Girlfriends (1978) Criterion 1080p BluRay x265 HEVC AAC-SARTRE torrent

When her best friend and roommate abruptly moves out to get married, Susan (Melanie Mayron), trying to be an artist while making ends meet as a bar mitzvah photographer on Manhattan’s Upper West Side, finds herself adrift in both life and love. A wonder of American independent cinema by Claudia Weill (who, when she was admitted to the Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences as a director in 1981, was one of only four women ever to have received that honor), Girlfriends is a remarkably authentic vision of female relationships that has become a touchstone for makers of an entire subgenre of films and television shows about young women trying to make it in the big city. This 1970s New York time capsule captures the complexities and contradictions of women’s lives and relationships with wry humor and refreshing frankness.

Extras

• Claudia Weill - A really interesting piece done with Weill in New York in 2019. I kind of only half jokingly say I wish Weill had directed this, since there are some perplexing edits that suddenly offer new camera perspectives of the director, for no apparent reason.

• Vicki Polon - A 2020 interview with the screenwriter.

• Girlfriends: A Look Back - Might be the biggest draw in the supplements department for some fans, since it features a Zoom-like assortment of folks including Melanie Mayron, Christopher Guest, Bob Balaban and Claudie Weill.

• Claudia Weill and Joey Soloway - Another Zoom-ish thing offering a fun conversation between the two filmmakers.

• City Lights - A 1978 television episode of a Canadian talk show, featuring Claudia Weill and Melanie Mayron being interviewed by host Brian Linehan.

• Joyce at 34 - A 1971 documentary by Joyce Chopra and Claudia Weill which looks at how pregnancy and childbirth affected Chopra's career.

• Commuters - A 1970 documentary by Claudia Weill and Eliot Noyes focusing on its title subjects.