Keira Knightley and Hayley Atwell in 'The Duchess'

ISN’T IT GREAT (and rare) when your husband (or any other guy in your life) chooses a smart chick flick for movie night? My movie-loving husband surprised me with The Duchess last week, though had he really known what it was about, I’m not sure he would have picked it.

Based on the life of Georgiana, Duchess of Devonshire, an 18th century ancestor of Princess Diana’s, the film is a complicated, if not completely satisfying, look at the confinement and powerlessness that characterized the lives of even aristocratic women in those times.

Played with great subtlety by Keira Knightley, Georgiana finds herself forced into a loveless marriage with Ralph Fiennes, who only wants her to bear him a son, to secure his right to the family fortune. Unfortunately for her, she produces daughters instead. Georgiana is forced to raise his child from an affair as her own, and then to endure living with both her husband and his lover, Lady Elizabeth Foster, when the Duke will neither give up his affair or allow Georgiana to leave the marriage.

The story is heartbreaking, without being overwrought, and left me once again feeling how vulnerable women have been (and so often continue to be) to the confines of economy and patriarchy.

(Of course, it doesn’t hurt that Ralph Fiennes, whom I plan to make my next husband, is delightful to look at and listen to, even as his behavior is boorish in the extreme. Ah, the English.)

What’s lined up in your Netflix queue? If you need suggestions, be sure to check out our newly updated list of the ultimate sister flicks.

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LEGENDARY ACTIVIST LAWYER William Kunstler is now the subject of a documentary, William Kunstler: Disturbing the Universe, premiering at the 2009 Sundance Film Festival, which opened today in Park City, Utah. This is no ordinary biography, though. The film is directed and produced by two of Kunstler’s four daughters. Sisters Emily and Sarah Kunstler, who were teenagers when their father died, say that “Making this film has been a magical way of bringing him back to life.” Since 2000, the sisters have had their own production company, Off Center Media, which produces award-winning documentaries about injustices in the criminal justice system.

Kunstler, who was called “the most hated and most loved lawyer in America” by The New York Times, came to fame defending the Chicago Seven, charged with inciting riots at the 1968 Democratic Convention in Chicago. You can watch the trailer for the film here.

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Click here to view the embedded video.

We decided to watch it as a family movie for the last night of “vacation,” and oh, what a thrill. Though the film isn’t literally about sisters, it is all about sister-friends. Donna, the mamma of the title, has her best friends (and former girl-group singing partners), Tanya and Rosie, with her for moral support during the wedding of her daughter, Sophie (who also has her BFFs close at hand.) Meryl Streep has never looked more beautiful, or, it seems, had such fun with a part, and Christine Baranski and Julie Walters are beyond hysterical.

While the plot is ostensibly about Sophie’s search for her father’s identity, the appeal of the film is in the delirious joy all these women feel at singing and laughing and soaking up each other’s company (not to mention the glorious Greek sunshine). I couldn’t stop laughing and singing myself, and as a bonus, my kids liked it so much that they were dancing along with every musical number. Mamma Mia! may just find you running off to iTunes to download ABBA’s greatest hits–don’t say I didn’t warn you.

OTHER FILM LINKS ON TSP:

• TSP master list of sister flicks
• TSP holiday sister-flick list
• ‘Persepolis‘
• ‘Nothing Like the Holidays,’ and ‘Doubt’
• ‘Secret Life of Bees,’ I’ve Loved You So Long,’ and ‘Rachel Getting Married’

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Click here to view the embedded video.

I guess I wasn’t paying attention (so sue me, I have children) but I didn’t realize that the film hiding in the TV room was the film adaptation of a book I’d been curious about, but never managed to read (again, I blame my young son and his younger sister).  The book, Persepolis: The Story of a Childhood, a graphic novel by Marjane Satrapi, tells a fictionalized version of the author’s childhood in Tehran, set against the backdrop of the overthrow of the Shah, the Iran-Iraq War and the rise to power of the Islamic fundamentalist government. (The book was followed by a sequel, Persepolis 2: The Story of a Return, which is also incorporated into the film.)

The grief the little girl feels at the loss of a unique sisterhood is breathtaking.

The political content is fascinating, but it’s the viewpoint of a young girl (and eventually, young woman) that makes this film shine. Marjane is an outspoken, creative only child caught in a society that is increasingly hostile to women; yet, all around her, she has amazing examples of powerful women, in particular, her beloved grandmother. When Marjane has to leave Iran for Europe (not once, but twice) the grief she feels at the loss of a unique sisterhood is breathtaking.

In keeping with the book, the film is animated, mostly black and white, and in French with subtitles (a dubbed version is available on the disc, with excellent cast ranging from Gena Rowlands to Iggy Pop). It’s worth also watching the “making of” for further insight into Marjane’s personality and creativity and the work of the many artists who collaborated to make the film.

Please, please, rent this film, and let me know what you think–it’s got much fruit for discussion, and is guaranteed to make you appreciate the love of your sisters.

OTHER FILM LINKS ON TSP:

• TSP master list of sister flicks
• TSP holiday sister-flick list
• ‘Nothing Like the Holidays,’ and ‘Doubt’
• ‘Secret Life of Bees,’ I’ve Loved You So Long,’ and ‘Rachel Getting Married’

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Our friend

IT WASN’T SUPPOSED to be quite like this. We were supposed to launch this little project, and gather steam week by week, enticing our readers with more and more tales of sisterly devotion (or dysfunction.) Three weeks in, we felt pretty good–you were reading; discussions were happening; topics we hadn’t thought to cover arose spontaneously and took on their own lives. Week 4 was supposed to be even better–we had momentum, we thought.

And then.

You see, we four founding TSP sisters live in a beautiful, but unforgiving part of the country. We are all close enough to drive to meet, but far enough away that we often gather via Skype, rather than in person. The beauty, of course, of telecommuting, and telemeeting, is that real distance doesn’t matter, as long as the bits and bytes keep flowing. It turns out that enough ice can stop that flow dead in its tracks.

Our region (western Massachusetts, and the Hudson Valley and Capital region of upstate New York) was hit with a humdinger of an ice storm 10 days ago. We were warned, but the weather here is changeable, and dire predictions don’t always come to pass. Plus, as a recent returnee to the Northeast, the truth is, I didn’t really have any idea what “ice storm” meant (besides being the title of one of my favorite films.)

It turns out that what it means is this: trees that look like they’ve been snapped off halfway up their trunks by an angry, perhaps drunk, giant. Roads so slick that your car slides–hopefully gracefully–down your hill, rather than pausing to turn into your driveway. School is canceled. And the power goes out.

For me and Marion Roach Smith, living an hour or so apart in very different communities (hers a bit more suburban, mine decidedly rural) this meant no power for days. I am fortunate to have a generator, which gave me some electricity, but more important, heat and water (no city water here: we draw from a well with, you guessed it, an electric pump). Marion wasn’t so lucky–without supplemental power, about all she could do was drain her pipes and hope for the best.

Ironically, Margaret, whose home is arguably in the most remote location, never lost power at all. She just had to wonder why her partners-in-crime had gone (quite literally) off the grid and off the radar, incommunicado and unable to tend to our newborn sister-site. And she was powerless to help us.

As it turns out, both of our families emerged relatively unscathed (and with good stories to tell, always the upside of adversity for writers). The day after the storm was the most beautiful I’ve experienced to date in this beautiful part of the world I call home. We hope you’ll understand our absence–isn’t that what sisters do?

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I WAS ALL set to write a post alerting my movie-loving virtual sisters to two films opening this weekend, with sisterhood figuring prominently in the storytelling, when an unexpected email arrived. It came from another sisterhood (and brotherhood) of my life: my graduate-school alumni group. A fellow alumna was asking everyone on the alumni mailing list to support a movie she was involved in producing…a movie opening this weekend…a movie I was just sitting down to write about.

Though I tend to feel like I’m not much of a joiner, not the person most likely to attend a reunion or keep in touch with a network of people who aren’t my close friends, I was oddly moved by this moment of serendipity. A stranger, but one with whom I had a common experience, reached out at the exact moment I was thinking of this film, that she was somehow involved in making…it felt like kismet. Or sisterhood.

And so, I have to ask: Have you seen Nothing Like the Holidays? I haven’t, but I will–I’m a sucker for family-at-Christmas comedies, and I happen to love Elizabeth Peña. Check her out in Tortilla Soup, one of our picks for Thanksgiving sisflix–and one I helped to produce, back in my old life. Nothing Like the Holidays, which puts a a Latino spin on the seasonal family story, also features John Leguizamo and Debra Messing, of Will and Grace fame.

Also opening is Doubt, based on the play of the same name. It stars Meryl Streep (you know, the one who’s either the greatest actress of her generation, or the queen of odd accents) as Sister Aloysius, a nun who makes Ebenezer Scrooge look positively low-key. The movie (which I haven’t yet seen) details the conflict between Streep’s character and Father Flynn, played by Philip Seymour Hoffman, whom the good Sister suspects of having inappropriate interest in a young altar boy. The delicious Amy Adams co-stars. For the cast alone, this is a must-see.

Given the weather in the Northeast, my perfect weekend film might have to be an at-home viewing of brilliant Ang Lee’s The Ice Storm (that is, if my power comes back on). That was one of our Thanksgiving picks, too, but it holds up well for Christmas (the dysfunctional part, anyway). What holiday films are you looking forward to? Anything that’s a must-see, or a run-away-screaming?

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POSTSCRIPT, 12/14/08: I made it to Doubt this weekend, and it left me…not cold, exactly, but definitely perplexed. Do you have to have attended Catholic school to really care about this movie? Isn’t there a better story out there to illustrate the need for open eyes and minds? I kind of enjoyed La Streep’s over-the-top performance, but I wish the film hadn’t been so, well, theatrical. (And I’m the one who kept telling my husband, “Of course it’s theatrical! It’s based on a play! And directed by the playwright!”) Anyone else ready to chime in?

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IS IT ALWAYS like this? Are there always movies about sisters in the theaters, or is just a fluke of this late-fall, pre-holiday movie season? Whatever the cause, there are three Sisflix to choose from in theaters now. Have you seen any or all?

The first to be released, The Secret Life of Bees, stars Dakota Fanning, Jennifer Hudson, Alicia Keys and Queen Latifah in the adaptation of the best-selling novel of the same name by Sue Monk Kidd.  I’ll probably get some hate mail for this, but I tend to avoid Dakota Fanning movies.  Preternaturally precocious child stars give me the heebie-jeebies nowadays. (Meaning, now that I’m a grown up. I loved them when I was a kid–just read what I have to say about The Goodbye Girl if you don’t believe me.)  I also loved this book, which makes seeing the movie a scary proposition.  Can anyone convince me that I should go?  I love the other actresses, especially the super-gorgeous, super-talented Sophie Okonedo.

Rachel Getting Married, on the other hand, I saw pretty much as soon as it opened.  I am not too proud to say I loved it.  It’s not without flaws:  it’s pretty busy convincing you of just how hip the movie, the filmmakers, and all its characters are.  They have cooler parties, nicer houses and better taste in music than you ever will.  But they also have really tortured pasts that are rising up to meet them.

Anne Hathaway is as good as you’ve heard, and her portrayal of a narcissistic addict will take your breath away.  Her ability to steal every scene (as both actress, and character) is stunning, funny and painful.  Debra Winger is amazing, a creature of such consuming restraint, so withholding of any emotion, you can’t believe she’s real. Rosemary DeWitt is the unsung heroine of both her family (it’s hard to get any attention when crazy little sister Kym is around) and the film.  And the music is great.

But I wondered why all the African-American characters (brilliant Anna Deveare Smith as the sisters’ stepmother, charismatic rocker Tunde Adibimpe, whose day job is leading the band TV on the Radio, as Rachel’s fiancé) are so silent–they barely say a word as chaos swirls around them.  Is this because if they opened their mouths, they’d have to tell the crazy WASPs exactly what to do with their bad selves?

Last, but absolutely not least, the film I am certain is the finest of this bunch.  I’ve Loved You So Long is a French film starring Kristin Scott-Thomas (although English, the actress has lived in France for many years).  She plays Juliette, who mysteriously comes to live with her younger sister and the sister’s husband and daughter after an absence that, once explained, makes you reconsider every moment you’ve witnessed in the film. The ending is a frustrating cheat, but the rest is so good, you won’t much care. I saw this one with TSP’s Margaret Roach at a film festival earlier this year, and afterward grilled her on the sisterly dynamics, of both love and pain.  She assures me that this film is full of truth, and I can assure you that it’s also a thing of great beauty.  It will disturb and move you, but you will not be sorry.

Are there other great sister movies in the theaters or on the horizon?  Let us know.

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