Introduction

Abstract

This book identifies and describes an emergent subgenre in film: the postfeminist biopic. While Conglomerate Hollywood has largely neglected female audiences, since the 1980s a collection of films have nevertheless emerged that draw upon and reconfigure classical genre forms aimed at women, including contemporary melodrama, romantic comedy and costume drama. The development of these reconfigured genres has been attributed to the entry into contemporary mainstream Hollywood of women directors who began their careers in independent cinema, as well as the rise of a cine-literate female audience whose conceptions of femininity have been inflected by the ideas of second-wave feminism. I will argue that one subgenre to emerge as part of this broader trend is the postfeminist biopic.¹ Films in this category depict women in a variety of professions but mainly in creative roles (including painter, writer, singer, musician and actress). Within the Anglo-American tradition they include Hilary and Jackie (Anand Tucker, 1998), Isn’t She Great (Andrew Bergman, 2000), Frida (Julie Taymor, 2002), The Hours (Stephen Daldry, 2002), Sylvia (Christine Jeffs, 2003), Fur: An Imaginary Portrait of Diane Arbus (Steven Shainberg, 2006), Miss Potter (Chris Noonan, 2006), Dreamgirls (Bill Condon, 2006), Becoming Jane (Julian Jarrold, 2007), Julie and Julia (Nora Ephron, 2009), Bright Star (Jane Campion, 2009), The Young Victoria (Jean Marc-Valee, 2009), The Runaways (Floria Sigismondi, 2010) and My Week with Marilyn (Simon Curtis, 2011).