Ladies' Night Out

They rush up to the stage, gorgeously gowned, flush and flustered in this moment of triumph. They thank their director, their agent and all the brave and gifted women who preceded them. They pay tribute to the others nominated in their category; it's an honor just to be one of the final five. And yet ... Best Actress! Wow! It's good to be a woman in Hollywood!

Two nights a year when the Golden Globes and the Oscars are handed out the movie world belongs to women. At this year's Globes, the top awards, and a slew of free publicity, went to The Hours and Chicago, which between them boast five star roles for women. Moreover, these films are purring at the box office, building momentum for next week's announcement of Academy Award nominations. They could hoist the banner higher for women's films, and sell more tickets, right up to Oscar night, March 23.

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Nicole Kidman, whose portrayal of Virginia Woolf in The Hours won her a Best Actress Golden Globe (by a nose), looks at the women's genre and says, "There's an audience for that. There's a lot of us out there." Scott Rudin, The Hours' producer, sees the Christmas-to-Valentine season as "a good time for movies that aren't entirely aimed at teenage boys." Playwright David Hare, whom Rudin hired to adapt Michael Cunningham's novel, notes the glut of year-end prestige movies: "All the intelligent films come out at exactly the same time, because they're thought to be Oscar material. And the more intelligent films are more likely to have good roles for women."

In a few significant ways, the past movie year has been encouraging for women that statistical majority that in their presence on the big screen is a frail minority. Start with the money. The year's most profitable picture ($236 million on a $5 million budget) was My Big Fat Greek Wedding, with which Nia Vardalos proved that a woman could walk Sylvester Stallone's Rocky road: write a script, then insist that you star in it. Sweet Home Alabama ($127 million at the domestic box office) certified Reese Witherspoon's star magnetism. Sandra Bullock in Two Weeks Notice ($89 million) and Jennifer Lopez in Maid in Manhattan ($91 million) revived a staple, the Manhattan romantic comedy.

Should Bullock or Lopez or Wither-spoon or their movies get an Oscar? No. But it's important, and cheering, that even bad movies about women can attract a sizable audience, just as lousy movies about men routinely do. It means that people will pay to be mindlessly entertained, not just soberly edified, by a women's film.

Before you scan Variety for a headline reading CHICK PIX CLICK AT PLEX, you should know that the women's-film glass is nine-tenths empty. Of the 10 top-grossing movies released in 2002, Greek Wedding was the only one whose leading character was a woman. Of the nine others, six were sequels parts of franchises that are almost exclusively built around men. Women have to start from scratch every time.

One more nine-tenths-empty stat: only 10% of last year's films were directed by women. "A female has never won Best Director at the Oscars," notes Salma Hayek, who produced and starred in the biopic Frida and chose Julie Taymor to direct it. "I think people are threatened by us." It's just another burden in making women's films.

Women's films: even the name sounds second-class and second-rate. "It narrows the experience," says Meryl Poster, co-president of production at Miramax Films, which distributes Chicago and is a partner in The Hours. "It doesn't sound like a full picture; you think it's weepy or trite." Another pejorative, chick flicks, is even more limiting. "It denigrates a male appreciation of the female experience," says Diane Lane, who won the New York Film Critics' Actress award for her turn as an adulterous wife in Unfaithful. "I think men are very curious and surprised by the female experience they see when it's not 'lite'--when it's a strong, emotional piece."

These films and Far from Heaven, for which Julianne Moore has won 11 Actress awards, fit into what might be called the gynecocentric film genre. To generalize a bit: men's films are about triumphing over huge obstacles; women's films are about choosing to live (or die) with them. A hero does things; a heroine feels things. Men act; women talk. Men get fired up; women go up in flames. Men exact a righteous revenge; women explore subtleties and ambiguities their adventure is an internal journey. Movie men live in the boyhood realm of fables, fairy tales; movie women are grownups who confront the real, messy world.

"I'm moved most by the things we encounter in our daily lives," Moore says, "how you get through the day, who you choose to love, how you determine how your life will be." Renee Zellweger, the Chicago co-star who won the other Best Actress Golden Globe (for a musical or comedy), seconds Moore's notion: "I like to see and be inspired by rich, character-driven films. And I want to see Nicole Kidman, Meryl Streep and Julianne Moore do what they do." So do women's-film audiences, when they can find women's films.