Alexandria, VA – PINK HIGHTAILS IT AGAIN
There are 24 films involving that spurious cool cat of the pink persuasion, the Pink Panther. The 1963 original starring Peter Sellers earned a lifetime gross of only $10,888,107 compared to 2006 Steve Martin’s reboot, which grossed $82,226,474 to date. Steve Martin’s comedic genius aside, the OG Pink Panther outshines them all.
Believe it or not, The Pink Panther 3.0 hybrid is in the works with Eddie Murphy signed to star as the bungling Inspector Clouseau. Jeff Fowler of Sonic the Hedgehog box-office kudos is in the director’s chair. With Jonathan Eirich and Dan Lin, both of the Rideback production company team behind Aladdin and The Two Popes, the film promises to have some serious filmmaking chops. Michael Price of The Simpsons guarantees the laughs. Add to the mix Dame Julie Andrews also producing and you have Hollywood royalty cred. Julie’s late husband Blake Edwards co-wrote and directed the original.
PRETTIEST IN PINK
“Pink is my signature color,” explains Julia Roberts as Shelby Eatenton Latcherie in the 1989 film adaption of Robert Harling’s 1987 play Steel Magnolias. Harling also wrote the screenplay with Herbert Ross. The dialogue naturally feels theatrical. As Shelby elaborates, “My colors are blush and bashful.” To which her mother (Sally Field) qualifies, “Her colors are pink and pink!”
Julia Roberts portrays the epitome of Southern belle beauty, oozing charm as thick as her authentic native Georgian drawl. The film is set in Chinquapin Parish, Louisiana, and was shot in Natchitoches. Connecticut Yankee Meg Ryan was originally cast as Shelby but turned down the role instead to make When Harry Met Sally. Cinematic herstory was the better for it.
Steel Magnolias is spotlighted here over the more obvious choice, Pretty in Pink, because the film deals with women demonstrating resilience and faith in a time of life-and-death crisis. It shows steely true grit defying the odds rather than 80s frat-boy dream gal mopey Molly’s sweet sixteen, girl-come-womanly angst.
Mixed reviews aside (mostly for reducing the South to a stereotype), the star-stocked cast of Oscar winners Olympia Dukakis, Sally Field, Shirley MacLaine, and Julia Roberts, complemented with the stellar supporting roles delivered by Darryl Hannah, Dylan McDermott, and Tom Skerritt, gives gravitas a run for its moxie. Bring on Dolly Parton and how pink it is!
IN THE LAND of PINK and MONEY
It’s indisputably the quintessentially pink-centric picture of all time. To paraphrase Mary Poppins, Barbie is practically perfect in every way. Greta Gerwig’s retelling of Pinocchio in pink was the highest grossing film of 2023, bringing in $1.447 billion in box office ticket sales alone.
Barbie was named one of the top ten films of 2023 by the American Film Institute, with the majority of film writers wholeheartedly concurring. The boffo telling of the iconic now-65-year-old Barbie doll wanting to escape la vie en rose of her pervasively Pepto pink planet for LaLa Land to become a real woman garnered eight Academy Award nominations.
Gerwig was actually not nominated for Best Direction. Stiletto-kicking Hollywood’s plastic ceiling in the male-dominated industry was left to Justine Triet for Anatomy of a Fall. Proving encore that even in Barbie’s world, life is a popularity contest. Playing well with others, especially in Barbieland, is key. The film did receive an Oscar for Best Song thanks to Billie Eilish’s eloquent What Was I Made For?
Barbie’s existential journey from pinkdom to freedom to her first visit to the gynecologist is a ride we can all get aboard. The understated femininity of the palest pinks of childhood—ballet slippers, satin ribbons tied to pigtails, the blush of a mother’s cheek, lips, or nails—engender a twang of nostalgia and reverie that even the most devout feminist, Barbie-eschewing critic can embrace.
There are other pink-toned films to explore: John Waters’s counterculture sensation Pink Flamingoes, Pink Cadillac with Clint Eastwood, Lindsay Lohan in Mean Girls ( “On Wednesdays we wear pink.”), and Legally Blonde starring bubblegum bombshell Reese Witherspoon. There’s even the 1982 Pink Floyd: The Wall, a rock musical drama based on their album, not to mention the French biopic La Vie en Rose (Life in Pink), named for the signature song of icon Edith Piaf.
However you think pink this Breast Cancer Awareness Month, take some time to enjoy any of these films with someone you love. First time viewing or fiftieth, may the power of the pink force be with you.
