Not a Pretty Picture

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Not a Pretty Picture

1976

1h 23m

Drama

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Popcornmeter

100%

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7 Reviews

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Fewer than 50 Ratings

In this pseudo-documentary, director Martha Coolidge presents a staging of a traumatic event from her youth. As a teenager, Coolidge was raped by a boarding school classmate. Coolidge is filmed directing the actors and coping with her trauma while the reenactments are being shot.

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Peter Bradshaw

Guardian

Jul 1

5/5

Could a movie of such unselfconscious daring be made today? It’s not clear. But the riding-in-the-car sequence has an ominous queasiness for the audience who know where it is leading.

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Richard Brody

The New Yorker

06/09/2018

Its blend of documentary and dramatic filmmaking, of first-person reflection and renactment, sets a standard for cinematic inquiry into the political implications of personal experience.

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Calum Baker

Radio Times

13h

4/5

This is still perfectly focused and rigorously structured; the film may have its clear social purpose, but the personality and therapeutic edge that Coolidge brings make it a quietly gripping meditation.

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Sean Burns

WBUR’s Arts & Culture

03/28/2024

As we watch the movie being made, we’re also witnessing an artist finding catharsis in the act of creation.

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Alex Heeney

Seventh Row

03/22/2024

Not a Pretty Picture would have been a conversation starter in the 1970s and still serves as one today... The interruptions to the narrative where we see behind-the-scenes work force us to question what the re-enactments really depict.

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Paula Arantzazu Ruiz

Cinemanía (Spain)

02/29/2024

5/5

Coolidge's proposal is as shocking as it is exemplary.

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Jens B

@Jens97 1d

"Not a Pretty Picture" is the kind of film you’re expected to watch—and appreciate—during your studies. Is the subject matter important? Yes. Is the concept executed in a way that keeps you from dozing off? No.

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05/07/2009

Truly a great film. A very strange meshing of styles, with various levels of reality, and plenty of things that will most likely leave the audience frustrated and infuriated, but will inevitably provoke discussion. This is a reminder of power movies can have, and restored my faith in their ability to do good. Great job, Martha Coolidge! This needs to be on DVD.

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Synopsis

In this pseudo-documentary, director Martha Coolidge presents a staging of a traumatic event from her youth. As a teenager, Coolidge was raped by a boarding school classmate. Coolidge is filmed directing the actors and coping with her trauma while the reenactments are being shot.

Director: Martha Coolidge
Producer: Martha Coolidge
Screenwriter: Martha Coolidge
Production Co: Coolidge Productions
Genre: Drama
Original Language: English
Release Date (Theaters): Mar 31, 1976, Limited
Runtime: 1h 23m