At the Movies

by Judy Klemesrud
New York Times
October 24, 1980

"Love," a new feature film for which nine prominent women each wrote short stories offering their personal visions of That Thing Called Love, is being filmed in Toronto.

The nine contributors are Liv Ullman, the actress; Germaine Greer, the feminist author; Joni Mitchell, the singer; Lady Antonia Fraser, the author; Mai Zetterling, the director; Edna O'Brien, the author; Penelope Gilliatt, the writer and film critic; Gael Green, the food critic and author, and Nancy Dowd, the screenwriter.

The "Love" stories range from Lady Fraser's light fable about an au pair girl named Karina who schemes to keep the man she loves from marrying someone else on his wedding day, to Miss Zetterling's story about mutual passion between a mother and son.

Misses O'Brien and Mitchell wrote about women rejected by their lovers, and Misses Gilliatt and Ullmann wrote about the deep love that exists between an elderly couple.

Miss Greer's story focuses on a 10-year-old Australian girl as she moves from innocence to experience in the 1930's [sic], Miss Greene's examines a style-obsessed couple who partake of sexual "swinging," and Miss Dowd's is about a cheerful, unsophisticated young woman who offers herself to a disillusioned returning World War II veteran.

Four of the women will also direct "Love" stories. Miss Zetterling will do two of them - hers and Miss Mitchell's - and Misses Dowd and Ullman will direct their own stories. The remaining five stories will be directed by Annette Cohen, a Canadian film maker.

"The movie runs the spectrum from quite heavy drama to bizarre hilarity," Renee Perlmutter, its producer, said from Toronto. "It's mainly about how people try to touch each other and sometimes miss." "Love" is a Barry Gevinson-Velvet film.


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