back

Now and Then

Now and Then – Damals und heute
Retrospective 2023
Source: Park Circus © 1996 WBEI
Chrissy is about to have a baby and she invites her three best friends back to their hometown. The women reminisce about the legendary summer when they were twelve and swore eternal friendship in their treehouse. Flashbacks show them talking about subjects as wide-ranging as the Vietnam War, sex, and death. They hold seances in the local cemetery and think about naked boys, in particular one who died young … Now and Then was a box office hit that attained cult status. Not only was it one of the first American theatrical features that dealt seriously with complex girlhood friendships, but within the small-town hierarchy, it presented a quartet of prototypical female types. It was a cinematic girl group – the tomboy, the glamour girl, the intellectual, and the responsible one – that provided audiences with a variety of ways to identify with the characters. With bittersweet nostalgia, the film looks back at a peer group that could only have been possible before youth culture split into distinct “scenes”. But in the summer of 1970, as the title song by Susanna Hoffs of the Bangles proclaims, “That’s when we found each other / And we found ourselves oooh”.
by Lesli Linka Glatter
with Christina Ricci, Rosie O’Donnell, Thora Birch, Melanie Griffith, Gaby Hoffmann, Demi Moore, Ashleigh Aston Moore, Rita Wilson, Janeane Garofalo, Hank Azaria USA 1995 English 100' Colour Rating R6

For the 2023 Retrospective, internationally renowned directors, actors, and screenwriters were asked to select their personal coming-of-age favourites.
Kristen Stewart on her selection

With

  • Christina Ricci
  • Rosie O’Donnell
  • Thora Birch
  • Melanie Griffith
  • Gaby Hoffmann
  • Demi Moore
  • Ashleigh Aston Moore
  • Rita Wilson
  • Janeane Garofalo
  • Hank Azaria

Crew

Director Lesli Linka Glatter
Screenplay I. Marlene King
Cinematography Ueli Steiger
Editing Jacqueline Cambas
Music Cliff Eidelman
Sound James Thornton
Production Design Gershon Ginsburg
Costumes Deena Appel
Make-Up Deborah Larsen
Producers Suzanne Todd, Demi Moore

Produced by

Moving Pictures

Additional information

Print: Park Circus, Glasgow