In this episode, I talk about William Wyler’s 1949 film, "The Heiress." Olivia de Havilland plays Catherine Sloper, a shy and sheltered woman living with her cold father in Washington Square, New York in the mid-1800s. When she meets an attractive and alluring man played by Montgomery Clift, she falls passionately in love for the first time, but their relationship will force her to confront painful truths about love and desire.

I talk about how the film explores heartbreak and transformation, and how it charts a woman’s devastating but powerful journey from innocence to experience, from illusion to reality, and toward a deeper understanding of herself.

If you’d like to support my work and get access to bonus episodes and exclusive posts, you can join me on Patreon: patreon.com/herheadinfilmspodcast.

You can follow me on Letterboxd. My email is herheadinfilms@gmail.com.

My Sources:

• Article about the film, written by Frank Miller for Turner Classic Movies
• "The Heiress:" A Cruel Inheritance by Pamela Hutchinson for Criterion Collection
• Toni Morrison quote is from a 2015 documentary, "The Life of Toni Morrison"

In this episode, I talk about Gabriel Axel's 1987 film, "Babette's Feast." The film follows Martine and Filippa—two sisters devoted to a small religious community in Denmark—and Babette, a French refugee and former chef who comes to live with them. When Babette prepares a feast to honor the centenary of their father’s birth, the meal becomes an act of artistic and emotional offering.

I talk about what it means to offer something from the heart, how the film portrays art as a form of generosity, and how the experience of the meal brings the community back to life and to each other.

If you’d like to support my work and get access to bonus episodes and exclusive posts, you can join me on Patreon: patreon.com/herheadinfilmspodcast.

You can follow me on Letterboxd. My email is herheadinfilms@gmail.com.

My Sources:

• Babette's Feast: "Mercy and Truth Have Met Together" by Mark Le Fanu
• Babette's Feast: A Fable for Culinary France by Priscilla Parkhurst Ferguson

In this episode, I talk about Douglas Sirk’s 1955 film, "All That Heaven Allows," starring Jane Wyman and Rock Hudson. The film follows Cary Scott, a widow in a conservative suburban community who falls in love with a younger, working-class man, and must decide whether she will conform to social expectations or defend a love that transforms her life.

"All That Heaven Allows" is a luminous and deeply emotional film about fear, conformity, and the courage it takes to live in a way that is true to yourself. It asks what a woman is allowed to want, what she is allowed to desire, and whether love is worth fighting for in a world that would rather see her diminish herself. In this episode, I reflect on love as an act of bravery and what it means to watch this film as a woman near Cary’s age. I also consider how Sirk’s melodrama speaks to the female spectator by taking female desire seriously.

If you’d like to support my work and get access to bonus episodes and exclusive posts, you can join me on Patreon: patreon.com/herheadinfilmspodcast.

You can follow me on Letterboxd. My email is herheadinfilms@gmail.com.

My Sources:

• AFI entry about All That Heaven Allows
• All That Heaven Allows: An Articulate Screen
• Jane Wyman and All That Heaven Allows
• Rock Hudson: All That Heaven Allowed
• Behind the Mirror: A Profile of Douglas Sirk
• Encyclopedia Britannica article about Douglas Sirk