Most importantly is this ending is not sad or monotonic, it is happy and hopeful, the complete opposite of the story it is based on what smooth talk ends up being isnt a horror story like where are you going, where have you been but, a story of a typical all knowing teenager who learns the hard way just how important family after she gets in. The story has also been cited as an inspiration for rose mcgowans 2014 short film dawn as well as the blood brothers 2003 song the salesman, denver max. Although smooth talk deceptively starts out like a traditional teen movie, it very quickly becomes obvious that the film is an extremely insightful character piece, rather than a plotdriven mashup of past cliches. Where are you going, where have you been versus smooth talk. The film, smooth talk, is a tale about a 15year old girl, connie wyatt, who begins to explore her sexuality. Differences between smooth talk and where are you going. Smooth talk, joyce chopras film adaptation of joyce carol oates short story where are you going, what have you been.
On a second level, it is an absolute horror film in which we as the outside observer must bear witness to the terrible inevitability of connies fate. I cant say i really know the work of oates, but she did comment on the issue. Complete text on celestial timepiece, an authorized joyce carol oates home page. Smooth talk by joyce chopra joyce chopra, treat williams. Lord of the rings twilight the chronicles of narnia smooth. When i found out that the story was adapted to the screen, i tried to find the movie, smooth talk 1985 directed by joyce chopra and i saw it finally last weekend. The ending of the story is much more ambigious than the movie. Obviously there is a potential for major spoilers here, so.
Moviechat forums smooth talk 1985 discussion the ending the ending posted 16 years ago by fightingirish 10 replies jump to latest. Smooth talk works despite rough edges orlando sentinel. The main drama is the collective drama of connies family. Smooth talk 1985 pg 1h 32min drama, romance, thriller 17 november 1985 usa a freespirited 15yearold girl flirts with a dangerous stranger in the northern california suburbs and must prepare herself for the frightening and traumatic consequences. Filming of smooth talk took place in northern california in the cities of sebastopol and santa rosa. The saying goes the only difference between a tragedy and a comedy is the ending. There is no way to determine what really happens to. A final scene that you can watch over and over just cuz you love it so much. With treat williams, laura dern, mary kay place, margaret welsh. As a sophomore in high school, she longs to get into the world as most teens do. Others will see it as a modern morality tale, a grimm story for the late 20th century, a time when evil seems more banal and seductive than it should. Smooth talk, which opens today at the 68th street playhouse, is not a big movie. This concept of endings is greatly exemplified through the comparison of the short story where are you going, where have you been by joyce carol oates and the film the story was based on called smooth talk. The short story ends with connie leaving her home with arnold, and the reader is left to.
The shiveringly memorable smooth talk friday at beverly cineplex and brentwood theatre may be the first film to get adolescence in america right, down to. It was cast in a mode of fiction to which i am still partialindeed, every third or fourth story of mine is probably in this. Though featurelength, it has an unconventional, shortstory shape. Fifteenyearold connie laura dern spends the summer before her sophomore year fixating on getting male attention. An early draft of my short story where are you going, where have you been. The most significant differences are chopras changing the ending and her changing the mothers attitude toward connie. The final two minutes of smooth talk are noteperfect, subtle and hopeful, emotionally overwhelming but refreshingly unmanipulative, ambiguously suggestive and yet full of clarity. Left alone in the family summer cottage when her mother mary kay place, father levon helm and sister elizabeth berridge go shopping, dern decides to. Left alone in the family summer cottage when her mother mary kay place, father levon helm. Comparison of smooth talk to where are you going, where.
It is a study in deviant psychology, and in the power that one person can have over another, especially if one pushes in the direction where the other person is already headed. Talking about where are you going, where have you been. Meaning no matter how tragic or comedic a story begins, the ending is what determines what type of story was told thus what genre it falls in. The movie ends not with death, not with a sleepwalkers crossing over to her fate, but upon a scene of reconciliation, rejuvenation. That scene is done so beautifully by dern and treat williams that one never forgets it. Unfortunately, the happy ending of smooth talk shits all over the entire moral of the story. Enter your location to see which movie theaters are playing smooth talk near you.
Dern herself achieves this in smooth talk in her centerpiece scene with treat williams. Disregard the incoherent ending, which violates the source material joyce carol oates story. In the 1985 film adaptation, smooth talk, connie laura dern is a selfabsorbed, boy crazy fifteenyearold, constantly at odds with her mother mary kay place, who favors her duteous older. Though oates public ally embraced the entire movie, the new ending is a betrayal. The writing by oates is loosely based on a true story. Smooth talk reminds you that even movies about and for teenagers dont have to deal in such tradeoffs i.
Many will be shocked by the movies ending, and would want to be warned. Smooth talk official trailer smalltown teenager connie laura dern plays with the fire of her newly discovered sexuality and finds herself in the midst of a sexual power play. Laura dern plays a teenager anxious to experience the pleasures of sexual contact. Movies like smooth talk if you like smooth talk you are looking for psychological, tense and serious movies about with coming of age, small town, innocence lost, summer, sexual awakening, teenage life and teenage love themes of drama, romance and thriller genre shot in. In the case of smooth talk, the movie adaptation of where are you going, where have you been. Chopras adaptation of the story into the film smooth talk stays true to the theme of connies transition to adulthood, but introduces a new dimension to the character of connie, and changes the ending which is left to the readers own interpretation in the short story.
In smooth talks case, the original ending may have been too poignant for regular movies to stomach. Smooth talk completely changed the ending of the short story where are you going, where have you been. The film was released on dvd by metrogoldwynmayer home entertainment in 2006. This is a film about deep human behavior and changing sensibilities in what is one the few great cinematic examinations of a teenage girls turbulent. Smooth talk is one of the few films ever made whose climactic scene takes place on the borderline between reality and the imagination. The movies first part is so convincing that the shift in tone at the climax comes as a shock. At the last minute, smooth talk takes a benevolent turn that leaves the audience baffled. Produced for pbss american playhouse series, smooth talk was given a brief theatrical release before its official february 9, 1987 tv debut. Although joyce carol oates drew on journalistic reports about abductions, rapes, and murders, her short story is fiction. Her mom does nothing but put her down and her father ignores the completely dysfunctional family. Joyce carol oakess short story, where are you going, where have you been. On the one hand, it is a lyrical and gorgeous coming of age movie that fully understands what being 14 feels like in a way that so few films are able to capture.
Smooth talk essay smooth talk comparison to where are. Where have you been by joyce carol oates and the movie smooth talk. Without spoiling it too much, she exudes an almost unbearably tense mixture of fear, arousal, and confusion that makes the rest of the movie or maybe the rest of movies seem belabored. A freespirited 15yearold girl flirts with a dangerous stranger in the northern california suburbs and must prepare herself for the frightening and traumatic consequences. Smooth talk is based on a short story by joyce carol oates which tom cole has adapted for the screen. Comparison of smooth talk to where are you going, where have you been. The shiveringly memorable smooth talk friday at beverly cineplex and brentwood theatre may be the first film to get adolescence in america right, down to the last, delicate seismographic tremor.
Im not talking about the big final action scene or the dramatic climax, but the very last scene of the movie, like the last one or two minutes. Still, its almost shocking to find a film that deals so purely with the real fears and desires of young people who are too knowing to. Adult filmgoers who object to teen movies might do so less often if more of these films were made with as much craft and care as smooth talk has been. The ending of the short story is more effective than the ending of the movie because it leaves more to the imagination with its graphic scenes that emphasize connies complex relationship with her mother and show a. A comparison of smooth talk, a movie and where are you. Written and directed by joyce chopra and at long last released to noextras dvd smooth talk won the grand jury prize at 1985s sundance film festival then called the. A disturbing coming of age drama, the winner of the grand jury prize at 1986 features 18 yearsold laura dern who appears innocent, gawky, and provocative all at once. Everything that the film is and stands for masterfully builds to this ending.
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