Film Forum

Laughingly self-described as the “poor man’s Bette Davis,” London-born Ida Lupino (1918-1995) descended from a long line of entertainers, sailed just below super-stardom despite memorably tough roles at Warner Bros. – but then reinvented herself as a pioneer indie director, writer and producer, the first woman of the sound era to do so and the only woman director in Hollywood for decades, tackling once-taboo subject matter, under her company banner The Filmmakers.

Reviews

“Lupino’s movies are rite-of-passage films – passage into womanhood, into nightmare, into lack of control.”
– Ronnie Scheib

"A TRUE MAVERICK… She made movies with the same steely determination and emotional sensitivity that characterized her work as an actor.”
– J. Hoberman

“The five films she directed represent a singular achievement in American cinema.”
– Martin Scorsese, The New York Times

"BLAZED A TRAIL FOR FEARLESS, INDEPENDENT FILMMAKERS”
– Matthew Thrift, British Film Institute

Films in this Series