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smithereens, selfies + sex and the city: on susan seidelman’s new memoir

Nathan Gelgud on Susan Seidelman's new book Desperately Seeking Something and her journey from the New York City of Smithereens to the one of Sex and the City.

Nathan Gelgud

23 Oct 2024 — 1 min read

In 1981, Susan Seidelman made her first feature film, shootin on the Lower East Side without permits.

Before influencers and Instagram, Smithereens was about a young woman trying to achieve fame by posting selfies.

After finishing it, Seidelman got a call from the Cannes Film Festival asking to meet her the next day for an early breakfast. "I'm sorry, I'm not a morning person." She went to the breakfast, and the movie went to Cannes.

Seidelman chose to direct Desperately Seeking Susan next, because the script reminded her of a French film from 1974: Celine and Julie Go Boating.

Desperately Seeking Susan is a perfect movie about identity, domesticity, and female friendship.

As Seidelman writes in her new book, her career was spotty after that, marked by weak box office and mixed reviews. "The movie industry is ruthless...[but] it’s well known that in Hollywood, men can fail upward."

She turned to TV work, directing episodes of Sex and the City. Carrie Bradshaw: "I bought another pair of shoes!"

"Admittedly, [Sex and the City] was a vision of Manhattan that Smithereens' Wren would no longer recognize and probably disdain," Seidelman writes. Wren: "Puke!"

What might Seidelman have made if she'd gotten the same freedom and support of her male counterparts? Wren: "I stole another pair of shoes!"

Nathan Gelgud is a cartoonist and illustrator. His comics about movies and books have appeared in The New York Times, The New Yorker, New York Review of Books, and Hyperallergic.