Film

Reba Merrill and Tandy Culpepper Offer Their Take on the Films I’m Still Here and The Substance

In this episode, Reba and Tandy discuss two films starring two much-lauded actresses. One film makes a strong statement about the way society objectifies women before tossing them aside as they age. The other film is based on a real woman living in Brazil under a military dictatorship.

The Substance stars Demi Moore as an actress of a certain age who desperately wants to look younger. She discovers something that will do just that, but the repercussions are horrific. The film was written by the film’s director, Coralie Fargeat, who said that she conceived Moore’s character using her own feelings of self-esteem as she has aged. Fargeat garnered an Oscar nod for Best Director. Moore was nominated in the Best Actress category.

I’m Still Here is the first Brazilian film to be in the running for Best Picture Oscar. Its star, Fernanda Torres, is the second Brazilian actress to be nominated for Best Actress. In an amazing coincidence, the first Brazilian actress nominated for Best Actress is Torres’s mother, Fernanda Montenegro, for her role in the 1998 film, Central Station. Montenegro has a cameo in I’m Still Here. Both films were helmed by director Walter Salles.

I’m Still Here is based on the life of Eunice Paiva whose husband was abducted with no warning by the military. The screenplay was adapted from the memoir by Paiva’s son, Marcelo.

Published by Tandy Culpepper

I am a veteran broadcast journalist. I was an Army brat before my father retired and moved us to the deep South. I'm talkin' Lower Alabama and Northwest Florida, I graduated from Tate High School and got botha Bachelor's degree and Master's in Teaching English from the University of West Florida, I taught English at Escambia County High School for two years before getting my m's in Speech Pathology and Audiology from Auburn University. Following graduation, I did a 180 degree turn and moved to Birmingham where I began ny broadcasting career at WBIQ, Channel 10. There I was host of a weekly primetime half-hour TV program called Alabama Lifestyles. A year later, I began a stint as a television weathercaster and public affairs host. A year later, I moved to West Palm Beach, Florida and became bureau chief at WPTV, the CBS affiliate. Two years later, I moved to Greensboro, North Carolina where I became co-host of a morng show called AM Carolina. The next year, I moved cross-country and became co-host and story producer at KTVN-TV in Reno, Nevada. I also became the medical reporter for the news department. Three years later, I moved to Louisville, Kentucky and became host and producer of a morning show called today in WAVE Country at WAVE-TV, Channel 3, the NBC affiliate. Following three years there, I moved to Los Angeles and became senior correspondent at the Turner Entertainment Reportn, an internationally-syndicated entertainment entertainment news service owned by CNN. I went back to school afterwards and got an MFA in Creative Nonfiction at Goucher College in Towson, Maryland, a suburb of Baltimore. Oh, yes. I won a hundred thousand dollars on the 100 Thousand Dollar Pyramid, then hosted by Dick Clark.

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