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My WorksFrankly, My Dear: Gone with the Wind Revisited
A movie that should never have worked (too many cooks) does so because of the fascinating and uncompromising personalities of Margaret Mitchell, David Selznick and Vivien Leigh. As a feminist and onetime Southern adolescent, Molly Haskell understands how the story takes on different shades of meaning according to the age and eye of the beholder. She is, says Phillip Lopate, "a magician to coax such exciting, fresh, brilliant analysis from such a problematic classic." Martin Scorsese: "This is a beautifully written and well-detailed account of the making of a movie that has, by now, become an American treasure, a landmark in popular entertainment. And it’s written by a real southerner, who happens to be one of the best writers on film we have." And Robert Osborne says it "towers above any other book that's yet been written about Gone with the Wind." Olivia de Havilland: An absoolutely marvelous work - provocative, perceptive, richly informative, and written with a contagious passion. Molly Haskell has given all of us who are in thrall to Gone with the Wind countless fresh insights, not only about its characters and the era in which they lived but also about ourselves and our own times." Books"From Reverence to Rape: the Treatment of Women in the Movies"
Second Edition "Haskell is interested in women--how they are used in movies, how they use movies, and how the parts they play function as projections and verifications of our myths about women's lot and woman's psyche." -Jane Kramer, Village Voice "[Haskell's] book is short on militant rhetoric and long on wise, constructive insight. She explores the tensions and potentialities of heterosexual relationships, as portrayed in the movies, with such humorous, sympathetic skill that both sexes can enjoy, and profit from, her work. -J.M. McInerny, Best Sellers "Love and Other Infectious Diseases: a
Memoir" "Facing the possibility of losing him, Molly was forced to look inward to confront the contradictions in what had seemed an ideal relationship. ...Part horror movie, part screwball comedy, 'Love and Other Infectiuos Diseases' is a testament to the resiliency of the human spirit." "Haskell speaks for all women as she confronts--with great intelligence and compassion and wit--the unspoken fears and ambivalences of marital love." -Francine du Plessix Gray "Few books have captured the symbiotic texture of married life at the magnificently precise level of detail this one does. There are moments of such naked honesty as to make any lover of candor's jaw drop in astonishment and glee." -Phillip Lopate "Holding My Own in No Man's Land: Women and Men and Film and Feminists"
"Molly Haskell can more than hold her own in any man's or woman's land. In her work, feminism is transformed from honking ideology into seductive song by a writer whose graceful prose reflects a wise, witty, compassionate, deeply informed and totally unfettered critical imagination." -Richard Schickel "As a critic and a writer, Molly Haskell is like one of her own heroines from the romantic comedies of the 30's and 40's--smart, funny, provocative, tender, independent, and dedicated to the hope that men and women off screen and on can find a decent way of acting naturally." -David Thomson
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Selected Works
Part of the Yale University Press American Icon series. An examination of how and why the book and movie have such a hold on the imagination. The character of Scarlett, bold, outrageous and yet forgivable, is unlike any heroine before or since.
Non-Fiction
Both historical survey and polemic, this book addresses the ways in which Hollywood, and cinema in general, has stereotyped women, but also points to the numerous examples of women subverting and challenging these stereotypes.
"A work of considerable depth and subtlety" (the New York Times) : In 1984 Haskell's husband,
Andrew Sarris, came down with a mysterious and near-fatal illness. During his six-month hospitalization, she confronts not only the daily fear of his death but the realization of her own immense dependency.
Essays and interviews, ranging from interviews with Hollywood legends such as Gloria Swanson and John Wayne, to celebrations of the comic verve of Lucille Ball and Carol Burnett, to ruminations on literary figures such as Truman Capote and his Holly Golightly and Jane Austen's Emma.
Selected Articles
A piece about movie theatres and how they've changed through the years.
Molly's personal take on the hit tv show.
A book review of “Burt Lancaster: An American Life,” by Kate Buford.
A unique view of the confrontations between men and women, the darker side of men, and how both sexes react to these differences.
Celebrated New York Times humor piece about Molly's husband's driving, men's driving in general, and the misconceptions about women drivers.
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