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This week, I will evaluate the Wikipedia of Agnes Varda. Unlike many of the female filmmakers on Wikipedia, Varda's Wikipedia is considerably detailed and cohesive. The article is broken into six articles, with subsections dedicated to her most notable films. The tone of the article seems to be relatively neutral, with the majority of the sources coming from academic sources or including quotes Varda herself said about her style. There also seems to be an equal balance between discussing Varda's creativity and filmmaking with her production development and contributions to the French New Wave movement. Her personal life is also not dominated by her romantic life, and includes interesting tidbits such as the fact that she was one of the 343 women who signed the 343 Manifesto of women admitting they had had an abortion despite its illegal status in France. Interestingly, there is a subsection about her involvement with the French New Wave, that does not seem to really outline her involvement with the movement, but rather functions as an explanation for what the movement itself was. This seems to be the part of her article that could use more sources and be researched more thoroughly, as the citations are also sparse in this section.

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For my final article, I have decided to write about Amy Heckerling. Her Wikipedia has information about her early life and early career, but gives little to absolutely no information to her career from 2000-present day, despite her being an active director. I also want to focus on how Heckerling's early films influenced teen pop culture, specifically through the lens of Clueless and Fast Time at Ridgemont High. I think that there could be sections devoted to those films, potentially even broken up into innovative ways that the films were shot (i.e. the language used in the films or the treatment of teen-girl sexuality).

http://www.jstor.org.proxy.library.emory.edu/stable/pdf/10.3366/j.ctt1bgzbs4.10.pdf?refreqid=search%3Af710968827c2755137f8cddabe6b69f5 This book focuses on Amy Heckerling’s films as a whole, and this chapter specifically focuses on Heckerling’s films as they deal with female sexuality and how they are reframed in comedic settings. Specifically, the authors focus in on Clueless and Fast Time at Ridgemont High and compares the films to male coming-of-age comedies like American Pie.

http://www.jstor.org.proxy.library.emory.edu/stable/pdf/10.3366/j.ctt1bgzbs4.17.pdf?refreqid=search%3Af710968827c2755137f8cddabe6b69f5 Where the previous chapter focuses on Heckerling’s early teen comedies, this chapter focuses on her later works and her moving away from these types of films and tackling aging. These two chapters are from the same book about her. The films that are in focus for this chapter are Vamps and I Could Never Be Your Woman.

http://www.jstor.org.proxy.library.emory.edu/stable/pdf/43653627.pdf?refreqid=search%3A301e3943d92fa6a8508640c9ca4ff533 This article focuses on Clueless and the effect it had on contemporary American youth culture. It also highlights Heckerling’s Clueless TV show and how the dialect (which much as also been written about) and speech in both the TV show and film Clueless affected teen films well into the early 2010s.

https://www.theringer.com/2017/2/16/16042696/amy-heckerling-fast-times-at-ridgemont-high-clueless-female-directors-ee9568144c24 This is an interview piece from the website, Ringer. The interview with Heckerling is extensive and spans the length of her career as she makes commentary about how she began and her development into the director that she is known to be today. This article is full of quotes that could be used as evidence for how Heckerling manifested her films into existance. It must be used with caution, in order not to fall into a blogging trap or being too based in the subject herself.

https://www.amazon.com/Calling-Shots-Profiles-Women-Filmmakers/dp/1550820850 As another way of gaining interview source material, I want to order this book from the Emory Library as there is a chapter on Heckerling inside that will hopefully put Heckerling in a less informal magazine style of interview and into a more academic lens that would be more appropriately suited towards a Wikipedia article.

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DRAFTING/EDITING PLAN FOR ARTICLE ON AMY HECKERLING

One of the weakest aspects of Amy Heckerling's Wikipedia pages is her introduction. It is sparse and gives no information to the types of films that she has made in her career and the progression of her long career. I would begin by giving her titles (director, writer, producer) as those are also absent. Then I would lead into her upbringing in the Bronx, where she drew a lot of her inspiration staying up late with her grandmother watching movie late at night. She studied film at NYU Tisch during the 1970s and how she began by writing a lot of musicals. Then I would write about her movement into AFI and how this set the trajectory for her career into mainstream cinema and her partnership with Universal lead to her breakout hit, Fast Times At Ridgemont High. From there, she achieved success in the comedy genre with films such as National Lampoon's European Vacation and Look Who's Talking. Moving into the 1990s, I would devote a section to the development of Clueless and it's commercial success as well as it's lasting cultural significance in teen 90s films. Her filmmaking in the 2000s were more independent films before she moved back into the comedy scene with comedy-horror film Vamps, in 2012. Currently, she works more on television. I would also add a picture of her on the page since there seems to lack one.

Heckerling's early life biography seems to be detailed, but I would propose changing "career" into "Early Career" as it only includes her life in NYU and AFI. The article is also separated into her career via decades, which I think is good, but I think that her films such as Fast Times at Ridgemont High and Clueless deserve entire sections to themselves, so I would propose a "Notable Works" sections with these films as subsections where I will detail out the development, production, and critical response/analysis for these films as they were such cultural landmarks and continue to influence cinema today. I would also devote a section to her newer works as she is still an active filmmaker but her page seems to suggest that she is not. Finally, in her Personal Life, I would include more information about her stance on women in film, since in her interviews, she is quite vocal about her frustration with the film industry's lack of diversity for female roles.

PEER REVIEW: Agnes Varda

The Agnes Varda article seems to have more information on her as opposed to other filmmakers that we have seen thus far, which is a good sign but also leaves more room for updates as she is still an active filmmaker. That is one of the major points that I would add on to in your article, for example, her recognition at the Academy Awards this year. I would also say that the section on her "style" seems to be a bit mixed together and could be elaborated on in terms of her feminist filmmaking, and I know that there are a lot of scholarly sources about Varda's auteur style. It is so notable that she is the only woman in the French New Wave and this should definitely get more attention.

I see that you noted that the article has several grammatical errors, which need to be fixed. Other than that, I think that the tone of the article is very factual and does not present any bias, sections just need elaboration.

Maya Deren

The addition of information on each individual movie by Deren is a fantastic addition to her sparse Wikipedia page. As well as the lengthy addition you have added to her early life, which really rounds her out holistically as a filmmaker and figure. I also think that you have done an incredible job of writing on her possible influences and once these have sources, these are great additions to her page. The only thing I would say is to make sure that this section on possible influences is backed up with as much evidence as possible because otherwise it can be seen as you analyzing her films, which is not the typical non-bias route that Wikipedia requires in their articles.

DRAFT:

Amy Heckerling (born May 7, 1954) is an American film director, writer and producer, best known for her teen comedy films in the 1980s and 1990s. Heckerling was born into a Jewish family in the Bronx, and cultivated an early love for old Hollywood classics while spending her after school hours at her grandparents’ homes. When she began attending Manhattan’s High School of Art and Design, she began to study photography, despite her frustration at the expensive cost of photography. At fifteen years old, Heckerling decided to pursue a film career after befriending a group of boys at her school that were making short movies. She remembers thinking to herself, “You said you can make movies. I love them more than you do. And besides, you cheat off of me on your tests, so I’m smarter, so I should do it.” Heckerling attended New York University Tisch School of Film in 1970, where she made her first short films that were inspired by the surrealistic films she would see at the Museum of Modern Art. Heckerling studies under author and screenwriter, Terry Southern. In her junior year at NYU, Heckerling made a musical film about “kids trying to save their school in the sort of “Andy Hardy” vein,” which won her a spot at the American Film Institute’s AFI Conservatory. At AFI, Heckerling mostly made short films, including “Getting It Over With,” (1978) telling the story of an eighteen year old girl determined to lose her virginity- a demonstration of Heckerling’s ability to showcase teenage conflict and nuance that her future feature films would become known for. Heckerling’s debut feature film, “Fast Times at Ridgemont High” was adapted from the book by Cameron Crowe. Released in 1982, the film was a commercial success and launched the careers of several future stars such as Jennifer Jason Leigh, Judge Reinhold, Nicolas Cage and Eric Stolz, and Sean Penn. The film has also been noted for being among the first teen comedies to be highly regarded and studied by film scholars. Fast Times exemplified Heckerling’s ability to take a modest-low budget to turn over a high profit, thus expanding her own career opportunities. Subsequently, Heckerling directed two high profile studio comedies; gangster spoof, Johnny Dangerously (1984) and National Lampoon’s European Vacation (1985). After a four year hiatus upon the birth of her daughter in 1985, Heckerling wrote and directed Look Who’s Talking (1989) drawing inspiration from her divorce from writer, Neil Israel. The film was another box office hit and resulted in a sequel, Look Who’s Talking Too which Heckerling also directed and co-wrote with Israel. The final installment, Look Who’s Talking Now, was written and executively produced by Heckerling. Heckerling’s 1995 film, Clueless, adapted from the Jane Austen novel Emma, became a “sleeper summer hit” and a box office blockbuster. The film also catapulted Alicia Silverstone into teen stardom in her role as Cher as a popular and cheerful Beverly Hills high school student who attempts to make over a socially awkward transfer student (Brittany Murphy). The film became a classic in teen culture and lead to the development of a profitable merchandise line and a TV-show spinoff. In addition to the high praise from critics, Heckerling’s Clueless script earned her Best Screenplay Award from the National Association of Film Critics and Women in Film, as well as a Writers Guild of America nomination. In the 2000s, Heckerling continued to direct and write films such as Loser (2000) and I Could Never Be Your Woman (2007). In 2011, Heckerling wrote-directed the romantic comedy Vamps, which tells the story about two vampire women (Silverstone and Krysten Ritter) who fall in love with two human men. Heckerling is a recipient of AFI's Franklin J. Schaffner Alumni Medal[1] celebrating her creative talents and artistic achievements. Heckerling is notable to film scholars and critics as a “teen film auteur” frequently using body humor and low comedy to include a female perspective, often used as a contrasting point to her fellow contemporary teen film director, John Hughes. She is also famous for her ability to spot new talent, as she is responsible for the rise of actors such as Sean Penn or Alicia Silverstone. Lesley Speed writes, “... the films of Amy Heckerling use comedy to address themes such as gender difference, adolescent sexuality, and parenthood.” In interviews, Heckerling often talks about her determination to work with different kinds of scripts to set her directorial style apart from other films she has made in the past. She explains, “What works for me is not necessarily something I could recommend for anyone else.”

CLUELESS SUBHEADING: In 1993, Heckerling began to develop a TV show for Fox that focused on a popular group of high school kids in a rich California neighborhood, centering around an optimistic and bubbly female character. The project was titled “No Worries.” While reading Emma and Gentlemen Prefer Blondes, Heckerling found herself gravitating towards the positivity of their protagonists. During the development of the project, executives thought that the female characters were too central and the story should delve deeper into the story of the male counterparts. The film was passed on several times, until prolific producer Scott Rudin read and approved of the script, where it was then given a production commitment by Paramount. While researching for the film, Heckerling travelled to Beverly Hills High School and sat in on classes to observe the language patterns and dynamics of the students. Herb Hall, the student debate teacher in Clueless, was named after a real teacher at Beverly Hills High School. Another main concern by producers of the film was the love story between ex-step siblings Cher and Josh claiming the relationship to be too incesteous. However, the relationship was based off of the real life story of Heckerling’s own grandparents who were step brother and sister in the Jewish ghetto in the Pale Settlement in Europe. Heckerling’s great-grandmother was a widow as well as her great-grandfather, so they were married for protection, leading to the marriage between Heckerling’s grandparents as stepsiblings. Heckerling recalls their relationship as the inspiration for Josh and Cher saying, “They were so dependent on each other and so angry all the time with each other. Anyhow, they cracked me up. So it did not seem like a crazy thing to me [for Josh and Cher to be together.]” The film had a beach premiere on July 7th, 1995 in Malibu hosted by MTV. Within the first five days of its release, Clueless had made $15.8 million and earned positive reviews from critics. After the first weekend, Clueless would go on to earn $56.6 million. The success inspired conversations about a TV show spinoff that landed a spot in ABC’s fall 1996 schedule. The film continues to be relevant to film scholars and critics today. Film critic Joe Morgenstern wrote in 1995, “Many comedies these days leave bruises; they want you to feel good but they beat you up in the process, like massage therapists with a sadistic streak. That’s not Amy Heckerling’s style. With Clueless, she has found another state of comic energy, just as American physicists earlier this month found a new state of matter. It isn’t satire, parody or irony, since she evinces little interest in passing judgment on her young people, but pure unadulterated glee.” Clueless is frequently heralded as a stellar example of female authorship in the teen genre by scholars such as Lesley Speed and Kimberly M. Miller. For example, Miller writes, Heckerling’s ability to bring women to the center of her films made This content downloaded from a statement about the independence and ability of women socially, sexually, and interpersonally.”