New York Provides Female Characters, Images for ‘Cookie’ Director’s Movies

NEW YORK —  While growing up in Philadelphia, Susan Seidelman didn’t think much about filmmaking. Chases through Independence Hall never popped into her head. Neither did love scenes at the Liberty Bell.

But by the time she had started film school at New York University, Seidelman was an aspiring director on the lookout for material: Manhattan was there for the taking.

“I think New York is as big a character as the actors in my films,” said Seidelman, the director of “Smithereens,” “Desperately Seeking Susan” and the recently released “Cookie,” all based in New York.

“The diversity of people that live here . . . below 14th Street, you have SoHo, which is artsy. Nearby is Wall Street, which has lawyers and stockbrokers. Nearby you have Chinatown and then Little Italy, where you can still see people hanging out in the stoops and talking on folding chairs.”

Proudly calling herself a New York filmmaker, Seidelman’s first impressions of the city came through movies, especially the 1961 adaptation of Truman Capote’s “Breakfast at Tiffany’s.” She related to stories of women moving to New York, finding small apartments and doing their best to start a new life.

In her own films, Seidelman is attracted to characters such as Susan Berman in “Smithereens,” Madonna in “Desperately Seeking Susan” and Emily Lloyd in “Cookie”: women struggling to find themselves under layers of hair, makeup and clothing.

“I think they are looking for independence or individuality. There is something about those girls that’s incredibly similar. The way they dress, even though they’re trying to be outrageous, is similar,” Seidelman said.

“We’re living in a time when we’re influenced by pop culture and the idols of our day. They’re rebellious, but in an acceptable form.”

“Cookie” stars Peter Falk as mobster Dino Capisco, on parole after serving 13 years for labor racketeering. Lloyd plays his rebellious, gum-chewing daughter and Dianne Wiest, her mother.

The film was not Seidelman’s creation--the script was written by Nora Ephron and Alice Arlen--but the director saw similarities to her earlier films and her life.

“You can draw a line from Wren in ‘Smithereens’ to Madonna in ‘Desperately Seeking Susan’ to ‘Cookie.’ Those women are cousins,” Seidelman said. “I was a Cookie when I was growing up. I had different clothes and different hair, but I felt the same way.”

“Smithereens,” was an underground favorite in 1982, appreciated more by critics than the general public. “Desperately Seeking Susan,” a quirky comedy starring Rosanna Arquette as a suburban housewife who gets amnesia and trades identities with a bohemian pop singer (Madonna), was a surprise hit.

“I was nervous about ‘Desperately Seeking Susan,’ ” Seidelman said. “I knew it was going to rely on the tone, whether the audience would go along with her running into a pole and getting amnesia.”

Next came “Making Mr. Right,” Seidelman’s only film to take place outside New York, starring Ann Magnuson as a woman who falls in love with a robot (John Malkovich). Filming went smoothly and the subject seemed right for the box office, but “Making Mr. Right” flopped.

“I had much more fun making ‘Mr. Right’ than ‘Desperately Seeking Susan.’ It was the warmest atmosphere I ever worked on. But I’ve learned that there’s no correlation between the mood on the set and the box office. We were all in Miami, living in the same hotel together. It was a little like camp.”

Directing, Seidelman has learned, can be a full-time job. Three years ago, she happened to pick up a copy of Fay Weldon’s quirky novel, “The Lives and Loves of a She-Devil,” the story of an ugly woman who alters her body and her life to seek revenge on a philandering husband. A week later, the book was finished and her wheels were spinning. The film version, starring Meryl Streep and Roseanne Barr, is due for release at the end of this year.

“When I go into a bookstore,” Seidelman said, “part of me is looking for pleasure and part of me is thinking what would make a good movie. A lot of books, before they’re published, go out in manuscript forms to the studios.

“I was surprised how easily I got the rights to ‘She-Devil.’ It came out in 1983 and I didn’t read it until three years later. Now I see it in the best-seller racks.”

An excellent British film version of the book was shown over PBS channels two years ago.

Out in the streets, too, Seidelman lets nothing get past her, catching moments of people’s lives and storing them for future films.

“I was walking downtown and this guy and girl were obviously having a fight. She has probably locked him out of the apartment. In my mind, I’m assuming they live together,” she said.

“He was down below and she was up on the third floor, tossing his record albums, pulling them out of the covers and throwing them down in the street like Frisbees. You had all these shattered record albums on the street--what a great image!”