Desperately Seeking Susan (1985)

Desperately Seeking Susan (1985)
Country of Origin: United States
Language of Film: English
Released in United States March 29, 1985
Directed by Susan Seidelman
Starring: Rosanna Arquette - Roberta Glass
Madonna - Susan
Aidan Quinn - Dez
Mark Blum - Gary Glass, Roberta's husband
Robert Joy - Jim, the man who placed the "Desperately
Seeking Susan" ad
Laurie Metcalf - Leslie Glass, Roberta's sister-in-law
Anna Levine - Crystal
Will Patton - Wayne Nolan
Peter Maloney - Ian the magician
Steven Wright - Larry Stillman D.D.S.
John Turturro - Ray, the master of ceremonies at the Magic
Club
Anne Carlisle - Victoria
Giancarlo Esposito - Street Vendor
Richard Hell - Bruce Meekr
Ann Magnuson - Cigarette Girl

Awards: Arquette won a BAFTA Award for her portrayal of Roberta
Rosanna Arquette was nominated for a Golden Globe for
Best Actress in a Comedy or Musical.
The film also received a nomination for a
César Award for Best Foreign Film.
The New York Times film critic Vincent Canby named the
film as one of the 10 best films of 1985.


Desperately Seeking Susan was released in 1985 and it was directed Susan Seidelman. This film is unlike other films we've screened during the semester as it is probably the closest film to our generation, and it is a comedy. The film is about a boring housewife who becomes obsessed with a stranger, Susan, who lives very wild and rowdy life. In an effort to escape the normalcy of her everyday life, she starts trying to follow Susan. A man eventually mistakes her for Susan because of her jacket and tries to jump her in the park. She ends up bumping her head and losing her memory. Supported and befriended by another man who believes she really is Susan, she begins to take refuge with him. Her optimistic view of living like Susan eventually takes a couple of wild turns as the film progresses. Maybe she should have been grateful living the life of a Fort-lee housewife.
The biggest film theory present in this movie is feminism. Madonna’s character, Susan, symbolizes female empowerment. She is confident, determined, capable, and strong. All of which are characteristics that feminist theorists believe all women have. The housewife’s effort to drop her current lifestyle for that of Susan's is another example of feminist movement. Roberta was trying to escape the expected roles of being a wife that society placed on women at the time. Her experiences while living as Susan helps her finally feel free. The film also has a little bit of Auteur theory as I feel this was a movie that Seidalman created with a certain direction in mind. Also, this film contains glimpses of the formalist film theory as the music and color was chosen to give the specific feeling of the 80’s.

The two articles I used for this blog entry can be found here and here. The first article notes that the movie is a quarter century old, pokes fun at the stylish clothing, and states that this is Madonna's first lead role in a movie. The latter part of the article consists of an interview with Seidelman, where she jokingly admits that vanity was not a part of the title of the film. She says that the film is about finding who you truly are on the inside. She also points out that the bridge in the film is a metaphor. Jumping the bridge from being a housewife to a rebellious life. Another interesting fact is that the scenes in the film were chosen because she had been there in real life. The second article comes from Roger Ebert. He speaks about how the film is a series of double reversals.
This film was definitely one of the more enjoyable films we watched this semester. It's probably because I tend to enjoy the more modern films over the early classical film eras. The film definitely had its funny moments. It also had a little bit more sex appeal compared to prior films we’ve watched. I would definitely recommend this film to 80’s film buffs as well as those infatuated with Madonna.