 2015 [2 favorites]
posted by daisystomper at 1:54 PM on November 7, 2015 [2 favorites]
Peyton Place? From Here to Eternity? A Certain Smile (Sagan)? Sexual Behavior in the Human Female? All published in the 50s.
posted by TheRaven at 1:55 PM on November 7, 2015 [1 favorite]
posted by TheRaven at 1:55 PM on November 7, 2015 [1 favorite]
It could be The Bell Jar. It's fiction, but it's based on Plath's life. Even though it was published in the 60s, it was set in the 50s (which is when the events occurred for Plath - also, the narrator begins by talking about having a child or children now, so it's obviously set in the past). And there's a lot of dark humor in it. I can't think of any other book set in the 50s that "most women" have read. If she really means it's a book that most women have actually read (as opposed to heard of), I would not think it would be The Feminine Mystique.
There was a pretty dreadful movie version of The Bell Jar in the 70s.
I would not think Nancy Drew because that's a series rather than one book.
posted by FencingGal at 1:58 PM on November 7, 2015 [8 favorites]
There was a pretty dreadful movie version of The Bell Jar in the 70s.
I would not think Nancy Drew because that's a series rather than one book.
posted by FencingGal at 1:58 PM on November 7, 2015 [8 favorites]
Erma Bombeck has 15 books - If Life Is a Bowl of Cherries What am I Doing in the Pits, and The Grass is Always Greener Over the Septic Tank, for example. But they were in the 60's.
Or Please Don't Eat the Daisies by Jean Kerr. But there's already a movie about that with Doris Day.
posted by CathyG at 2:00 PM on November 7, 2015 [1 favorite]
Or Please Don't Eat the Daisies by Jean Kerr. But there's already a movie about that with Doris Day.
posted by CathyG at 2:00 PM on November 7, 2015 [1 favorite]
Are You There God? It's Me, Margaret
It was published in the 70s, and I can't remember when exactly it's set, but wouldn't be weird to be set in the 50s I guess. Definitely something every woman mine/Kirsten's age that I know has read. It's been rumored to be in development or under discussion/speculation at least (links from 2013).
posted by melissasaurus at 2:10 PM on November 7, 2015 [6 favorites]
It was published in the 70s, and I can't remember when exactly it's set, but wouldn't be weird to be set in the 50s I guess. Definitely something every woman mine/Kirsten's age that I know has read. It's been rumored to be in development or under discussion/speculation at least (links from 2013).
posted by melissasaurus at 2:10 PM on November 7, 2015 [6 favorites]
Melissasaurus, you raise the possibility that the movie is set in the 1950s but the book it's based on might not be.
I still like The Bell Jar as a potential answer here, but if the setting is flexible, keeping in mind the nonstandard narrative thing, maybe Go Ask Alice?
posted by phunniemee at 2:18 PM on November 7, 2015 [1 favorite]
I still like The Bell Jar as a potential answer here, but if the setting is flexible, keeping in mind the nonstandard narrative thing, maybe Go Ask Alice?
posted by phunniemee at 2:18 PM on November 7, 2015 [1 favorite]
Mod note: A few comments deleted. As usual, AskMe's not a venue for back-and-forth discussion, so let's just stick to answers. Thanks.
posted by LobsterMitten (staff) at 2:18 PM on November 7, 2015
posted by LobsterMitten (staff) at 2:18 PM on November 7, 2015
Best answer: I can't think of any book set in the 50s other than The Bell Jar that I would confidently say most (American) women have read. Franny and Zooey would maybe be a distant second.
Unless she is throwing us off the scent and it is a novelization of The Joy of Cooking...
posted by maggiemaggie at 2:26 PM on November 7, 2015 [4 favorites]
Unless she is throwing us off the scent and it is a novelization of The Joy of Cooking...
posted by maggiemaggie at 2:26 PM on November 7, 2015 [4 favorites]
Psychoanalysis hit pop culture in a big way in the 50s - Marilyn Monroe was into it, maybe Kirsten Dunst is channelling that? - and Eric Fromm's books were popular. "Didactic" makes me think she's talking about something that could be used as self-help, and I wonder if KD thinks most women have read Fromm's "The Art of Loving". (Which I think has comedic potential, if used to inform self-help, e.g. taking this idea literally: "One cannot truly love another person if one does not love all of mankind including oneself"). Flip slide of "The Feminine Mystique" might be Dale Carnegie's "How to Help Your Husband Get Ahead" [1953], though not sure anyone's read it since then..
If KD did some research, here's a list of 50s bestsellers, book-of-the-month picks, etc., for ideas. (Atlas Shrugged, which imo is hilarious, was popular; maybe she wants to comment on contemporary right-wingery? Lady Chatterley's Lover, also big, doubt rights would have been easy to get.)
(I thought of Erica Jong's Fear of Flying, but that was 73 & I don't think that's a mistake anyone would make, certainly not if in pre-production.)
posted by cotton dress sock at 2:33 PM on November 7, 2015 [1 favorite]
If KD did some research, here's a list of 50s bestsellers, book-of-the-month picks, etc., for ideas. (Atlas Shrugged, which imo is hilarious, was popular; maybe she wants to comment on contemporary right-wingery? Lady Chatterley's Lover, also big, doubt rights would have been easy to get.)
(I thought of Erica Jong's Fear of Flying, but that was 73 & I don't think that's a mistake anyone would make, certainly not if in pre-production.)
posted by cotton dress sock at 2:33 PM on November 7, 2015 [1 favorite]
Dr. Spock's baby and childcare book? It's the only thing I know for sure that both of my grandmothers (and probably all my grandparents' sisters and SILs - fifteen women put together) actually read in the 1950s.
posted by SMPA at 2:43 PM on November 7, 2015 [6 favorites]
posted by SMPA at 2:43 PM on November 7, 2015 [6 favorites]
I think it's Are You There God, It's Me Margaret. Or maybe Deannie.
posted by fiercekitten at 2:48 PM on November 7, 2015 [2 favorites]
posted by fiercekitten at 2:48 PM on November 7, 2015 [2 favorites]
(I thought of Erica Jong's Fear of Flying, but that was 73 & I don't think that's a mistake anyone would make, certainly not if in pre-production.)
I'm pretty sure it is set in the 50s, though. I think you might have it there.
posted by ernielundquist at 2:56 PM on November 7, 2015
I'm pretty sure it is set in the 50s, though. I think you might have it there.
posted by ernielundquist at 2:56 PM on November 7, 2015
It sort of sounds like some kind of guide, manual or how-to book, but who knows really.
Thats an intriguing possibility that supports the idea of something like Dr. Spock, or maybe the Joy of Cooking.
Rachel Carson's books started coming out in the 50s.
posted by Miko at 3:08 PM on November 7, 2015
Thats an intriguing possibility that supports the idea of something like Dr. Spock, or maybe the Joy of Cooking.
Rachel Carson's books started coming out in the 50s.
posted by Miko at 3:08 PM on November 7, 2015
My vote is for The Joy Of Sex, just because there was already an adaptation of What To Expect When You're Expecting, and there's tons of Kinsey/Masters & Johnson related media out there already so it can't be that.
I would lean towards Our Bodies Ourselves, but that's way too 70s for anyone to confuse it with the 50s.
posted by Sara C. at 3:12 PM on November 7, 2015 [1 favorite]
I would lean towards Our Bodies Ourselves, but that's way too 70s for anyone to confuse it with the 50s.
posted by Sara C. at 3:12 PM on November 7, 2015 [1 favorite]
I don't think that any of Judy Blume's books were set in the '50s ...
I'm voting for The Bell Jar.
posted by bookmammal at 3:37 PM on November 7, 2015
I'm voting for The Bell Jar.
posted by bookmammal at 3:37 PM on November 7, 2015
Starring Sally J Freedman As Herself was, but I wouldn't say that's something 'everyone' has read.
Also, she said SET in the 50s. It could have been something published in 2005 as much as 1955. I keep thinking of RONA Jaffe's The Best Of Everything, but it surely wasn't that popular.
posted by mippy at 3:50 PM on November 7, 2015 [2 favorites]
Also, she said SET in the 50s. It could have been something published in 2005 as much as 1955. I keep thinking of RONA Jaffe's The Best Of Everything, but it surely wasn't that popular.
posted by mippy at 3:50 PM on November 7, 2015 [2 favorites]
I thought of The Best of Everything too, but I don't know many people who have read it. Though I sure wish someone would make it into a movie. [on preview: again].
Joy of Sex is from '72.
posted by Miko at 3:51 PM on November 7, 2015
Joy of Sex is from '72.
posted by Miko at 3:51 PM on November 7, 2015
I thought of Fear of Flying, but my guess is Our Bodies, Ourselves. The authors started working on it in the late 1960s.
Could it be a children's book?
posted by bluedaisy at 4:04 PM on November 7, 2015
Could it be a children's book?
posted by bluedaisy at 4:04 PM on November 7, 2015
Cat's Eye, by Margaret Atwood?
posted by mmiddle at 4:14 PM on November 7, 2015 [2 favorites]
posted by mmiddle at 4:14 PM on November 7, 2015 [2 favorites]
The Women's Room, by Marilyn French, perhaps.
posted by bluedaisy at 4:18 PM on November 7, 2015 [2 favorites]
posted by bluedaisy at 4:18 PM on November 7, 2015 [2 favorites]
Oh, what about The Second Sex? It was published in 1949.
posted by bluedaisy at 4:22 PM on November 7, 2015
posted by bluedaisy at 4:22 PM on November 7, 2015
Googling Sylvia Plath plus Kirsten Dunst brings up a couple articles quoting Dunst saying she wished she'd taken the role of Plath in the 2004 biopic, and that she'd always wanted to make a movie about Plath's life. I think it's the Bell Jar.
posted by pretentious illiterate at 4:56 PM on November 7, 2015 [4 favorites]
posted by pretentious illiterate at 4:56 PM on November 7, 2015 [4 favorites]
That would fit "dark comedy." It's a surprisingly funny book.
posted by Miko at 5:02 PM on November 7, 2015
posted by Miko at 5:02 PM on November 7, 2015
One Day in the Life of Ivan Denisovich? The Gulag Archipelago? MASH: A Novel About Three Army Doctors?
I'm imagining all sorts of hilarious possibilities based on the "so didactic and bad" criterion. I mean she just says that she's approaching it in a funny way, not that the book itself is necessarily funny.
Here's Wikipedia's Category:1950s in fiction page btw.
posted by XMLicious at 5:14 PM on November 7, 2015 [1 favorite]
I'm imagining all sorts of hilarious possibilities based on the "so didactic and bad" criterion. I mean she just says that she's approaching it in a funny way, not that the book itself is necessarily funny.
Here's Wikipedia's Category:1950s in fiction page btw.
posted by XMLicious at 5:14 PM on November 7, 2015 [1 favorite]
So it doesn't seem to say it's a book a woman wrote, just one women have read. How to Win Friends and Influence People?
posted by Miko at 5:29 PM on November 7, 2015 [1 favorite]
posted by Miko at 5:29 PM on November 7, 2015 [1 favorite]
Marjorie Morningstar? My mom really loved that book in the 50's. That and A Tree Grows in Brooklyn were THE books that she remembered fondly as a young woman although A Tree Grows in Brooklyn was in the 40's.
posted by readery at 7:26 PM on November 7, 2015
posted by readery at 7:26 PM on November 7, 2015
Sex and the Single Girl, maybe. Not fiction but I seem to recall it has a lot of anecdotes. 1962.
The Bell Jar is really dark.
posted by zadcat at 8:24 PM on November 7, 2015
The Bell Jar is really dark.
posted by zadcat at 8:24 PM on November 7, 2015
Response by poster: Thanks all. One thing I neglected to mention in my initial question is that the one reason I thought it might not be the Bell Jar is that she says it could be didactic and like a manual, and that you have to make scenes up. The Bell Jar already is a dark comedy and some scenes from the book are very cinematic and vivid - the meal scenes, the part where she throws all her clothes off the roof, her suicide attempt.
posted by sweetkid at 12:57 PM on November 8, 2015 [1 favorite]
posted by sweetkid at 12:57 PM on November 8, 2015 [1 favorite]
Was it 100% clear that the book was set in the 50s, or is it possible that the movie is based on a manuel or self-help book, and *she's* just setting the movie in the 1950s? From the "it could be didactic and bad but I'm making it a dark comedy" line, I immediately thought of The Rules. I could see a sort of Med Men or Stepford Wives aesthetic.
posted by alligatorpear at 5:45 PM on November 8, 2015 [1 favorite]
posted by alligatorpear at 5:45 PM on November 8, 2015 [1 favorite]
I thought of this ask when I saw this, it looks like she meant The Bell Jar.
posted by modesty.blaise at 3:30 PM on August 11, 2016 [3 favorites]
posted by modesty.blaise at 3:30 PM on August 11, 2016 [3 favorites]
This thread is closed to new comments.
posted by modesty.blaise at 1:41 PM on November 7, 2015 [2 favorites]