Extraordinary Women

This is a documentary series full of popular names, which of course only skims the surface. However, it is credited with keeping those names in the limelight, which is of course sometimes enough. Specifically, Hedy Lamarr: The story of this extraordinary woman is only reminiscent of a series of failed marriages, but the important thing is the patent she filed during World War II, which only became a success in the modern age of mobile phones. On the other hand, she also had a very substantial film and theater career, of which we only get hints, and more space is given to that embarrassing incident in the 1960s when she was on trial for theft. It would have been better to prioritize, i.e., cut color samples from color films and not forget her production company, in which case it could have been excellent. (12.01.2014)

The rating relates to the episodes about Audrey Hepburn and Grace Kelly. The lives of famous ladies seen as mismatches between women of unimpeachable character and the masculine world of unfaithful, neglectful and power- and profit-hungry men. However, the idea of women as victims is not called into question by the series, but is rather exploited. Instead of seeking out causes, it only shows consequences, and suffering is taken as an irrefutable fact that can only be accepted. On top of that, the tabloid-like focusing of attention on relationships at the expense of professional successes raises in the unknowledgeable viewer the question of how exactly these women were extraordinary. In this respect, it also works with a certain givenness of issues that do not need to be elaborated upon (they were simply famous), even though a documentary series of this kind should be about the reasons for its subjects’ exceptionalism. Extensive biographies of both actresses have been  published and they also tell only one version of the story, but at the very least, they do not overload us with unimportant information. (31.07.2012)