ENGL 2581: Women Writers

Prof. Sigler

Smooth Talk (1985)

"The writer works in a single dimension, the director works in three.... I would fiercely defend the placement of a semicolon in one of my novels but I would probably have deferred in the end to Joyce Chopra's decision to reverse the story's conclusion, turn it upside down, in a sense, so that the film ends not with death, not with a sleepwalker's crossing over to her fate, but upon a scene of reconciliation, rejuvenation..."

~ Joyce Carol Oates, " ' Where Are You Going, Where Have You Been?' and Smooth Talk: Short Story Into Film"

Director: Joyce Chopra

Screenplay: Tom Cole

Director of Photography: James Glennon

Editor: Patrick Dodd

Music Director: James Taylor

Cast: Connie: Laura Dern;

Arnold Friend: Treat Williams

Katherine (Connie's mother): Mary Kay Place

June: Elizabeth Berridge

Harry (Connie's father): Levon Helm

Laura: Margaret Welsh

Jill: Sarah Inglis

Ellie: Geoff Hoyle

Jeff: William Ragsdale

Eddie: David Berridge

As you watch, take notes on visual and plot details that will help you discuss the following questions:

Character:

1. How does Chopra's film change and develop (or diminish) Connie's character from the original short story?

2. What visual (mise-en-scene) details does the film associate with Connie?

3. What scenes/details does the film add to the story to convey Connie's narcissism, her "two sides," and her alienation from her family?

4. In what ways does Chopra develop Smooth Talk into a narrative about Connie's mother as well as Connie?

5. What details (visual or verbal) does the film associate with Arnold Friend? Does the character of Friend retain its ambiguity in the film? How has Friend's character been changed?

Setting:

6. How does the film visually represent the divisions and conflicts within Connie and her family through their home and other physical spaces? How does the film use Connie's home and other settings to represent girls'/women's physical lack of freedom and vulnerability to violence?

Plot:

7. We discussed three possible interpretations of the story and of Arnold Friend (Gothic, naturalistic, psychological). Which (if any) of these does the film’s narrative include?

Conclusion:

8. How (and why) does Chopra attempt to make Oates' allegorical and ambiguous ending less ambiguous? What did you think of Chopra's decisions to downplay the story's concluding violence and to depict Connie returning to her home rather than (as in Oates' story) walking away?

Theme:

9. How do Chopra's changes (to character, plot, conclusion) change the thematic meaning(s) of Oates' story? Does Chopra's film seem more moralistic than the original story (i.e. blaming or "punishing" Connie for her sexuality, and/or warning young girls about the dangers of expressing sexuality)?