Movies about female writers

November 23, 2007 10:39 AM

What movies are about real female writers? (Sylvia, etc.) Thanks.
posted by HSWilson to media & arts (25 answers total)

I don't know why this is in pets & animals, I swear I selected arts and media.
posted by HSWilson at 10:42 AM on November 23, 2007

"iris" is terrific. there was that one about jane austen that just came out earlier this year, dunno if it's any good.
posted by thinkingwoman at 10:47 AM on November 23, 2007

Dorothy Parker.
posted by sexymofo at 10:52 AM on November 23, 2007

Um, Miss Potter, in which Renee Zellweger plays Beatrix Potter.

Oh, oh, and Winona Ryder played a real 18th or 19th century English writer in something. I'll go look it up.
posted by Naberius at 10:53 AM on November 23, 2007

The Hours is about Virginia Woolf.
posted by scody at 10:55 AM on November 23, 2007

Oh, well not really. She played Jo in Little Women, who was a writer and kind of based on Louisa May Alcott, but not quite the same thing.
posted by Naberius at 10:55 AM on November 23, 2007

Stevie Smith.
posted by ottereroticist at 11:02 AM on November 23, 2007

Dash and Lilly is a TV movie about Dashiell Hammett and Lillian Hellman. I haven't seen it, but it has a pretty good cast and Kathy Bates apparently directed it.

Becoming Jane is the one thinkingwoman was talking about. I also can't testify to its goodness, but I second Iris.

Ooh, and I also haven't seen this and have no idea if it's historically accurate, but: The Passion of Ayn Rand starring Helen Mirren sounds like a good time.
posted by SoftRain at 11:05 AM on November 23, 2007

Capote is about Truman Capote (of course) but also features Catherine Keener playing his friend Harper Lee, author of To Kill a Mockingbird.
posted by Pater Aletheias at 11:09 AM on November 23, 2007

Angel at My Table is about Janet Frame.
posted by craichead at 11:16 AM on November 23, 2007

Julia involves Lillian Hellman, too, and explores events that may or may not have occurred during the writing of The Children's Hour. It's fantastic, whether it is historically accurate or not.
posted by greekphilosophy at 11:33 AM on November 23, 2007

Girl, Interrupted was based on an autobiographical book by Susanna Kaysen.
posted by ODiV at 11:34 AM on November 23, 2007

Impromptu is mainly about Chopin but George Sand is a major character.
posted by CunningLinguist at 11:45 AM on November 23, 2007

Henry & June, about Anaïs Nin.
posted by martinrebas at 12:15 PM on November 23, 2007

Out of Africa by Isak Dinesen

I loved Julia!
posted by cda at 1:14 PM on November 23, 2007

Mrs. Parker & The Vicious Circle is about Dorothy Parker and that wider literary circle which included several other women.
posted by nakedcodemonkey at 3:31 PM on November 23, 2007

My Brilliant Career. A 1979 movie based on the 1901 book of Australian writer Miles Franklin (born "Stella Maria Sarah Miles Franklin"). Stars Judy Davis. Directed by Gillian Armstrong.

An Angel at My Table. About New Zealand author Janet Frame. Stars Kerry Fox, directed by Jane Campion.
posted by generic230 at 3:34 PM on November 23, 2007

I'm on an Australian kick for some reason, and this is a movie about a woman writer, but it's about her as a teenager helping her best friend kill her mother. It's true. Heavenly Creatures. 1994, Directed by Peter Jackson. Both girls spent time in prison, but one went on to become the mystery author, Anne Perry.
posted by generic230 at 3:48 PM on November 23, 2007

84 Charing Cross Road with Anthony Hopkins and Anne Bankcroft. It's letters sent between an English bookshop and a screenwriter in NYC.
posted by Kioki-Silver at 7:15 PM on November 23, 2007

Julia about Lillian Hellman, with Jane Fonda.
posted by bingo at 10:05 PM on November 23, 2007

The gold standard for of all the filmed versions of Little Women is the one in which Katharine Hepburn played Jo.
posted by brujita at 10:50 PM on November 23, 2007

Riding in Cars with Boys
posted by lampoil at 6:18 AM on November 24, 2007

I Shot Andy Warhol, about Valerie Solanas, writer of The SCUM Manifesto.
Rowing with the Wind, Mary Shelly.
The Brontes of Haworth
Children of the Century, George Sand again
posted by hydrophonic at 11:59 PM on November 24, 2007

I'm on an Australian kick for some reason, and this is a movie about a woman writer, but it's about her as a teenager helping her best friend kill her mother. It's true. Heavenly Creatures.

It is, indeed, a terrific movie and a great recommendation. To be accurate, though, it's not Australian -- the film was set (and filmed on location) in New Zealand.
posted by scody at 10:39 AM on November 25, 2007

Elsa Lanchester also appears as Mary Shelly in Bride of Frankenstein
posted by brujita at 12:13 AM on November 26, 2007