Claudia Weill

Girlfriends

Girlfriends

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.

Film Info

  • United States
  • 1978
  • 88 minutes
  • Color
  • 1.66:1
  • English
  • Spine #1055

Director-Approved Blu-ray Special Edition Features

  • New, restored 4K digital transfer, supervised by director Claudia Weill and director of photography Fred Murphy, with uncompressed monaural soundtrack
  • New interview with Weill
  • New interview with Weill and actors Melanie Mayron, Christopher Guest, and Bob Balaban
  • New interview with screenwriter Vicki Polon
  • New interview with Weill and writer and filmmaker Joey Soloway
  • Joyce at 34, a 1972 short film codirected by Weill and Joyce Chopra
  • Commuters, a 1970 short film by Weill and Eliot Noyes
  • Subtitles for the deaf and hard of hearing
  • PLUS: Essays by film critic Molly Haskell and scholar Carol Gilligan

Purchase Options

Director-Approved Blu-ray Special Edition Features

  • New, restored 4K digital transfer, supervised by director Claudia Weill and director of photography Fred Murphy, with uncompressed monaural soundtrack
  • New interview with Weill
  • New interview with Weill and actors Melanie Mayron, Christopher Guest, and Bob Balaban
  • New interview with screenwriter Vicki Polon
  • New interview with Weill and writer and filmmaker Joey Soloway
  • Joyce at 34, a 1972 short film codirected by Weill and Joyce Chopra
  • Commuters, a 1970 short film by Weill and Eliot Noyes
  • Subtitles for the deaf and hard of hearing
  • PLUS: Essays by film critic Molly Haskell and scholar Carol Gilligan
Girlfriends
Cast
Melanie Mayron
Susan Weinblatt
Anita Skinner
Anne Munroe
Eli Wallach
Rabbi Gold
Bob Balaban
Martin
Christopher Guest
Eric Allen
Gina Rojak
Julie
Amy Wright
Ceil
Viveca Lindfors
Beatrice
Mike Kellin
Abe
Credits
Director
Claudia Weill
Produced by
Claudia Weill
Coproduced by
Jan Saunders
Screenplay by
Vicki Polon
Story by
Claudia Weill
Story by
Vicki Polon
Director of photography
Fred Murphy
Editor
Suzanne Pettit
Music
Michael Small
Art director
Patrizia von Brandenstein
Sound recordist
Maryte Kavaliauskas

Current

Girlfriends: Second Births
Girlfriends: Second Births

With rare immediacy and subtlety, Claudia Weill’s low-budget feature debut explores how the fraught dynamics of women’s friendships can be every bit as complex as a love affair.

By Molly Haskell

Girlfriends: Fantastic Light
Girlfriends: Fantastic Light

Made after the dawn of second-wave feminism, this tale of two aspiring women artists depicts their sisterhood as resistance against a patriarchal order.

By Carol Gilligan

Lee Grant’s Top 10
Lee Grant’s Top 10

The Oscar- and Emmy-winning actor and director gets personal with her selections, highlighting the work of friends, former collaborators, and filmmakers she admires.