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‘death becomes her’: thr’s 1992 review.

On July 31, 1992, Universal unveiled Robert Zemeckis' dark comedy.

By Jeff Menell

Jeff Menell

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'Death Becomes Her' Review: 1992 Movie

On July 31, 1992, Universal unveiled Robert Zemeckis’ dark comedy Death Becomes Her, starring Meryl Streep, Goldie Hawn and Bruce Willis. The Hollywood Reporter’s original review is below: 

Just when you think Death Becomes Her has gone as far over the top as possible, you discover there are many more walls to climb. Director Robert Zemeckis ascends to new heights and broadens out to new dimensions in this strangely fascinating, pitch-dark comedy. 

Boasting incredible makeup and special effects, this film is also noteworthy for the willingness of its three glamorous stars to appear as characters somewhat less than glamorous. 

Playing against type, Meryl Streep, Goldie Hawn and Bruce Willis successfully create the unlikeliest of triumvirates. Hawn has already established herself as a top comic actress, and Streep has steadily proved that accentless, comic roles might just be her forte. But it’s Willis who comes off best here. No only does he make us forget about his action-with-a-smirk flicks, he makes us forget Hudson Hawk — no mean feat!

The story opens on Broadway in 1978. Willis convincingly plays Ernest Menville, a nerdish but super talented plastic surgeon. Together with plain fiancee Helen (Hawn), they are attending an awful musical version of “Sweet Bird of Youth,” starring the famous Madeline Ashton (Streep), who also happens to be an old friend, or something, of Helen.

After the show, Ernest fawns over Madeline while Helen fears that the actress will once again steal away her man. When, in fact, Ernest and Madeline do get married, the fate of all three is sealed. 

Seven years pass and we discover Helen is now a disgustingly obese hermit, still obsessing over Madeline’s and Ernest’s betrayal. The makeup here is so convincing that it actually becomes unnerving to see our beautiful Goldie such a mess. Anyway, vengeance finally crosses Helen’s mind, and another seven years quickly pass by. 

Enter back into their lives a newly svelte Goldie, and the stage is now set for a battle of wills that turns quite physical. Without giving too much away, both Helen and Madeline end up taking some kind of eternally youthful potion from a mystically strange Isabella Rossellini (who further entrenches herself as the new Queen of Bizarre). This leads to a brutal fight between these two immortals that would make a Terminator proud. In fact, the special effects here are similar to Terminator 2: Judgment Day . 

The effects are awesome, if occasionally too gruesome to enjoy. All in all, however, Death Becomes Her is clever, different and dementedly entertaining, while commenting on our unhealthy obsession with youth and beauty. This type of darkness lights up the screen. — Jeff Menell, originally published July 27, 1992. 

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Death Becomes Her Reviews

death becomes her full movie review

Death Becomes Her is a magical and delightful illustration of queerness without sexuality.

Full Review | Original Score: A- | Oct 2, 2023

death becomes her full movie review

The mood conjured by Zemeckis is midnight movie meets cartoon meets shrill melodrama meets showbiz satire

Full Review | Feb 14, 2023

Its stars [are] easily able to keep pace with its big dramatic beats, and Zemeckis directs with the confidence essential to comedy. Death Becomes Her doesn't pull any punches. Hollywood deserved it, and so do you.

Full Review | Original Score: 4.5/5 | Sep 23, 2021

death becomes her full movie review

The target of the movie's jokes is female vanity, but since Zemeckis exhibits not a trace of affection for the actresses (or for any of the men, either), one feels humiliated merely watching his crude-spirited wit.

Full Review | May 11, 2021

death becomes her full movie review

This is a 100 percent Hollywood story... It's not relateable to the average person.

Full Review | Original Score: 2/4 | Apr 24, 2021

death becomes her full movie review

The dizzy, desperate energy of the way she portrays Madeline Ashton is so unlike the staid regality of say, her Julia Childs or Margaret Thatcher.

Full Review | Mar 19, 2021

death becomes her full movie review

Full Review | Original Score: 10 | Aug 12, 2020

death becomes her full movie review

It's the f*cking best!

Every scene that Streep and Hawn play together has a bold spark indicative of the symbiosis between females with the same goals and ambitions.

Full Review | Mar 26, 2019

Despite an array of impressive special effects, including a particularly inventive twist on the famous head-swivelling scene in The Exorcist, Death Becomes Her dies its own slow and painful death.

death becomes her full movie review

But it's not enough to be merely bad; you have to be interesting as well. As the movie wears along, they become death.

Full Review | Original Score: 2.5/4 | Jan 3, 2019

[Streep], Hawn and Zemeckis combine to offer a fearsome look at what, under different circumstances, might well have happened to Baby Jane.

Full Review | Jan 3, 2019

Quirky but enjoyable oddity.

Full Review | Original Score: 4/5 | Jan 3, 2019

death becomes her full movie review

This pitch-dark comedy may be seen as a biting satire on the tendency to fetishize personal appearance and youthfulness. But its inventiveness quickly wears thin, and the filmmakers show an unhealthy fascination with the spectacle of mutilated women.

Certainly, "Death Becomes Her" is macabre and mean. But it's also wise and cuttingly witty.

Full Review | Original Score: 3/5 | Jan 3, 2019

This new horror-comedy has to be one of the most heartless mainstream pictures ever made.

death becomes her full movie review

If there were something resembling genuine satire of human behavior beyond the simple pretexts for fancy special effects and relentless sadism, I might have found some of this funny.

death becomes her full movie review

An elaborate piece of work with more than a little on its nasty mind, "Death" finally falls flatter than many a less ambitious film, proof once again that just because an idea is audacious doesn't necessarily mean it's good.

death becomes her full movie review

Meryl Streep shines in a glitzy black comedy, but it's still She-Devil with a make-over.

death becomes her full movie review

Insistently grotesque, relentlessly misanthropic and spectacularly tasteless, ''Death Becomes Her'' isn't a film designed to win the hearts of the mass moviegoing public. But it is diabolically inventive and very, very funny.

death becomes her full movie review

  • Cast & crew
  • User reviews

Death Becomes Her

Death Becomes Her (1992)

When a fading actress learns of an immortality treatment, she sees it as a way to outdo her long-time rival. When a fading actress learns of an immortality treatment, she sees it as a way to outdo her long-time rival. When a fading actress learns of an immortality treatment, she sees it as a way to outdo her long-time rival.

  • Robert Zemeckis
  • Martin Donovan
  • David Koepp
  • Meryl Streep
  • Bruce Willis
  • Goldie Hawn
  • 263 User reviews
  • 77 Critic reviews
  • 56 Metascore
  • 5 wins & 16 nominations total

Official Blu-Ray Trailer

  • Madeline Ashton

Bruce Willis

  • Ernest Menville

Goldie Hawn

  • Helen Sharp

Isabella Rossellini

  • Lisle Von Rhuman

Ian Ogilvy

  • Psychologist
  • (as Alaina Reed Hall)

Michelle Johnson

  • Vivian Adams

William Frankfather

  • Mr. Franklin

John Ingle

  • Opening Man

Petrea Burchard

  • Opening Woman

Jim Jansen

  • Second Woman

Paulo Tocha

  • Eviction Cop
  • All cast & crew
  • Production, box office & more at IMDbPro

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Practical Magic

Did you know

  • Trivia Meryl Streep accidentally scarred Goldie Hawn 's cheek with a shovel during the fight scene.
  • Goofs At the end of the movie you can see the bottle of spray paint rolling down the stairs and landing on the pavement. In the next shot, when Helen's body hits the pavement the bottle is gone.

Madeline Ashton : Bottoms up!

[Madeline drinks the potion]

Lisle Von Rhoman : Now, a warning.

Madeline Ashton : NOW a warning?

  • Connections Featured in Siskel & Ebert: Unforgiven/Mistress/Death Becomes Her/Enchanted April/London Kills Me (1992)
  • Soundtracks Me Written by Geoff Aymar Lyrics by Martin Donovan & David Koepp Arranged by William Ross Performed by Meryl Streep (uncredited)

User reviews 263

  • ambusched94
  • Mar 25, 2022
  • July 31, 1992 (United States)
  • United States
  • La muerte le sienta bien
  • Greystone Park & Mansion - 905 Loma Vista Drive, Beverly Hills, California, USA (funeral home)
  • Universal Pictures
  • See more company credits at IMDbPro
  • $55,000,000 (estimated)
  • $58,422,650
  • $12,110,355
  • Aug 2, 1992
  • $149,022,650

Technical specs

  • Runtime 1 hour 44 minutes
  • Dolby Stereo

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death becomes her full movie review

Death Becomes Her Review

Death Becomes Her

01 Jan 1992

104 minutes

Death Becomes Her

Improving with age, Robert Zemeckis' black fantasy sees Goldie Hawn and Meryl Streep play bitchy actresses battling it out for the secret of eternal youth. Years after Streep steals dumpy Hawn's man (Bruce Willis), Hawn returns in improbably youthful form to win him back. In trying to get to the root of her former friend's sudden makeover, Streep too discovers the secret to staying young and beautiful in Hollywood - and the strange price that you pay for it.

Charged with a baroque cartoony feel, ILM's groundbreaking CGI effects and Zemeckis' filmmaking flair are expected. The blackness of the tale and Bruce Willis' skill at playing a henpecked husband is not.

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death becomes her full movie review

Classic Review: Death Becomes Her (1992)

death becomes her full movie review

death becomes her full movie review

Overall Score

Rating summary.

What can you say about a comedy that largely plays out its hand during its first ten minutes?

Death Becomes Her is at its most uproariously funny when it is moving through its introduction at a rapid-fire pace. Zemeckis efficiently sets up the foundations of the story and uses smash cuts to great effect, as he knows that we can predict exactly what will happen, based on the limited amount of information that we have been provided with. The story begins with Helen Sharp (Hawn), a mousy author who has always resented her glamorous, seductive friend Madeline Ashton (Streep). Ashton has stolen several of Sharp’s boyfriends in the past and Sharp decides to introduce her latest beau, Ernest Menville (Willis), to her frenemy. Ashton is performing in an unsuccessful musical and Sharp is deeply disappointed when Menville falls under her spell. In no time at all, Menville breaks up with Sharp and marries Ashton. This sends Sharp into a downward spiral and she becomes financially destitute and morbidly obese.  

The opening is the high point of Death Becomes Her as it never seemed to reach the same heights during its slightly convoluted second and third acts. The opening scenes are so funny because they play on our expectations. As soon as the socially awkward, nebbish Menville is confronted with a blonde goddess, he simply can’t contain himself. His response to her on-stage performance is comical, as he sits there gobsmacked and proceeds to enthusiastically cheer her on as the show comes to a close. The casting of Willis isn’t exactly inspired but it is fun to see him mocking his image as the ultimate alpha male. He’s a good sport when it comes to playing a moron and never tries to steal scenes from the female leads. He is well used as a beta male who is putty in the hands of a manipulative minx. However, the real genius of the set-up is that it lets us know that this will be the story of the two women fighting for his affection. They are established as totally immoral and they view the world around them with the sort of cynicism that doesn’t usually make its way into mainstream comedies. The film’s insistence on turning both of them into termagants who have no illusions about the way that men treat women of a certain age is still refreshing. Throughout the film, Menville will be used as a pawn by both of the women as they try to outwit one another.  

The delightful bitchiness of the women is something to be savored and Hawn and Streep both appear to be having the time of their lives. The former has often stuck playing dumb blondes in fish out of water comedies that asked her to act foolish. The latter was facing a lot of backlash for frequently appearing in prestige pictures that required her to learn a new accent and appear regal and dignified. Hawn gets to ham it up as she has often done but has slightly more backbone than usual and a co-star with a higher profile than hers. She seems completely at home in a comedy like this and effortlessly delivers most of her biggest punchlines. Streep is on shakier ground and doesn’t quite knock it out of the park on her first time around. It does quickly become clear that she was not the most experienced comedienne and some of her line deliveries sound a bit strained. It isn’t one of her most assured performances, but it still feels risky and experimental by Streep standards. Considering the fact that she would soon return to safe territory and chase awards glory with roles in bland, anonymously directed dramas, this stands out as a fleetfooted gagfest.  

Death Becomes Her begins to lose a bit of its shine when the real plot kicks in and the plot becomes more complicated. Ashton consumes a magical potion which gives her the gift of eternal life. She will not age if she takes care of her body, but has to retreat from the public eye after ten years. Sharp also took this potion and bursts back into Menville’s life, ready to ‘save’ him from an unhappy marriage to Ashton. Sharp tries to convince Menville to murder Ashton so that they can be together, but Ashton is now immortal. The two women engage in a fierce battle but eventually realize that they cannot kill one another. They hatch a plan to entrap Menville and force him to perform cosmetic surgery procedures on their bodies. When Menville catches wind of this plan, all hell breaks loose.  

The second act tries to introduce commentary into the mix and this attempt is not entirely successful. The film doesn’t completely fail to make its points about sexism within the entertainment industry, the way that women are pitted against one another and the stupidity of men who mindlessly chase after younger women. All of these points are valid and they give the screenplay a bit of extra bite but they’re also rather obvious. There is nothing unexpected or risqué about the film’s satirical tone and it could have tried to go further in attacking the sexism that causes women to feel painfully self conscious about their looks.  

Death Becomes Her is certainly fun but it also a film that never seemed to ever reach its full potential.  

still courtesy of Universal Pictures

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death becomes her full movie review

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Death Becomes Her Reviews

  • 56   Metascore
  • 1 hr 43 mins
  • Horror, Fantasy, Comedy, Science Fiction
  • Watchlist Where to Watch

Oscar-winning special effects lighten this dark comedy about rivals obsessed with staying young.

Is it a showbiz melodrama about the rivalry between a faded movie star and a successful author? Is it a black comedy about the unforeseen side effects of a mysterious magic potion? Or is it a spoof horror movie complete with detached body parts and walking dead? Be warned: seeing DEATH BECOMES HER will probably not help you answer these questions. This bizarre combination of SUNSET BOULEVARD, ATTACK OF THE KILLER ZOMBIES, and "Laugh In" stars Meryl Streep as Madeline Ashton, a beautiful, manipulative blonde actress whose star is beginning to fade. After stealing plastic surgeon Ernest Menville (Bruce Willis) from her college "friend" and aspiring author Helen Sharp (Goldie Hawn), Madeline proceeds to ruin Ernest's career and drive him to drink. Meanwhile, Helen, after growing to the size of a blimp and being institutionalized, realizes the only way to get even with Madeline is to become a beautiful, manipulative, blonde author. Throw in a Gothic mansion from which the beautiful, manipulative, raven-haired Lisle von Rhuman (Isabella Rossellini) dispenses a magic potion that guarantees eternal youth, and the mix is complete. DEATH BECOMES HER boasts some sharply funny dialogue and inventive special effects, and a couple of scenes achieve genuine comic lunacy--notably the film's opening, which finds Madeline starring in "Songbird," a Broadway musical version of Tennessee Williams's "Sweet Bird of Youth" complete with gold lame and disco dancers. Bruce Willis does a good job as the bumbling Dr. Menville, and Meryl Streep's performance is flawless (Streep fans will be pleased to note that, in moments of stress, the actress adds an authentic Newark accent to her impressive repertoire.) The end result, though, is a film that tries to do too many things at once and does none of them quite right.

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A Gruesome Death

death becomes her full movie review

Since I dislike critical superlatives, I will refrain from saying that Robert Zemeckis’s Death Becomes Her is the worst big-budget movie I’ve ever seen. After all, Hudson Hawk lingers in recent memory, and Boomerang yet haunts the malls; also, the year is still young and may bring wonderful surprises. Let us say, however, that Death Becomes Her is not only (like these two movies) contemptuous of the audience, it has the unique quality of being contemptuous of itself. Anxiety, loathing, and self-hatred gush from its gaudy pores. The movie appears to be flailing itself to death, and it ends, appropriately enough, with the lead characters knocking their own heads off.

Two Beverly Hills harridans (Meryl Streep and Goldie Hawn), both in love with the same pathetic man (Bruce Willis), seek eternal youth and immortality by drinking a potion, which …. Oh, forget it. There is no plot, just a concept: Turn two famous actresses into cartoon figures and pass off the results as “black comedy.” In practice, Zemeckis’s idea of black comedy means people gasping and screeching and falling down on huge, marble-floored sets while lightning flashes outside the windows. The movie is a festival of overblown gothic high jinks — for instance, Isabella Rossellini turns up as an erotomaniacal witch with necklaces covering her breasts. (Rossellini can’t stop grinning.) The style is too loud and desperate to achieve camp, yet I have the sinking feeling that no one in Hollywood knows this, that no one has enough confidence and authority to tell Zemeckis that actors can’t play comedy in those cavernous sets.

The target of the movie’s jokes is female vanity, but since Zemeckis exhibits not a trace of affection for the actresses (or for any of the men, either), one feels humiliated merely watching his crude-spirited wit. Goldie Hawn is awful, but Meryl Streep at least works with her customary skill. Asked to play a smirking bitch, she sends her voice down to baritonal range and uses her needle nose and a small, freezing smile for provocation. She can’t stop the idiotic big-budget thinking that turns human beings into grotesques, but she escapes the general dejection — she seems to be enjoying herself. The rest of them, however, including the director, are just alienated from themselves.

Death Becomes Her  is available to stream with a Hulu subscription. Don’t have Hulu yet?  You can sign up here.   ( If you subscribe to a service through our links,  Vulture  may earn an affiliate commission. )

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You can buy "Death Becomes Her" on AMC on Demand, Apple TV, Amazon Video, Google Play Movies, YouTube, Vudu, Microsoft Store as download or rent it on Amazon Video, Google Play Movies, YouTube, Apple TV, Vudu, Microsoft Store, Spectrum On Demand online.

Madeline is married to Ernest, who was once arch-rival Helen's fiance. After recovering from a mental breakdown, Helen vows to kill Madeline and steal back Ernest. Unfortunately for everyone, the introduction of a magic potion causes things to be a great deal more complicated than a mere murder plot.

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Death becomes her.

Forever Young

death becomes her full movie review

Looks seem to be everything in our culture. Trying to appear forever young is a preoccupation with everyone these days, at least in this country. Creams, salves and other products guaranteeing youthful faces and hands, hair dye and trendy coifs that turn back time, varicose veins removed so legs look younger and weight loss pills, shots and exercise programs that promise a new, slimmer body are in high demand. And, if those methods aren’t fast enough for you, there’s always botox injections or simply going under the knife. 

But what if there was a magical potion that could not only guarantee to restore a person’s young, attractive appearance, but also promise eternal life inside that renovated body? That was the premise of the 1992 film by Robert Zemeckis, a black comedy that satirized America’s yen for youthfulness. The popular movie, which starred Meryl Streep, Goldie Hawn, Bruce Willis and Isabella Rossellini, set box office records. It was filled with glamour, star power and, especially for that time, astounding special effects.

The story revolves around the love/hate relationship between two old friends. Madeline Ashton is a fading Broadway celebrity and movie actress, while her longtime friend, Helen Sharp is a former actress and now an aspiring author. Both women find that their looks are fading and are hellbent to do whatever it takes to restore their youth. Although Helen is engaged to Dr. Ernest Menville, a gifted reconstructive mortician, the amoral Madeline sees the surgeon as a means to own her own path to appearing prime. Typical of Miss Ashton, Madeline steals Ernest away from Helen, marries him and drives her friend toward a stay in a mental hospital. 

Time passes and, thanks to Madeline’s push, Dr. Menville has given up his former career to become the “Surgeon to the Stars.” With her own private plastic surgeon in the house, Madeline Ashton thinks she’s struck gold, while Helen Sharp continues wasting away in a mental ward. Shortly afterwards, Madeline discovers the mysterious cult of lovely Viola Van Horn, the mistress of a private club where, for a huge sum of money, one can buy a potion that promises a eternal youth and life. But Helen escapes from the mental institution with vengeance consuming every fiber of her being. Suddenly, the plot turns to revenge, and it is true that it’s best served cold.

death becomes her full movie review

Based upon the popular cult film, DEATH BECOMES HER is a brand new, Broadway-bound musical to die for. With a clever, hilarious book by television sitcom writer, Marco Pennette, and a catchy musical score co-written by Julia Mattison and Noel Carey, this electrifying new show is practically perfect in every way. 

Known by most audiences as Ivy Lynn, from NBC’s delightful musical drama, “Smash,” Megan Hilty is magnificent as the overbearing, egomaniac, Madeline Ashton. Remembered by avid theatergoers for her wonderful portrayals of Glinda, in WICKED, Doralee Rhodes, the Dolly Parton-inspired character in the musical of 9 TO 5, and her brilliant, Tony-nominated role of Brooke Aston (another Ashton!) in NOISES OFF, Ms. Hilty absolutely owns the stage in this musical. From her show-stopping opening number to her 11th hour duet with her costar, Megan Hilty leaves no doubt that she’s a bonafide Toast of the Town. Ms. Hilty is one of many reasons to drop everything to go and see this priceless preBroadway production.

As astounding and mega talented as her costar, lovely Jennifer Simard is absolute perfection as Helen Sharp. The multi-award-winning Broadway star, who dazzled in COMPANY, ONCE UPON A ONE MORE TIME, MEAN GIRLS, HELLO DOLLY and the cult hit, DISASTER! is great! Ms. Simard, a real Broadway Baby, acts and sings the hell out of this role and is Megan Hilty’s talented equal at every turn in this new musical.

Although the story is dominated by the two competing, designing women, Broadway star Christopher Sieber easily holds his own as Dr. Ernest Menville. Often playing second fiddle to the two dog-eat-dog divas, Mr. Sieber provides plenty of laughs and offers scores of standout moments. His solo number in the second act, performed in his study, is genius. Performed by a veteran of so many wonderful musicals, Mr. Sieber, who’s been enjoyed in such shows as COMPANY, MATILDA, PIPPIN, LA CAGE AUX FOLLES, SHREK and my favorite, SPAMALOT, is sensational.

death becomes her full movie review

Beautiful, and a singer without equal, Michelle Williams does a fine job as the mysterious Viola Van Horn. Known for her musical prowess, especially as a member of Destiny’s Child, Ms. Williams has appeared on Broadway in the musicals THE COLOR PURPLE and CHICAGO. From her first glorious entrance, rising from the depths of the orchestra pit, to leading the cast in several impressive ensemble numbers, she initiates the story. Michelle Williams looks great and sounds phenomenal. However, there are moments when, as an actor, the singer doesn’t appear completely involved. Perhaps it’s the way the role is written, but Ms. Williams could be stronger and fiercer. Right now her character doesn’t feel as if she’s totally in the moment.

Did I mention the ensemble? Wow! This large company of truly gifted actor/singer/dancers is peerless. Musically Directed and Conducted by Ben Cohn, with terrific stage Direction and acrobatic Choreography by Broadway’s beloved Tony-winner, Christopher Gattelli (known for his astounding work in NEWSIES), this gorgeous and gifted ensemble simply glitters and glows. 

Technical artistry is on display every moment of this sumptuous show. Scenic Designer Derek McLane impresses with plush settings that flow on and off stage seamlessly. They’re bathed in Justin Townsend’s lush Lighting, which, like the entire company, makes the show look fabulous. Paul Tazewell’s stylish Costume Designs are made even more beautiful by Joe Dulude II’s Makeup Designs and, especially, the elaborate Hair and Wig Designs created by Charles LaPointe. Kudos to the unbelievable Illusions, designed by Rob Lake, and Fight Director Thomas Schall’s perfectly choreographed physical combat.

In this dark, sharply satirical comedy, a fantasy about our obsession to stay forever young, Christopher Gattelli has conjured up an incredible production. It’s filled with star power, magnificent performances, a gorgeous look and sound, plenty of bitchiness and nonstop laughs. The show has an easy-to-follow story based upon the popular film, with a score guaranteed to enchant every adult theatergoer. 

Heading to Broadway in the Fall, here’s an opportunity to see this incredible show without traveling to the Big Apple. DEATH BECOMES HER, however, is a work in progress and there’s still time for some tweaks and tempering before October. After all, that’s what this Broadway in Chicago production is for. The script could use a few edits and the musical score is still being reworked, with numbers added and deleted daily. But this stellar new show, unlike many shows that’ve had their out-of-town tryouts in Chicago, is practically perfect in every way and ready for its closeup. DEATH BECOMES HER is a bonafide hit!   

Highly Recommended

Reviewed by Colin Douglas

Presented April 30-June 2 by Broadway in Chicago at the Cadillac Palace Theatre, 151 W. Randolph, Chicago.

Tickets are available at all BIC box offices, at all Ticketmaster retail locations, by calling the Broadway in Chicago Ticket Line at 800-775-2000 or by going to  www.BroadwayInChicago.com

Additional information about this and other area productions can be found at  www.theatreinchicago.com .

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Rotten Tomatoes® Score

Death Becomes Her is a magical and delightful illustration of queerness without sexuality.

The mood conjured by Zemeckis is midnight movie meets cartoon meets shrill melodrama meets showbiz satire

Its stars [are] easily able to keep pace with its big dramatic beats, and Zemeckis directs with the confidence essential to comedy. Death Becomes Her doesn't pull any punches. Hollywood deserved it, and so do you.

The target of the movie's jokes is female vanity, but since Zemeckis exhibits not a trace of affection for the actresses (or for any of the men, either), one feels humiliated merely watching his crude-spirited wit.

This is a 100 percent Hollywood story... It's not relateable to the average person.

The dizzy, desperate energy of the way she portrays Madeline Ashton is so unlike the staid regality of say, her Julia Childs or Margaret Thatcher.

It's the f*cking best!

Every scene that Streep and Hawn play together has a bold spark indicative of the symbiosis between females with the same goals and ambitions.

Despite an array of impressive special effects, including a particularly inventive twist on the famous head-swivelling scene in The Exorcist, Death Becomes Her dies its own slow and painful death.

Additional Info

  • Genre : Comedy, Fantasy
  • Release Date : July 31, 1992
  • Languages : English, Spanish
  • Captions : English
  • Audio Format : Stereo

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The Gayest Movies That Aren’t Actually Gay, from ‘Barbie’ and ‘Burlesque’ to ‘Venom’ and ‘Road House’

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death becomes her full movie review

[Editor’s note: This list was originally published in June 2023 and has since been updated.]

If “Barbie” tells us anything, it’s that a movie doesn’t have to be gay to be, well, gay . So what makes a movie gay if it isn’t explicitly? Cast a few top-shelf gay icons in there — your Bette Middlers , your Joan Crawfords, your Faye Dunaways playing Joan Crawford — and especially have them reparteeing bitchy lines tearing each other to pieces, and have an aesthetic that’s outre and unironically camp, and you’ve got the winning-formula starter-pack for something deliciously fabulous and queer, even if not by intentional design.

Some films have gotten swept up into the queer canon by virtue of their unintentional awfulness or arguable quality (“Showgirls,” “Mommie Dearest,” “Glitter,” that ghastly but delightful remake of “The Stepford Wives”) while others actually push forward the cinematic medium to create something that stands the tests of time and the weathers of queer folks and their mercurial tastes. Robert Zemeckis’ Oscar-winning “Death Becomes Her” boasts the double whammy of Meryl Streep and Goldie Hawn ripping each other apart in an actress-diva showdown that’s about actress-diva showdowns, but the campy classic also broadened the borders of in-camera and CGI effects in cinema . How did they get Goldie Hawn to look like she actually had a hole in her stomach (“There’s a hole in my stomach!”) after Meryl Streep shotguns one right through her? It’s simpler than it looks.

But setting a precedent for movies now canonized by gay culture that don’t technically have any (non-coded, anyway) gay characters were some of Hollywood’s most all-time legendary actresses: Bette Davis in “All About Eve” made “it’s going to be a bumpy ride” an idiomatic quip, while Elizabeth Taylor then made Bette Davis’ “what a dump” even more iconic again in the opening line of “Who’s Afraid of Virginia Woolf,” delivered while gnawing down on a chicken wing. And what’s queerer than a biting or saucy comeback in the age of Reading? Whoopi Goldberg in “The Sister Act” made “it’s better than sex” a retort so embedded in the cultural consciousness that we almost forget where it came from.

Ed Bianchi’s 1981 “The Fan,” meanwhile, delivered perhaps the greatest gift to gay film fans of a certain era in casting Lauren Bacall as an aging actress struggling to hold onto her legacy while being stalked by, what else but, a psychotic gay fan. Films like “ 9 to 5 ” and “Steel Magnolias” keep captivating us because their casts are all top-to-toe, iconic-among-the-gays women who can induce tears and laughs and shout unforgettably quotable lines in the same scene. Even documentaries can resonate among the queer community who’ve adopted the films’ banter into their own everyday speech: What really is the best costume for today, as Little Edie says in the Maysles’ monumental “Grey Gardens”? There’s also, of course, the trend in many of these movies of men being humiliated and debased — something the gay males in the audience love to partake in — leaving our iconic women with all the chips in the end and whom we can leave the theater rooting for.

Below, IndieWire rounds up some of the best decidedly non-gay films that are actually gay after all — and gayer than many contemporary movies proclaiming themselves as such actually are. Horror films have been excluded (since there’s a separate list for that ), and all entries are ordered chronologically.

With editorial contributions by Alison Foreman, Ryan Lattanzio, Jude Dry, Tom Brueggemann, and Mark Peikert. 

‘The Wizard of Oz’ (1939)

THE WIZARD OF OZ, from left: Billie Burke as 'Glinda', Judy Garland as 'Dorothy', 1939

What it is: If you’ve been living under a Kansas farm dropped on you by a twister and need an explainer, ‘The Wizard of Oz’ is MGM’s iconic musical adaptation of L. Frank Baum’s classic children’s book, starring Judy Garland as a prairie girl exploring a magical world of adventure.

Why it’s gay: Well, consider how ‘Friend of Dorothy’ is a widespread slang term for queer men and that should be sufficient explanation. But if you need more convincing, ‘The Wizard of Oz’s’ campy, colorful musical story has long been interpreted through a queer lens, as a metaphor for LGBT people who venture outside of black-and-white middle America for gay communities in cities like New York or San Francisco. There are so many moments and characters in the film that come across now as unintentional nods to the queer fans who fell in love with it, from Dorothy’s ‘Over the Rainbow’ torch song to the Cowardly Lion’s preening appearance and tendency to refer to himself as a sissy. And, of course, Dorothy is easily the most iconic role of Garland, a bonafide LGBT icon still beloved by gay men everywhere. —WC

‘Brief Encounter’ (1945)

BRIEF ENCOUNTER, from left: Trevor Howard, Celia Johnson, 1945

What it is: Although it has been staged with two men (in 2015 in London), the straight couple’s situation in ‘Brief Encounter’ — a drama of two married people (Celia Johnson, Trevor Howard) meeting by chance and their growing mutual affection — works fine as a metaphor for barriers to gay romance.

Why it’s gay:  More than the one-act Noel Coward play (the gay writer expanded the screenplay), this denies the possibility of realistic consummation, elevates the frustration in impossible love, and deals with the costs of turning honest people into liars. The barriers to adultery among 1940s bourgeois English suburbanites are achingly clear here, but decades later, and still in many societies, the realities of impossible love have rarely been so emotionally portrayed. —TB

“All About Eve” (1950)

ALL ABOUT EVE, Bette Davis, Marilyn Monroe, George Sanders, 1950. TM and Copyright (c) 20th Century Fox Film Corp. All rights reserved.

What it is: A classic story of showbiz scheming, “All About Eve” is named after its central villain Eve Harrington (Anne Baxter): a young woman taken under the wing of famous Broadway star Margo Channing (Bette Davis), all while plotting her rise as an actress.

Why it’s gay:  Bette Davis, we (the queer community) love you. “All About Eve” has long been analyzed through a queer lens, with many interpreting Eve and the character of Addison DeWitt (George Sanders) as gay. But even if you think everyone in the film is heterosexual, its gay appeal is undeniable, with an icon like Davis in the lead, gorgeous costumes, and all of the delightfully bitchy snark between the magnificent actresses. —WC

“Johnny Guitar” (1954)

JOHNNY GUITAR, Joan Crawford, 1954

What it is: A female-fronted Western shot in lurid Technicolor and starring Joan Crawford in one of her most outré performances. 

Why it’s gay: Nicholas Ray’s cult classic plays out like a demented, closeted lesbian love story. If they can’t be together, saloon owner Vienna (Crawford) and angry townie Emma Small (Mercedes McCambridge) will murder each other instead. “I’m going to kill you,” Emma tells Vienna. “Not if I kill you first,” Vienna replies, and it feels like a kiss. —MP

“The Long Gray Line” (1955)

THE LONG GRAY LINE,  from left, Maureen O'Hara, Tyrone Power, Sean McClory,  1955

What it is: Marty Maher (Tyrone Power), an Irish immigrant, spends decades as an athletic instructor at West Point. He bonds with an ever-changing collection of young men in peak condition and masculine traits overlapping two world wars and cadets including George Patton, Dwight Eisenhower, and Omar Bradley. He marries a feisty cook (Maureen O’Hara), another Irish immigrant, but their son doesn’t survive birth. That tragedy is muted by the continuity of cadets who remain his raison d’etre.

Why it’s gay: America’s arguably greatest director is normally regarded as heteronormative (Westerns, war films, John Wayne, American history), but his work is full of subtextual gay interest, rarely as much as here. The visual cues (Marty at one point straddles and fondles the famous cannon overlooking the Hudson, frequent eye candy shots of the handsome young cast, often in athletic poses) are matched by Marty’s fanatical commitment to the young men he teaches and mentors. When his son is born, the focus is on Marty being presented a saber by serenading cadets. Tragically the boy dies, with his wife and her grief downplayed beyond her telling him, “We have so many fine boys here.” Needless to say, none of this was noted as the film reached a wide audience. The core theme — the glories of a lifetime replenishment with top of the line young male companionship — is staring viewers right in the face. —TB

“Picnic” (1955)

PICNIC, from left, Susan Strasberg, Reta Shaw, Elizabeth Wilson, Arthur O'Connell, Rosalind Russell, Betty Field, 1955

What it is: A prominent theater director, Joshua Logan made his film debut with this adaptation of a Broadway hit from Daniel Taradash. Hal (William Holden), a handsome drifter, comes to visit his frat brother in small-town Kansas. Though his interest lies with local beauty queen Madge (Kim Novak), her little sister Millie (Susan Strasberg) and aging spinster Rosemary (Rosalind Russell) also vie for attention. 

Why it’s gay: Beyond its possible inclusion because of the bare-chested Holden — a 1950s Hollywood beefcake, seen here deep into his career — what is notable is a possible alternative interpretation of two female characters. The ridiculous Rosemary, sympathetically portrayed, has overtones of common older gay lust fantasies for younger men. And Millie, like Inge Kansas-born with aspirations for New York life, is an ambiguous character who exists outside normal schoolgirl crush territory. —TB

“Auntie Mame” (1958)

AUNTIE MAME, Rosalind Russell, 1958

What it is: The fabulous Mame Dennis takes in her orphaned nephew, Patrick, and introduces him to a wild, cosmopolitan world while battling a stuffy banker over his future.

Why it’s gay: Mame Dennis Burnside is, quite simply, mother. She shows Patrick sophistication, adventure, and her chosen family: all while maintaining a fabulous wardrobe and an absolute refusal to kowtow to close-minded bigots. When she tells Patrick’s trustee that she won’t allow him to marry her nephew off to “some Aryan from Darien with braces on her brains,” you can practically hear the queer audiences booking their tickets to go live with her, too. After all, “Life is a banquet, and most poor suckers are starving to death.” —MP

“Valley of the Dolls” (1967)

VALLEY OF THE DOLLS, Barbara Parkins, Sharon Tate, Patty Duke, 1967, TM & Copyright (c) 20th Century Fox Film Corp. All rights reserved

What it is: Three women — good girl Anne, self-destructive starlet Neely (inspired by Judy Garland), and voluptuous Jennifer — navigate love, careers, and an addiction to pills in this camp classic.

Why it’s gay: What makes it gay? Everything! From the catfight in the powder room to the over-the-top dialogue to the jaw-dropping musical numbers and not one but two montages that serve as mind-boggling time capsules of the ’60s, the film is so outrageous that it inspired generations of gay viewers to scream, “Sparkle, Neely, sparkle!” Not to mention Susan Hayward’s towering performance as an ice-cold diva that feels like the ur-text for Charles Busch’s performances. —MP

“Barbarella” (1968)

BARBARELLA, Jane Fonda, John Phillip Law, 1968

What it is: Jane Fonda’s least favorite role is also one of her most iconic. Directed by her then-husband Roger Vadim, this bizarro sci-fi comedy sees Fonda playing a scantily clad astronaut who lives in a shag carpet-lined spaceship. 

Why it’s gay:  A wacky sexploitation film with high camp production values and a killer theme song, Barbarella must fight the evil Durand Durand (from which iconic New Wave band Duran Duran took its name), while seducing a shirtless Aryan angel and outlasting an evil sex machine.  —JD

“Grey Gardens” (1975)

GREY GARDENS, Edith Bouvier Beale (back left), daughter Edith Bouvier Beale aka 'Little Edie', 1975

What it is: Albert and David Maysles had already made a name for themselves by 1975, but they tapped into a new audience with their fly-on-the-wall look at this forgotten corner of the American bourgeoisie. The film follows a mother/daughter duo known as Big Edie and Little Edie — cousins of Jackie O’s — who spend their days bickering and feeding the cats and raccoons that reside at their crumbling East Hampton estate.

Why it’s gay: Endlessly quotable and dripping with the indefatigable spirit of a staunch character, the tragic woman takes on a theatrical magnificence with Little Edie’s every twirl and outfit change. Toying coquettishly with the men behind the camera and reminiscing about her high society days, Little Edie is the very picture of beleaguered femininity — something every old queen can aspire to.  —JD

“9 to 5” (1980)

NINE TO FIVE (aka 9 TO 5), Lily Tomlin, 1980, TM & Copyright © 20th Century Fox Film Corp./courtesy Everett Collection

What it is: A defining film of the late days of the women’s liberation movement, this workplace comedy starred Dolly Parton, Lily Tomlin, and Jane Fonda as an unlikely trio of working women who kidnap their sexist boss to run the company themselves.

Why it’s gay: Starring a trifecta of hilariously talented legends, “9 to 5” uses slapstick, sexuality, and men’s humiliation to shine a light on workplace harassment and discrimination. We like our politics with a heaping dose of comedy and fabulosity.  —JD

‘Xanadu’ (1980)

XANADU, from left:  Olivia Newton-John, Michael Beck, 1980. ©Universal/courtesy Everett Collection

What it is:  Robert Greenwald’s notorious box office flop stars a fresh off of ‘Grease’ Olivia Newton-John as Kira, or the ancient Greek muse of dance Terpsichore. Emerging in 1980 Los Angeles, she enchants the bored artist Sonny Malone (Michael Beck) and encourages him to achieve the great artistic feat of…opening a roller skating disco with Gene Kelly. 

Why it’s gay:  Calling ‘Xanadu’ campy is a bit like calling ‘Citizen Kane’ a good movie; it’s a giant under-exaggeration of just how over-the-top, madly ridiculous it is. Released right as disco was facing homophobic and racist backlash, ‘Xanadu’ never stood a chance among straight 1980 audiences, but now has a rabid gay fanbase who can appreciate Kelly’s great performance, Olivia Newton-John’s musical stylings, those hilariously cheap special effects, and objectively banger soundtrack from Electric Light Orchestra. For queer fans, ‘Xanadu’ offers ‘A place where nobody dared to go, the love that we came to know, they call it Xanadu-u-u-u.’

“Mommie Dearest” (1981)

MOMMIE DEAREST, Faye Dunaway, 1981, ©Paramount/courtesy Everett Collection

What it is:  An adaptation of Christina Crawford’s controversial autobiography about her life growing up as the daughter of iconic actress Joan Crawford (played in the film by Faye Dunaway), in which she alleged numerous incidents of abuse from the star.

Why it’s gay: Although “Mommie Dearest” was negatively received at the time of its release, it attracted a strong gay fanbase pretty much immediately, due to Dunaway’s performance, which was received by many as camp — most famously, in the iconic “ no wire hangers ” scene. And in the years since its release, many queer cinema figures have defended the movie as a misunderstood and accurate portrait of abuse; most famously John Waters, who did an entire audio commentary for a collector’s edition DVD release. —WC

“The Fan” (1981)

THE FAN, Michael Biehn, Lauren Bacall (in pictures), 1981, (c) Paramount/courtesy Everett Collection

What it is: Director Edward Bianchi’s 1981 box-office and critical flop stars Lauren Bacall as an aging-out stage and film actress rehearsing for a major Broadway musical while also being terrorized by an obsessive male fan who’s also a serial killer.

Why it’s gay: What’s gayer than a movie with Lauren Bacall being stalked by a closeted musical buff than also that same movie segueing into an out-of-nowhere stage musical medley a la “Singin’ in the Rain’s” entr’acte, featuring Bacall speak-singing onstage while being lifted and twirled around by a pack of male dancers? —RL

“Big Business” (1988)

BIG BUSINESS, from left: Bette Midler, Lily Tomlin, 1988. ©Buene Vista Pictures/courtesy Everett Collection

What it is: What’s better than Bette Midler and Lily Tomlin onscreen together? TWO Bette Midlers and Lily Tomlins onscreen together. This mistaken identity farce stars the comedy divas as two sets of twins separated at birth — one country, one city.

Why it’s gay: Ridiculous, silly, and totally over the top, this sleight piece of slapstick would be totally forgettable were it not for Tomlin and Midler’s performances.  —JD

“Steel Magnolias” (1989)

STEEL MAGNOLIAS, Olympia Dukakis, Shirley MacLaine, 1989

What it is: Screenwriter Robert Harling adapts his 1987 play into a soulful cinematic portrait of six Louisiana women or “steel magnolias”: southern ladies who are tough as nails, but stereotypically feminine in their sensibilities. When the youngest of the group dies suddenly, her mother and friends grieve against a backdrop of melancholy, sweet, and culturally specific camp.

Why it’s gay: What’s gayer than women trying to hold their shit together, while men repeatedly fail them? With a bespoke cast of thespian heavy weights/queer idols — Julia Roberts! Dolly Parton! Tom Skerritt! I said what I said! — “Steel Magnolias” explores the highs and lows of sisterly dramedy like a heaving sob rolling into a deep belly laugh. It’s an earnest story of found family (gay!), punctuated with unforgettable lines: “All gay men have track lighting, and all gay men are named Mark, Rick, or Steve!” —AF

“Road House” (1989)

ROAD HOUSE, Marshall R. Teague, Patrick Swayze, 1989

What it is: Outside of “Cruising,” no other 1980s studio film captured the hyper-masculinity/high testosterone content of “Road House.”

Why it’s gay: Those who had already read queer cues in “Top Gun” three years earlier saw some in the story of Dalton (Patrick Swayze, his first major film after “Dirty Dancing”), as a “cooler” imported to a Missouri small-town bar from New York to impose order. That means confronting other equally pumped up toughies. In the climatic fight, his biggest rival sneers at Dalton: “I used to fuck guys like you in prison.” Swayze, shirtless, sweaty, and leanly muscular, rises to the challenge. An off-Broadway music later played up the campness. Jake Gyllenhaal, today’s sensitive hunk, was the lead in the remake released earlier this year. —TB

“Mermaids” (1990)

MERMAIDS, Cher, 1990, (c) Orion/courtesy Everett Collection

What it is: Cher plays a spectacularly messy mom to Winona Ryder and Christina Ricci in this moving family dramedy from “Made in America” director Richard Benjamin.

Why it’s gay: Plenty of queer people will see the trauma of instability reflected in the tumultuous childhoods of the two “Mermaids” girls. But they’ll also see themselves in the spectacular resilience of Cher’s imperfect Rachel Flax, whose volatile outbursts are as gay as her best lines (“Don’t do anything I wouldn’t do — or do anything I would!”) Plus, Cher dressed a mermaid. I repeat, Cher dressed as a mermaid .  —AF

“Fried Green Tomatoes” (1991)

FRIED GREEN TOMATOES, director Jon Avnet, Mary Stuart Masterson, Mary-Louise Parker on set, 1991, (c) Universal/courtesy Everett Collection

What it is: What could be a heartbreaking two-hander between Mary Stuart Masterson and Mary-Louise Parker becomes a devastating and delicious group affair told in two time periods, with a wraparound story featuring Kathy Bates and Jessica Tandy. Adapted from Fannie Flagg’s “Fried Green Tomatoes at the Whistle Stop Cafe,” one story is that of two really good “friends” (OK, sure, right, that’s a lie) who open a restaurant in Alabama in the 1940s. The other frames their story through the lens of a dejected housewife connecting with a wisecracking woman in a 1980s nursing home.

Why it’s gay: There’s a real “dyke who is tired of your shit” energy to Bates’ singular performance as unhinged legend Evelyn Couch. (Long live, Towanda.) But “Fried Green Tomatoes” is first and foremost known among lesbians for its poignant and painful portrayal of two rural women falling head over heels, and never requiting their love for one another. The bee charmer scenes alone are enough to make you cry. —AF

“Death Becomes Her” (1992)

DEATH BECOMES HER, from left: Meryl Streep, Goldie Hawn, 1992, © Universal/courtesy Everett Collection

What it is: Here we are again with those fading actresses. This one is Madeline Ashton, played by Meryl Streep, who happens upon an immortality treatment patented by Isabella Rossellini, that will make her instantly younger. Unfortunately, she’s vying against her longtime rival Helen Sharp (Goldie Hawn), who’s also taken the serum.

Why it’s gay: If any of that didn’t sound self-evidently gay to you, then I can’t help you. —RL

“Sister Act” (1992)

SISTER ACT, from left: Whoopi Goldberg, Kathy Najimy, 1992. ph: Suzanne Hanover / © Buena Vista Pictures / Courtesy Everett Collection

What it is: Whoopi Goldberg solidified her box office gold status with this clever comedy about a Vegas showgirl who must go under cover as a nun as part of a witness protection program.

Why it’s gay: A reverent rendition of “My Guy” that truly slaps, a breakout performance from Kathy Najimy as a jubilant nun, and Whoopi proving why she was comedy queen of the ’90s. This movie is so full of hilarious women, it’s sad how much of a rarity that is these days. —JD

“Hocus Pocus” (1993)

HOCUS POCUS, Kathy Najimy, Sarah Jessica Parker (top), Thora Birch (bottom), Bette Midler, 1993. ©Buena Vista Pictures/Courtesy Everett Collection

What it is: Starring Bette Midler, Sarah Jessica Parker, and Kathy Najimy as three sister witches, this kids’ comedy was panned upon release only to become one of the most popular Halloween movies of all time.

Why it’s gay: Three comedic divas in a flamboyant comedy with an occult twist? Many a ’90s child was turned out by “Hocus Pocus” before they knew what hit them. —JD

“Muriel’s Wedding” (1994)

MURIEL'S WEDDING, Sophie Lee, Toni Collette, 1994. ©  Miramax/ Courtesy: Everett Collection

What it is: Toni Collette’s star-making role was in this irresistible dark comedy with a quirky ’90s aesthetic about an avid ABBA fan who will stop at nothing to find love and acceptance.

Why it’s gay: Collette is hilariously pathetic as the eccentric outcast who longs to leave her podunk town, and Rachel Griffiths is fabulously glib as her best friend Rhonda. Though she puts her trust in all the wrong people, including an impossibly hunky Olympic swimmer, Muriel’s misplaced ambition is sadly relatable.  —JD

“Showgirls” (1995)

SHOWGIRLS, 1995. (c) United Artists/ Courtesy Everett Collection.

What it is:  A notorious flop that divides people into “it’s brilliant” and “it’s trash” camps to this day, Paul Verhoeven’s “Showgirls” is the NC-17 story of Nomi (Elizabeth Berkley), who travels to Los Angeles, and gets a job as a stripper in the hopes of finding stardom.

Why it’s gay:  A spiritual successor to “All About Eve” where Eve is our protagonist, “Showgirls” was destined to be queer cinema from the moment it was released. Its camp value is evident, with so many iconic moments to obsess over: the pool sex scene, “different places,” “man everybody’s got AIDS and shit.” But what really pushes it into the gay film canon is Gina Gershon’s hammy performance as bisexual star dancer Cristal, and the love/hate chemistry she builds with Berkley, which arguably single-handedly lifts the film from so bad it’s good to just plain good. —WC

“Welcome to the Dollhouse” (1995)

WELCOME TO THE DOLLHOUSE, Eric Mabius, 1995. ©Sony Pictures Classics/courtesy Everett Collection

What it is: Todd Solondz invented the overused term “quirky comedy” with this zany coming-of-age dark comedy. Starring Heather Matarazzo, who would later come out as queer just in time to terrorize Jenny Schecter, the film is a love letter to losers and weirdos.

Why it’s gay: With her garish sweaters and scrunchies to the high heavens, Dawn Winer is a true gay icon of her time. A horn-ball with no game who gets rejected at every turn, she is the misguided epitome of every awkward queer kid.  —JD

“The First Wives Club” (1996)

THE FIRST WIVES CLUB, from left: Diane Keaton, Goldie Hawn, Bette Midler, 1996. © Paramount / Courtesy Everett Collection

What it is: Three divorcées — played by Diane Keaton, Bette Midler, and Goldie Hawn — seek retribution against the ex-husbands who’ve left them for much younger women after their friend (a brief yet boozy Stockard Channing) commits suicide when her husband leaves her for the same.

Why it’s gay: Any 1990s Bette Midler joint is inherently gay on its own terms, but Hawn as a washed-out actress pumping herself with fillers and Keaton as her usual shriekingly neurotic self certainly help. So does the climactic song-and-dance sequence featuring the three women belting out Lesley Gore’s “You Don’t Own Me” dressed in all white. —RL

“Glitter” (2001)

GLITTER, Mariah Carey (center), 2001, TM & Copyright © 20th Century Fox Film Corp./courtesy Everett Collection

What it is:  Mariah Carey officially entered her early 2000s fallow period (or flop era, as modern parlance deems it) with “Glitter,” a musical drama that bombed at the box office so hard people declared her chart-topping days over (she would prove them wrong with “The Emancipation of Mimi” in 2005). Carey stars in the film from Vondie Curtis Hall as “Billie Frank,” an aspiring singer who chases her dreams while falling in love with DJ Dice (Max Beesley).

Why it’s gay:  Gay people love Mariah Carey. Gay people love pop music. Gay people love flop eras (it’s kind of camp to be a celebrity and still fail). “Glitter” was destined to be embraced by queer fans who adore its cheesy as hell storyline and tenuous connection to reality (Literally why is this movie set in the ‘80s?) But what really elevates the film to gay movie status is the soundtrack, which is full of sad bangers like “Never too Far” and regular bangers like “Loverboy.” Initially subject to negative reviews, it was rediscovered and embraced by fans in 2018, who used the campaign #justiceforglitter to push it onto the top of the iTunes charts. If you’re the subject of a stan campaign, you know gay teenagers love you.  —WC

“The Stepford Wives” (2004)

THE STEPFORD WIVES, Faith Hill (center right), 2004, (c) Paramount/courtesy Everett Collection

What it is:  Nicole Kidman shines to the point of blinding in 2004’s “The Stepford Wives”: Frank Oz’s remake of the 1975 film, which in turn adapts the 1972 feminist satire from “Rosemary’s Baby” novelist Ira Levin.

Why it’s gay: Even for the man who has everything, there’s no beating a Stepford Wife. Everything you’d hoped “Don’t Worry Darling” would be but wasn’t, this kitschy sci-fi hellscape pushes heteronormativity and pastel color blocking to their most perfectly repellant. Come for the promise of a suburb populated by the most awfully flawless nuclear families in cinematic history. Stay for those characters being played by queer comedy mainstays from Matthew Broderick and Glenn Close to Roger Bart and Bette Midler.  —AF

“Burlesque” (2010)

BURLESQUE, center: Christina Aguilera, 2010, ©Screen Gems/courtesy Everett Collection

What it is: The blissfully one-note “Burlesque” is your basic Hollywood Cinderella fantasy, but with the audacity to cast pop superstars Christina Aguilera and Cher as its starry-eyed ingénue and her underdog LA mentor.

Why it’s gay: The bedazzled pin-up girl look so many shes, theys, and gays enjoyed in the aughts was already on its way out when “Burlesque” hit theaters. But writer/director Steve Antin’s 2010 musical cult classic remains a dazzling tribute to sexed-up chair dancing, big light-up letters, and those sequined body suits from the “Lady Marmalade” music video. Covering crooner classics and introducing a few bangers of its own, this campy lap dance of a movie is flawlessly frenetic. Christina and Cher lip quiver the hell out of each other. Stanley Tucci plays a gay man with a glitter gun. The whole things gets solved because of a nonsensical twist involving air rights. Beautiful ( “ beautiful, beautiful, beautiful “). —AF

“Venom” (2018)

VENOM, left: Tom Hardy as Venom, 2018. © Columbia Pictures/courtesy Everett Collection

What it is: This rom-com tracks the classic love triangle between a boy (Tom Hardy’s Eddie Brock), a girl (Michelle Williams’ Anne Weying), and an extraterrestrial symbiotic parasite living in the boy’s body (Venom, voiced by Hardy).

Why it’s gay: Outwardly, Sony superhero flick “Venom” is an extremely heterosexual movie, with a brooding macho antihero fighting against crime. But the relationship between Eddie and the symbiotic Venom has always had a queer tinge to it in the comics, and it’s very apparent in this film, where their bond takes the form of a bickering screwball comedy duo that eventually learns to love each other. The subtext veers extremely close to plain text in the film’s emotional climax, where the symbiote possesses Anne and kisses Eddie. But even if you don’t see the romantic heat between Hardy and the CGI monster living in his body, the film’s po-faced seriousness combined with its utter ridiculousness creates something deeply, wonderfully camp. Is there a moment in superhero film history more gay than when Michelle Williams very sincerely tells Tom Hardy “Hey. I’m sorry about Venom? ” Not in our books. —WC

“Barbie” (2023)

a still from barbie

What it is:  Greta Gerwig’s take on the Barbie toy franchise stars Margot Robbie as the leading doll, a cheerful being who must leave Barbie Land to find her purpose after she suddenly begins acting less than perfect. 

Why’s it’s gay: Women. “Barbie” is filled with brilliant female actresses as the iconic dolls, from Robbie to trans model Hari Nef to “Insecure’s” Issa Rae, and they’re dressed to the brim in immaculate and gag-worthy outfits. And Barbie Land’s delightful inversion of gender norms, where the Kens are the arm candy to the independent Barbies, makes for an amusing and subtly queer romp through the hot pink world. —WC

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Every Kung Fu Panda Movie, Ranked From Worst To Best

The furious five's roles in kung fu panda 4: where they are & what comes next, is kung fu panda 4 the end of po's story.

Warning: This post contains major spoilers for Kung Fu Panda 4

  • Po defeats Chameleon with Zhen's help and becomes the Spiritual Leader of the Valley of Peace.
  • Zhen becomes the new Dragon Warrior after Po sees her true potential.
  • Kung Fu Panda 4 sets up a sequel exploring Po as a spiritual leader and Zhen's training as the Dragon Warrior.

Kung Fu Panda 4 sees the end of Po’s journey as the Dragon Warrior. Jack Black returns to voice the beloved titular panda in the fourth animated outing in the Kung Fu Panda franchise, which has received mostly positive reviews from critics . At the end of Kung Fu Panda 4 , Po is locked up by Zhen, who steals his staff of knowledge to give to Chameleon. The shape-shifting villain uses it to open the spirit world, calling on Tai Lung and other Kung Fu masters so she can steal their skills and use them to conquer other cities and regions.

Zhen decides to help Po defeat Chameleon. Zhen recruits the Den of Thieves to aid in battle, and they willingly help. With the Den of Thieves distracting Chameleon’s army, Zhen and Po are able to best her with the staff of knowledge, with Po delivering the final blow after Chameleon transformed and channeled all the Kung Fu masters at once. Once the staff returns the Kung Fu masters’ abilities, they all return to the spirit realm with Chameleon in tow. Po thereafter announced Zhen as his successor, while he finally became the Spiritual Leader of the Valley of Peace.

Po and Master Shifu from the Kung Fu Panda movies

The Kung Fu Panda franchise is a force of DreamWorks innovation - but how do all the films rank against one another after Kung Fu Panda 4's release?

The Chameleon's Defeat & Why The Villains Return To The Spirit Realm

Po defeats the chameleon for good.

The Chameleon looking scary in Kung Fu Panda 4

After stealing all of the Kung Fu masters’ skills, the Chameleon becomes nearly unstoppable. But one thing the villain wasn’t betting on was Zhen turning on her and helping Po fight her. Chameleon was too far gone in her obsession with power, and her ego too big to foresee her defeat. The villain truly believed she would be undefeated, but Chameleon ultimately underestimated Po as the Dragon Warrior , who had trained for a long time in Kung Fu, while the skills were stolen by Chameleon and therefore unearned.

Po was able to return Tai Lung and the other Kung Fu masters’ abilities, but the villains returned to the spirit realm because they knew it was the right thing to do . Just because they were pulled from that world didn’t mean they could return to their former glory. Tai Lung especially realized that the staff of knowledge and the Valley of Peace were in good hands with Po as their protector. It would’ve been easy for the Kung Fu Panda villains to exact revenge on Po, but they all knew the spirit realm is where they now belonged.

Why The Former Villains Bow To Po In The End

It's a sign of respect.

Tai Lung looking at camera angry eyes glowing in Kung Fu Panda 4

A rather pivotal moment happens in the end as Tai Lung, Lord Shen, Kai, and more bow to Po. The move is a sign of respect on the part of the powerful Kung Fu Panda villains and a major change in their views of Po. The reason why the villains now come to respect Po is mostly tied to defeating The Chameleon. The returned Tai Lung mentions that Oogway may have been right about Po all along, implying that the panda was actually the best choice to be the Dragon Warrior .

Once Tai Lung bows to Po, Lord Shen, Kai, and other former masters from the Spirit Realm follow his lead. This is a small part of the film's final scenes, but it marks Po's transformation. He is no longer someone who is doubted as the Dragon Warrior, but he has now even earned the respect of former masters and villains . The elevation of his status in the eyes of experts in kung fu becomes another example that Po is ready to move beyond this current title and take his place as the new Spiritual Leader of the Valley of Peace.

Why Po Doesn’t Want To Become Spiritual Leader Of The Valley Of Peace

He doubts his abilities.

Po looking flustered while holding the staff of knowledge in Kung Fu Panda 4

When Shifu told Po that he had to move on to become the Spiritual Leader of the Valley of Peace, Po rejected it — he wanted to remain the Dragon Warrior forever. Po’s hesitation wasn’t just born out of fear of change, which was a part of it, but a lack of confidence in his ability to pass along wisdom. Po had come so far in his journey as Dragon Warrior that he didn’t want to give it up; it was his identity. It was something he knew he was good at, whereas being a spiritual leader was uncharted territory.

It would force him to learn new things he wasn’t entirely comfortable with, at least not at the start of Kung Fu Panda 4 . Po was also hesitant to adapt to such a major change. He was comfortable as the Dragon Warrior; giving advice and knowledge to others was not something he’d really anticipated doing. But Po underestimated himself — he was better at being a spiritual leader than he initially believed. Crucially, Po had to learn that change was a good thing, and it allowed him to become an even better version of himself than he could’ve previously imagined.

Zhen Becomes The New Dragon Warrior In Kung Fu Panda

Po picks her as his replacement.

After defeating Chameleon, Zhen was prepared to return to jail, but Po saw something greater in her. Po took Zhen to the jade palace, declaring her his successor as the new Dragon Warrior. Shifu told Po that he’d just know who the next Dragon Warrior would be and, after a journey that tested them both, Po was more confident than ever that the fox was worthy of carrying on the mantle. Zhen becoming the Dragon Warrior was the second time the title was given to someone who didn’t particularly fit the stereotype of what a warrior looked or acted like.

It makes sense that Zhen was chosen considering she had to make a big decision regarding Chameleon , who, despite her nefarious plans, took her in and mentored her for years. Zhen deciding what was right in such a difficult scenario showcased her ability to change and evolve when presented with new information. It also revealed the heart of gold Zhen had underneath all her armor, proving she had what it took to take on such an important role.

What Kung Fu Panda 4's Director Has Said About Zhen's Future

By becoming the next Dragon Warrior, Zhen's future in the franchise looks incredibly bright. Kung Fu Panda 4 's director Mike Mitchell has teased Zhen's future under Po's mentorship already. He teased that there is still much that the fox needs to learn, saying, "She's not even close to being at the level that Po is at." He suggests that Zhen will need to learn the ropes and improve through training before she becomes the type of Dragon Warrior that Po was. If she is going to achieve that status, though, it will take Po becoming an even greater teacher than he was a fighter.

Where Are The Furious Five In Kung Fu Panda 4?

They don't appear until the credits.

The Furious Five in Kung Fu Panda 3

The Furious Five are noticeably absent in Kung Fu Panda 4 , and Po explains that it’s because they’re each on their own missions. Tiger, Snake, Crane, Monkey, and Mantis’ missions are each shown during a brief montage, but there isn’t much more information given about the details of their whereabouts and why they’re all off separately and at the same time. By Kung Fu Panda 4’s credits scene , the Furious Five have returned to help train Zhen as the next Dragon Warrior.

Po in Kung Fu Panda 4 with the Furious Five characters behind him

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Since Po leaves the Valley of Peace behind in Kung Fu Panda 4 , it’s possible director Mike Mitchell didn’t see the need for the characters to appear in the movie. The fourth installment also heavily revolves around Po’s journey from Dragon Warrior to mentor to Spiritual Leader of the Valley of Peace. Considering how many new characters he interacts with throughout the film, it would have been difficult to spotlight the Furious Five in the same way. At the very least, Kung Fu Panda 4 reveals why the Furious Five are away rather than ignoring them completely .

Why The Furious Five Weren't In Kung Fu Panda 4

The reason for the Furious Five not appearing in Kung Fu Panda 4 has been fully explained by Mitchell. There were ideas considered for the story that would give the characters bigger roles, but it was decided that it was better to leave them out and allow other characters to have bigger roles. He explained that the credits scene appearance was meant to promise that Furious Five will return in the franchise and are not going anywhere. But, Kung Fu Panda 4 was not the place for them to have another major role.

How Po & Zhen's Ending Sets Up Kung Fu Panda 5

Kung fu panda 5 is not confirmed.

Po and Zhen fight together against Chameleon in Kung Fu Panda 4-1

The end of Kung Fu Panda 4 sees Zhen as Po’s successor and training to become the next Dragon Warrior in his place. Meanwhile, Po finally takes up the role of Spiritual Leader of the Valley of Peace. By this point, both characters have helped each other grow, making them ready for the next chapter in their lives. While Kung Fu Panda 4 seems to conclusively end Po’s time as Dragon Warrior, it also sets up a situation that will see Kung Fu Panda 5 explore his new journey as a spiritual leader.

Who Po will give advice to and what exactly this new role pertains could all be further developed. As for Zhen, Kung Fu Panda 4 already showcased the beginning of her training as Dragon Warrior. Kung Fu Panda 5 , however, could explore her role in full. Kung Fu Panda 4 set up Zhen’s character to take over Po’s role from the start, so a sequel movie could delve into her first journey as Dragon Warrior , following the ups and downs of her time in the role as she becomes more accustomed to the training and what the role entails.

Po in Kung Fu Panda 4 and a fight

Kung Fu Panda 4's story raises questions about Po's future in the franchise, if this is the end of his story, and what could come next for him.

What DreamWorks & Jack Black Have Said About Kung Fu Panda 5

Kung Fu Panda 5 hasn't officially been confirmed, but the possibilities for the story are endless now that Zhen has been introduced. It has already been stated by Stephanie Ma-Stine that Po's story is not over as she teased Kung Fu Panda 5 's future . Jack Black has so far not commented on the likelihood of another sequel happening, but he has remained interested in continuing to play the panda. With Kung Fu Panda 4 becoming a major success, there is a much stronger probability that Kung Fu Panda 5 will eventually be confirmed by DreamWorks.

The Real Meaning Of Kung Fu Panda 4’s Ending

The film has an important message.

Po flies up preparing to hit a nemesis in Kung Fu Panda 4

Kung Fu Panda 4’s ending reveals the power that can come with accepting change , with the message being not to fear it because it’s a natural part of life and one’s personal evolution. Po and Zhen were both afraid of change. They’d become accustomed to their lives being a certain way, but what they were really fearful of was failing to live up to expectations. This was especially the case with Po. What their journeys in Kung Fu Panda 4 showed them was that change was necessary, even if it was uncomfortable, if they wanted to grow and move on.

Kung Fu Panda 4 Poster Featuring Po and Supporting Characters Flying Through the Air

Kung Fu Panda 4 is the fourth film in the animated martial arts adventure franchise. The film will see Po leave his home and enter the city to search for his future Dragon Warrior replacement while dealing with a dangerous shapeshifting foe known as The Chameleon.

Kung Fu Panda 4 (2024)

  • Kung Fu Panda

Donald Sutherland, veteran actor and father of Kiefer Sutherland, dead at 88

His films include "Ordinary People," "The Hunger Games," "M*A*S*H" and more.

Actor Donald Sutherland , who starred in films including "Klute," "M*A*SH*," "Ordinary People" and, more recently, played the evil President Snow in "The Hunger Games" franchise, has died at age 88.

Sutherland's son, actor Kiefer Sutherland, posted the news to social media.

Kiefer Sutherland Says He 'Waited 30 Years' to Work With Dad Donald

PHOTO: Donald Sutherland (L) and Kiefer Sutherland attend the "Forsaken" premiere during the 2015 Toronto International Film Festival at Roy Thomson Hall on September 16, 2015 in Toronto, Canada.

"With a heavy heart, I tell you that my father, Donald Sutherland, has passed away," Sutherland wrote. "I personally think one of the most important actors in the history of film. Never daunted by a role, good, bad or ugly. He loved what he did and did what he loved, and one can never ask for more than that. A life well lived."

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Born on July 17, 1935, in Saint John, New Brunswick, Canada, Donald Sutherland got his start in acting as a student and went on to a prolific career that included nearly 150 film credits and over 40 television roles.

His first acting roles were in the early television series "Man of the World" and "Suspense." He had more small roles across television in film throughout the 1960s before landing the role of Vernon L. Pinkley in the 1967 World War II classic film, "The Dirty Dozen."

Donald Sutherland then played Army surgeon Hawkeye Pierce in director Robert Altman's 1970 film version of "M*A*S*H," which inspired the classic TV series. The role launched a series of film roles and projects for the actor throughout the 1970s, including the drama "Klute" in 1971, in which he starred alongside Jane Fonda, who won the Best Actress Oscar for her role.

PHOTO: Donald Sutherland in a suit and tie on the street; circa 1970; New York.

In 1980, Donald Sutherland starred opposite Mary Tyler Moore in the Robert Redford-directed drama "Ordinary People," which also starred Judd Hirsch and 20-year-old Timothy Hutton, who became the youngest-ever Best Supporting Actor Oscar-winner for his role in the film, one of five Academy Awards it won.

The actor returned to Broadway in 1981 after his 1969 debut in "Buck White," and starred in the Edward Albee-adapted play of Vladimir Nabokov's novel, "Lolita."

Following Broadway, Sutherland continued to star in many notable films throughout the 1980s and 1990s, including "A Dry White Season" in 1989 alongside Marlon Brando, and in writer/director Oliver Stone's controversial "JFK" in 1991, with Kevin Costner, Kevin Bacon and Tommy Lee Jones.

In the 2000s, Donald Sutherland's career in film continued to thrive with roles in the action comedy "Space Cowboys" in 2000, the Civil War drama "Cold Mountain" in 2003, in which he starred in with Nicole Kidman, and the heist film "The Italian Job" in 2003, with Charlize Theron.

Sutherland also portrayed Mr. Bennett in the 2005 film adaptation of "Pride & Prejudice," with Keira Knightley, Matthew Macfadyen, Rosamund Pike and more.

Sutherland reached a new generation of fans when he starred in four films in "The Hunger Games" action drama franchise, playing Coriolanus Snow, the tyrannical president of the fictional Panem. The franchise's star-studded cast included Jennifer Lawrence, Josh Hutcherson, Liam Hemsworth, Stanley Tucci and more.

While speaking with " Good Morning America " in 2015 about "The Hunger Games: Mockingjay -- Part 1," Donald Sutherland said of playing President Snow, "he's not misunderstood, he runs a totalitarian state -- he's an oligarch," adding, "I just wanted to be a part of it. I wanted to end my life being part of something that I thought would maybe catalyze and revolutionize young people."

Tom Blyth, who played a young Coriolanus Snow in "The Hunger Games: The Ballad of Songbirds and Snakes," paid tribute to Donald Sutherland on Instagram and wrote, "Donald Sutherland came about as close to mastering the craft of acting as anyone gets."

"So may genius performances," he continued. "I never had the honor of knowing him personally, but it was the honor of a lifetime to follow in his footsteps. Thank you sir for birthing one of the great movie characters of all time."

PHOTO: Donald Sutherland attends the Opening Ceremony of  the 11th Film Festival Lumiere on October 12, 2019 in Lyon, France.

Donald Sutherland on 'Hunger Games: Mockingjay, Part 1'

Donald Sutherland's final on-screen role was as the no-nonsense Judge Isaac Parker in the 2023 Western television miniseries "Lawmen: Bass Reeves," opposite star David Oyelowo.

In 2017, Sutherland was presented with an Honorary Academy Award for his body of work, and was introduced and lauded onstage by his "The Hunger Games" co-star and fellow Oscar winner Lawrence.

"This is very important to me, to my family," Sutherland said at the time. "It's like a door is opened and a cool, wonderfully fresh breath of air has come in. I wish I could say thank you to all of the characters that I've played. Thank them for using their lives to inform my life," he added.

"And of course, thank you to Francine Racette, from whom everything has come -- that's my family -- from whom everything has come and to whom everything is owed," he continued, referring to his wife. "I have been a partner to her for over 45 years. And in all that she has supported me with her intelligence, her intuition, her instruction, her ability to make me laugh in the direst of situations. Her extraordinary sense of taste, her residual belief in me. Amongst all of these, her ability to absorb and sustain the extraordinary ups and downs of this crazy movie life we have gone through. She deserves a medal for that."

Sutherland's memoir, titled "Made Up, but Still True," to be published by Penguin Random House, is due in November.

Donald Sutherland is survived by his five children: twins Kiefer and Rachel Sutherland, whom he shares with the late actress Shirley Jean Douglas, as well as Rossif, Roeg and Angus Redford Sutherland, whom he shares with Racette.

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Anouk Aimée, Oscar-Nominated French Star of ‘A Man and a Woman,’ Dies at 92

By Carmel Dagan

Carmel Dagan

Staff Writer

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  • Anouk Aimée, Oscar-Nominated French Star of ‘A Man and a Woman,’ Dies at 92 4 days ago
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French film actress Anouk Aimée whose award winning film 'Un Homme et une femme' is due to open in London, 16th January 1967. (Photo by Terry Fincher/Daily Express/Hulton Archive/Getty Images)

Anouk Aimée, the French actress known for her elegance and cool sophistication in films including Claude Lelouch ‘s “A Man and a Woman” (1966), Fellini classics “La Dolce Vita” (1960) and “8½” (1963) and Jacques Demy’s “Lola” (1961), died on Tuesday. She was 92.

Aimée’s daughter, Manuela Papatakis, confirmed her death in a post on Instagram . 

“With my daughter, Galaad, and my granddaughter, Mila, we have great sadness to announce the departure of my mother Anouk Aimée,” she wrote. “I was right by her side when she passed away this morning at her home in Paris.”

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Aimée was Oscar-nominated for best actress for her role opposite Jean-Louis Trintignant in “A Man and a Woman” — one of a relatively small number of actors to be so nominated for a performance in a foreign film. The movie’s director, Claude Lelouch, was also nominated (he won the Palme d’Or at Cannes), and “A Man and a Woman” won Oscars for best original screenplay and foreign language film.

The film, made on a small budget, was also an enormous commercial success. Aimée played a production assistant in the movie business who meets a race-car driver played by Trintignant at a school where each has a child boarding.

Back in 1965, Variety said: “Anouk Aimée has a mature beauty and an ability to project an inner quality that helps stave off the obvious banality of her character, and this goes too for the perceptive Jean-Louis Trintignant as the man.”

(Lelouch brought the two actors back together for 1986’s “A Man and a Woman, Twenty Years Later,” which was far less successful.)

In 1961’s “Lola,” Jacques Demy’s first film, which was not appreciated until later, Aimée starred “as the alluring and guileless Lola, the mysterious woman of the world who draws the attention of a trio of lovers, in her universal portrayal of a vulnerable cabaret singer jilted in love but still hopeful of her man returning,” in the words of critic Dennis Schwartz. In the film, set in the port town of Nantes, most loves sadly go unrequited. (Aimée reprised the role of Lola in Demy’s Los Angeles-shot 1969 film “Model Shop,” in which her character worked in a photo studio where men could rent cameras and take pictures of naked women; she encounters a young man played by Gary Lockwood. The New York Times said Lockwood’s character “meets Miss Aimée, falls in love with her, and after much coffee house philosophy about war, marriage, love and politics, they part.”)

In Federico Fellini ‘s “La Dolce Vita,” Marcello Mastroianni plays a journalist wandering through the realm of the glamorous people of Rome while juggling a number of romantic entanglements. Marcello is drawn to Aimée’s Maddalena, who is beautiful and exceptionally rich but also bored and apathetic, and his wooing of her is half-hearted.

In Fellini’s “8½,” a film declared the director’s “obvious masterpiece” in a 1964 review by Esquire’s Dwight MacDonald, Mastroianni’s movie director is having a professional and personal crisis after scoring a big hit, leaving him nervous and uncertain about what to do next; he seeks solace or at least escape at a health spa, but those who depend him, including his mistress and then his intellectual, chain-smoking wife, played by Aimée, follow him. Aimée’s Luisa is, in the words of Roger Ebert, “enraged at him — as much for his bad taste in women as for his infidelity.”

The New York Times declared that much is “wonderful” in the film, including “some splendid and charming performing — Sandra Milo as the mistress, Guido Alberti as a producer, Anouk Aimée as the director’s jealous wife, Claudia Cardinale as a ‘dream girl,’ and many, many more.”

Aimée also gave a memorable performance in Belgian filmmaker André Delvaux’s 1968 surrealist classic “Un Soir, un train,” in which she starred with Yves Montand, he as a linguistics professor in Flanders, she as his lover, a Frenchwoman who designs costumes for a theater and feels uncomfortable in her alien surroundings while he shows no signs of wanting to take the next step in their relationship.

Of mild interest considering that the actress did not appear in many English-language movies is Aimée’s appearance in Robert Aldrich’s dreadful 1962 biblical epic “Sodom and Gomorrah,” in which she plays the evil queen of the Sodomites.

Aimée did not work in film for the first half of the 1970s, returning in 1976 for the Lelouch film “Si c’était à refaire” (Second Chance), in which she starred with Catherine Deneuve.

In Marco Bellocchio’s “A Leap in the Dark” (1980), Aimée starred with Michel Piccoli and Michele Placido, playing a woman fraught with depression and fantasies of suicide; after seeming to recover, she begins a relationship with a brilliant actor (Placido), leading to jealousy on the part of her brother (Piccoli), a judge, whom she raised. The film won best actress and actor awards for Aimée and Piccoli at the Cannes Film Festival, and Bellocchio was nominated for the Palme d’Or.

In Bernardo Bertolucci’s critically acclaimed 1981 film “Tragedy of a Ridiculous Man,” she played the wealthy, French-born wife of a Parma cheese factory owner (Ugo Tognazzi) whose son may or may not have been kidnapped.

Aimée was the star of Henry Jaglom’s 2001 film “Festival in Cannes,” a satire of Hollywood wheeling and dealing at the center of which is a struggle for the services of her character, European screen legend Millie Marguand, who is married to Maximilian Schell’s Victor. The New York Times said: “Most of the movie’s warmer moments that don’t seem forced belong to Millie and Viktor, who have been through too much together to pull any wool over each other’s eyes. As they philosophize about love, marriage, passion and companionship, you sense the power of a bond formed over many decades. Ms. Aimée and Mr. Schell emerge from the film with a worldly dignity.”

She also appeared in Robert Altman’s 1994 film “Prêt à Porter,” aka “Ready to Wear,” in which she played the mistress of Jean-Pierre Cassel’s head of the French fashion commission, who dies under somewhat mysterious circumstances. Aimée’s character is a top designer, and she and her son (Rupert Everett) face the prospect of selling their label to a Texas boot tycoon played by Lyle Lovett.

Nicole Françoise Florence Dreyfus was born in Paris, the daughter of actor Henri Murray (born Henry Dreyfus) and actress Geneviève Sorya.

Though her father was Jewish, she was raised in the Roman Catholicism of her mother, though she converted to Judaism as an adult. She studied dance at the Marseille Opera, and she studied theater in England, after which she studied dramatic art and dance with Andrée Bauer-Thérond.

The actress made her English-language debut in 1950 in Ronald Neame’s “Golden Salamander”; the tagline on the poster was “Introducing the compelling new star discovery of the year….exotic ANOUK!”

The New York Times said: “The authentic Tunisian backgrounds and atmosphere of this film are its best points — these and a pretty young lady who now goes by the name of Anouk. Miss Anouk (if that is how we should call her) is a wistful but strong and pliant girl who recently made a quite impressive appearance in ‘The Lovers of Verona,’ a French film. And now, as a French girl residing in a somewhat remote Tunisian town where things happen during the course of this picture, she continues to draw attention to herself.”

Jacques Becker’s “Modigliani of Montparnasse” (1958) was a stepping stone for Aimeé to the lead roles that would soon be hers. In this tragic biopic of the artist, she had a supporting role as Jeanne, a smart, wealthy woman keen on art who provides emotional support to the frail, older Modigliani (played by Gerard Philipe).

Aimeé’s last film was Charlotte de Turckheim’s “Mince alors!” in 2012.

She won an Honorary César at France’s César Awards in 2002, an Honorary Golden Berlin Bear at the Berlin Film Festival in 2003 and the Silver Medallion Award at Telluride in 2009.

Aimeé was married four times, the first to Edouard Zimmermann (1949-50), the second to Nikos Papatakis (1951-55), the third to Pierre Barouh (1966-69) and the last time to actor Albert Finney (1970-78). All the marriages ended in divorce.

She is survived by her daughter, Manuela Papatakis.

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