Out of the quite 1950s we were catapulted into the feminist revolution for the 1960's. How could it happen so fast? Were the '50's really so tranquil. Brandon French says no. Behind the obsessive domesticity of the traditionalist '50s, she writes, women's demands were in fact germinating.
A really interesting collection of essays on some very good films. My personal favourites were the ones on The Country Girl, The Nun's Story and Some Like It Hot. Refreshingly empathetic and though often brisk, the analysis doesn't just restrain itself to gender but takes aim at the sociological and economic systems that keep such structures in place.
This book has also given me big words to use in my reviews so now I feel like a smarty pants.