Some Like It Hot ... but make it feminist: Flipping the script on classic flick
An all-women cold reading of the 1959 comedy is being staged at VIFF
A classic comedy with a couple of male leads is getting a plot twist.
Some Like It Hot, a 1959 production starring Tony Curtis and Jack Lemmon, is the latest film to be presented by Feminist Live Reads, which stages cold readings of films using only female actors. Created by filmmaker and film critic Chandler Levack, the events are a chance to re-frame roles from a feminist perspective and tackle issues of gender fluidity and misogyny.
The reading is part of the Vancouver International Film Festival (VIFF) and stars actors currently in films screening at the festival. The cast will be taking on the tale of two men who witness a Mafia murder and disguise themselves as women in an all-female jazz band to escape.
"Women playing men, who are playing women is really complex," said Levack in an interview on CBC's The Early Edition. "It's breaking down binaries."
Levack, who has directed similar renditions of Reservoir Dogs, Almost Famous and the Entourage pilot, said the actors don't mimic the original portrayals but come with their own instinctual ideas of the characters. For example, she once had Canadian actress Mia Kirshner play a hit man with a southern belle accent, which Levack called a "brilliant choice."
'It's just really fun'
Actress Bethany Brown will play Mafia bad guy Spats Colombo in Some Like It Hot and said she is looking forward to seeing her fellow cast members take on roles that were intended for a man.
"It gives us an ability to express a new perspective," Brown said, noting that women are so often cast in roles that reinforce a man's perspective.
Brown said it is always nerve-racking to read something cold as a group that hasn't practised together before, but she is looking forward to the conversations the project could spark.
"Some of the jokes may not land," said Brown. "They may hit you in a different place of truth."
Levack, who started these events in 2015, says when things get deeply uncomfortable, or subversive, that's when it gets interesting.
"It's just really fun," said Levack.
Feminist Live Reads Some Like It Hot is happening Tuesday, Oct. 1 at 6:30 p.m. PST at the Rio Theatre in Vancouver.
Actors taking part include: Katie Findlay, Kacey Rohl, Nina Kiri, Diana Bang and Jewel Staite. Local songstress Jill Barber will also perform songs originally performed in the film by the iconic Marilyn Monroe.
With files from The Early Edition