Favorite Les Girls Film and TV

Djuna Shellam The Write OWL Episode 14

Favorite Les Girls Film and TV is the topic for the Sunday episode of Djuna Shellam The Write OWL. Using a title from The L Word, I chose to use the beguiling Jenny Schecter’s “Les Girls” book and movie title as a salute to a favorite television show of mine.

I love The L Word for myriad reasons, but probably the strongest is that I was born and raised in L.A. (I was—don’t get my history and my nom de plume’s mixed up. It happens which is why I’m here to warn you should you wander off the path) and spent a lot of time living in and hanging about West Hollywood. It was almost like comfort food to me. Almost. But that is just one of so many reasons. For me, it was so nice to watch a television show that wasn’t all about salaciousness. Not to say there wasn’t salacious activity, but it wasn’t the focus of the show.

I mention in my vlog this Sunday that Desert Hearts, Carol and Elena Undone are at the top of my lesbian genre movie list, and they are. Desert Hearts has been number one since I first saw it in a theater in Philadelphia when it first premiered. It was a looooong ride home that day for my lover and I. The audience was mostly straight, and during THE love scene, you could just feel that the entire theater had stopped breathing. It was so intense. Wow. But I loved the film so much. I’ve seen it probably more than a hundred times and can recite most of the lines.

Interestingly enough, the film Carol is set during the same time period as Desert Hearts, and it is also a story of an older, more established and worldly woman and a younger, naive woman—both of whom (the younger women that is) were artists. Carol, of course, is a much more serious and dramatic film, but I love them both.

I recently watched Elena Undone, for the first time, and aside from having a personal connection of sorts to the film (I have actually played music onstage with the awesome rocker Jen Corday, who also happened to be the music supervisor of the film. Yeah, that’s right—I rock. And I just name-dropped, too. Ha!), I loved it. I really like Nicole Conn’s growth over her career and have become a fan of hers. I’ll admit it, I was one of the few who did not care for Claire of the Moon—at all—but that’s another blog for another time.

Boys on the Side and Fried Green Tomatoes were favorites of mine many moons ago, but most of the best parts of those films happened in my head. Those best parts should have been in the films, but alas, the studios apparently weren’t ready. It’s okay, I have a writer’s mind and a vivid imagination so I handled it.

Television-wise, I watch mostly cable shows and there are a couple I really enjoy beyond what I mentioned in my vlog, which were The L Word and Orange is the New Black. I love, love, love Last Tango in Halifax. And I’ve just finished watching the most recent season of Wentworth. Wentworth is an Australian production and is the unofficial backstory of the legend of Bea Smith from the long-running Australian soap opera Prisoner (in the US it was Prisoner: Cell Block H), which was inspired by the British show Within These Walls. Check them out on Netflix. They’re both a lot of fun in completely different ways.

For me, I love a good story. More than that, I love a good story that’s told well, whether it’s on paper or on film, or digitally in all cases. Especially if it’s a love story with les girls. Yeah, I’m a sucker for love—and les girls love.

Speaking of good stories… (you like how I did that?) My third book of The Em Suite series hit the digital shelves yesterday. Check it out and tell a friend. And… if you like what you read, please give a shout out on Amazon. Writers live and die by reviews. Thanks!