''She Must Be Seeing Things'' is a 1987 lesbian feminist film directed by

Sheila McLaughlin Sheila McLaughlin (born 1950) is an American lesbian feminist director, producer, screenwriter, actor, and photographer. She wrote and directed the controversial film, '' She Must Be Seeing Things'' (1987). Her debut feature film, '' Committed'' ( ...

and starring

Lois Weaver Lois Weaver (born 1949, Roanoke, Virginia) is a Guggenheim-winning artist, activist, writer, director, and Professor of Contemporary Performance at Queen Mary University of London. She is currently a Wellcome Trust Fellow in Engaging Science. ...

and

Sheila Dabney Sheila Dabney is an American actor, best known for her co-starring role in the 1987 lesbian feminist film '' She Must Be Seeing Things'' alongside Lois Weaver and directed by Sheila McLaughlin. In 1984, Dabney won an Obie Award for her performa ...

. It was the film debut of both

and

Peggy Shaw Peggy Shaw (born July 27, 1944) is an actor, writer, and producer living in New York City. She is a founding member of the Split Britches and WOW Cafe Theatre, and is a recipient of several Obie Awards, including two for Best Actress for he ...

. It was controversial when first released.

Plot

The film focuses on the relationship between filmmaker Jo (

) and her girlfriend, lawyer Agatha (

). While tidying the books and papers in Jo's flat, Agatha finds suggestive photos of Jo and her former (male) lovers. She also finds a diary, with more photos and pages about men that Jo has known in the past. Agatha becomes suspicious that Jo is seeing a man as well as her, and even appears to follow her. The film is ambiguous about whether Agatha is imagining events, or whether there really are things going on that she ''must'' be seeing. Despite the strains of an arduous filming schedule for Jo's low-budget film, they are happily reconciled by the end, although the issue of whether Agatha was imagining things is apparently left unresolved. Jo's film-within-a-film involves the life of

Catalina de Erauso Antonio de Erauso, born as Catalina de Erauso (in Spanish; or Katalina Erauso in Basque) ( San Sebastián, Spain, 1585 or 15921592 according to the baptismal record; 1585, according to sources including the supposed autobiography. See . — Cuet ...

(c. 1592–1650), a semi-legendary personality from 17th century Spain. Catalina was given a special dispensation by

Pope Urban VII Pope Urban VII ( la, Urbanus VII; it, Urbano VII; 4 August 1521 – 27 September 1590), born Giovanni Battista Castagna, was head of the Catholic Church, and ruler of the Papal States from 15 to 27 September 1590. His thirteen-day papacy was th ...

to live, work and dress as a man. The Catalina story to some extent mirrors the butch-femme aspect of Jo and Agatha's relationship.

Cast

as Jo *

as Agatha * Kyle deCamp as Catalina * John Erdman as Eric * Ed Bowes as Richard *

as Jewelry Saleswoman

Critical reception

The film has elicited a wide range or responses, from delight to revulsion and outrage.

Janet Maslin Janet R. Maslin (born August 12, 1949) is an American journalist, best known as a film and literary critic for ''The New York Times''. She served as a ''Times'' film critic from 1977 to 1999 and as a book critic from 2000 to 2015. In 2000 Maslin ...

, writing in ''

The New York Times ''The New York Times'' (''the Times'', ''NYT'', or the Gray Lady) is a daily newspaper based in New York City with a worldwide readership reported in 2020 to comprise a declining 840,000 paid print subscribers, and a growing 6 million paid ...

'', notes that "sexual jealousy is the main force at work ... but you'd never know it from the film's amiable, even dispassionate mood", and called it "a modest, agreeable and doubtless very personal film".

Teresa de Lauretis Teresa de Lauretis (; born 1938 in Bologna) is an Italian author and Distinguished Professor Emerita of the History of Consciousness at the University of California, Santa Cruz. Her areas of interest include semiotics, psychoanalysis, film theory, ...

considers the film to be about "lesbian sexuality and its relations to fantasy". De Lauretis also notes the ambiguity inherent in the title: is she imagining things, or is it that she ''must'' be seeing things – are there things that she ought to be seeing? Alison Darren's ''Lesbian Film Guide'' notes that it was a "deeply controversial film on release ... upset a wide section of the lesbian community by being a lesbian film largely concerned with heterosexuality ... dismissed outright by some as pornography".

References

External links

* {{DEFAULTSORT:She Must Be Seeing Things 1987 independent films 1987 films 1987 LGBT-related films American independent films American LGBT-related films 1980s feminist films Lesbian-related films Female bisexuality in film Films about filmmaking Films about infidelity Films about lawyers 1980s English-language films 1980s American films

Plot

Cast

Critical reception

See also

References

External links