By Pam Pacelli Cooper

Verissima Productions

 

As Women’s History Month winds down, I think of all the marvelous, silly, gripping,

and sometimes infuriating roles given to actresses over the years in the thousands

of films I have seen.  A list of some of my favorites follows (in no special order).

 

1. Who is your favorite, or least favorite, characters and say what attracts or

repulses you about them?

2. If you were to write a memoir about yourself, which movie character(s) would

come closest to describing you?

3. If you are a personal historian, have you ever asked one of your subjects who her

(or even his) favorite female characters are?

 

My list:

Mona Lisa DeVito ( Marisa Tomei) in “My Cousin Vinny”

Juno McGuff ( Ellen Page) in “Juno”

Eleanor Shaw ( Angela Lansbury) in “The Manchurian Candidate

Norma Rae (Sally Field) in “Norma Rae”

Frances Farmer (Jessica Lange) in “Frances”

Bree Daniels (Jane Fonda) in “Klute” also Jane Fonda in “Coming Home”

Karen Silkwood ( Meryl Streep) in “Silkwood”

Ree Dolly (Jennifer Lawrence in her first role) in “Winter’s Bone”

Gelsomina (Giulietta Masina) in “La Strada”

Cesira (Sophia Loren) in “Two Women”

 

If you haven’t seen some of these, you will be in for a treat. Viva Netflix! And…Viva

Women’s History Month!