Chilly Scenes of Winter
Directed by Joan Micklin Silver • 1979 • United States
Starring John Heard, Mary Beth Hurt, Peter Riegert
The trailblazing Joan Micklin Silver—one of only a handful of women to direct a film for a major Hollywood studio in the 1970s—digs fearlessly into the psychology of a thorny relationship in this anti–romantic comedy, based on Ann Beattie’s best-selling novel, about lovelorn civil servant Charles (John Heard) and his married-but-separated coworker Laura (Mary Beth Hurt). Months after their affair has ended, Charles is haunted by memories as he desperately attempts to rekindle a love that perhaps never was. Switching deftly between past and present, Micklin Silver guides this piercing deconstruction of male wish-fulfillment fantasy beyond standard movie-romance tropes into something more complicated and cuttingly truthful.
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Chilly Scenes of Winter
Directed by Joan Micklin Silver • 1979 • United States
Starring John Heard, Mary Beth Hurt, Peter RiegertThe trailblazing Joan Micklin Silver—one of only a handful of women to direct a film for a major Hollywood studio in the 1970s—digs fearlessly into the psychology of a thorny relationship in...
Extras
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Joan Micklin Silver on Chilly Scenes of Winter
On September 19, 2005, filmmaker Michael Pressman sat down with director Joan Micklin Silver for a career-spanning interview for the Directors Guild of America's Visual History series. In this excerpt, Micklin Silver talks about her work on CHILLY SCENES OF WINTER.
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Producing Chilly Scenes of Winter
CHILLY SCENES OF WINTER was the first film produced by Griffin Dunne, Mark Metcalf, and Amy Robinson. In this program, recorded for the Criterion Collection in December 2022, the three discuss the project’s beginnings, their work with director Joan Micklin Silver, and the impact the film had on t...
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Original ending
In 1982, director Joan Micklin Silver had the opportunity to recut the ending of her 1979 film Head over Heels. At that time, she also changed the film's title to that of the Ann Beattie novel on which it was based.
