Customer Reviews

Chantilly Lace [VHS]

5 star:		(8)
4 star:		(5)
3 star:		(1)
2 star:		(0)
1 star:		(2)

 

 

I have never seen a movie capture the female relationship more vividly than this movie. Great movie, great cast. The direction style allowed the actors to fully explore the characters and the realities women face everyday.

I loved this movie. I was struck by how accurate a portrayal of a group of women this was. It wasn't the usual flashy hollywood style, it was sweet, heart wrenching, bitchy, and emotional. The movie centers around a group of women friends who are each dealing with their own personal battles, some of which are painfully evident and others that we (the viewers) don't get to find out about til the end of the movie. The movie shows the different ways these friends help to heal each other and themselves. Watch this one with your best friend!

Yes, this movie is about a bunch of females who do cry a lot, who sit around and talk about silly girl issues we've all dealt with. Every time I've had a group of women over visiting I put this movie on...and everyone loves it. It's the ultimate "chick flick". It explores what female friendships are all about and tells the truth about our silly hang-ups and inner feelings. I've yet to meet a woman of any age who wasn't impressed. The fact that most of it was improv makes me respect these women as actresses and as people even more. I would highly recommend this to anyone having a few friends over for a "girls" night. It's the perfect entertainment.

I was in tears at many times throughout the movie because it made me remember how important my female friends are to me. It also made me laugh. My boyfriend watched it with me and it made him wish that he could be a fly on the wall in a room full of women.

Yes, it is a B or even a C movie, but I rented it long ago and will be buying it tonight. It is more of a comfort type of a movie for people who can, in a strange way, relate to what goes on.

This movie is touching in a way that no other I have seen has achieved. It is my all-time favourite simply for its wonderful portrayal of how women, and indeed humans, really interact. I *believe* it was improv in some way (can't remember exactly how) and it shows. The setting reminds one of On Golden Pond ... very green shots, feels refreshing.

Of course everyone has one or two movies they know sums up their lives, relationships, wants, desires - their reality. This movie was exactly that kind for me. It showed me that adult women can and do, in fact, interact with each other in complex often painful relationships without losing the love and friendship as well. The cast is remarkable. I don't consider myself a "cryer" in movies but I bawled for the last 20 minutes of the film. Powerful and evocative. I highly reccommend this movie.

I can understand why someone named "Ramrod" wouldn't like this film. It could be seen as indulging the worst of the late 20th century therapeutic movement. Very woman-centered, very emotional. Yet that's what's great about it.

It captures a time beautifully, a time when the blush of second wave feminism had worn off and it was a given that women were out there, having careers, showing their competence in the wider world. Yet we still had emotional lives to tend to, we still had to negotiate relationships with men in a world that had changed, we still needed to come to terms with the parts of ourselves that didn't fit the template our culture had set out for us.

This film was lovely in its evocation of a quiet retreat from all that to a space in which these women could be restored by nature, get all the hugs they needed and air out issues that poison if left under cover.

I had a group of friends similar to these women back then, and I wouldn't be who I am now if not for them. I found myself identifying with first one, then another, wondering how I'd fit in. Knowing that somehow, I would.

This is a small film that's going to be increasingly unavailable. If you've ever known the healing power of a group of good women, or if you'd like to know what that kind of deep friendship is like, you need to see Chantilly Lace.

One of THE best chick flicks ever! Laughter, tears and love. This movie explores all aspects of female friendships. I highly recommend this movie for your next girlsnight get together!

This 1993 made for cable film is directed by Linda Yellen who produced the Vanessa Redgrave TV movies Playing for Time and Second Serve. Both those films showed Yellen's preference for character driven narratives and her willingness to tackle difficult material. This film is based on improvisations by the seven female cast and this shows in Yellen's loose tone with overlapping dialogue and an agitated camera. The story revolves around three seasonal reunions and what makes it interesting is to see how women react to confrontations. Thankfully, there are no guns drawn or fistfights but a sisterhood campfire complete with warrior paint is a little hard to take. It's interesting too when Yellen introduces a male into the nest since he is used solely as an object and she has the wit to balance the inevitable sexual encounter with the other women's reactions to the noise. This reaction has them in a spa and this scene is the highlight of the film when a not too surprising queer confession is made. Even a later tragedy which initially feels soapy is redeemed by giving one actor a huge monologue. Yellen has cast a group of lesser actresses and, because of the nature of the piece, their conversations rise or fall based on the performers ability. Of the seven, best is Jobeth Williams and Helen Slater who share a touching scene about a shared husband as they cut vegetables. Lindsay Crouse and Martha Plimpton provide some spiky edges and Talia Shire seems well cast as a nun, but Jill Eikenberry only has a smile to draw on and her scene with Ally Sheedy rambles. Yellen casts Sheedy as an inarticulate to probably counterbalance her incompetence. Plimpton films the gals with a handheld all the way through, though I wondered who was holding it when we see the finished doco and she is walking arm in arm with everyone else. The film collapses by the end in over-sob but, considering what has preceded it, that is forgiveable. Regrettably, Yellen's follow-up, the 1994 Parallel Lives is less impressive.

Love this movie. It's a great chic flick. Would like to see it come out on DVD.