30 years after its German premiere, the star-studded women’s drama “Green Tomatoes” returns to cinemas on April 5, 2022. A special experience for everyone with a strong sense of justice.
Admittedly, “Green Tomatoes” would not have been a film that I would have watched voluntarily as a young guy in my mid-20s. But what don’t you do to please your girlfriend? But I was emotionally overwhelmed by the story told on two-time levels by two women each.
Certainly, Kathy Bates would no longer be introduced in such a clichéd way as the good housewife who drags herself through a dreary married life with the questions “What will I cook my husband for dinner?” and “What am I going to wear today?”. But in 1992 this extreme was still appropriate to understandably emphasize her change into a self-confident woman.
FRIENDSHIPS BETWEEN WOMEN
Ironically, the 82-year-old Ninny (Jessica Tandy) wakes the buttoned-up housewife Evelyn (Kathy Bates) from her slumber when the two accidentally run into each other in a nursing home. The older lady has experienced a lot and knows a lot to tell. Evelyn listens intently and increasingly identifies with the heroines of Ninny’s stories: Idgie (Mary Stuart Masterson) and Ruth (Mary-Louise Parker), who open the ‘Whistle Stop Cafe’ in a backwater town somewhere in Alabama in the 1930s.
The boyish Idgie doesn’t let any man touch her. The shy Ruth, on the other hand, is heavily pregnant but is nevertheless beaten up by her husband Frank (Nick Searcy). Idgie got her out of the hapless marriage. Then the Klu Klux Klan stands in front of their restaurant door because they dared to serve black people. As a racist, Frank is also part of the hooded gang and plans to kidnap Ruth’s recently born baby. But that is no longer the case. He disappears without a trace. Was it murder?
“GREEN TOMATOES” MATURED INTO A CULT FILM
There are difficult issues such as racism, male violence, and then cancer that are dealt with here and keep stirring the audience emotionally. Director Jon Avnet always pushes the right buttons to make us yearn for justice. And yet “Green Tomatoes” has matured into a cult film for a completely different reason: the lesbian relationship between Idgie and Ruth.
30 years ago it was still so explosive that in the film there had to be an escalating kitchen fight in which the two young women attacked each other. More than a hint is a sensual scene in the water, ending with a tender kiss. Surely you would dare more today. Thus, “Green Tomatoes” not only reflects the 1930s but has also become a contemporary document of the 1990s.
THE BEST OF CINEMA SERIES – PRESENTED BY DashFUN
Anyone who has not yet seen “Green Tomatoes” on the big screen should seize this unique opportunity, with Kathy Bates (“Misery”) and Jessica Tandy († 85, “Miss Daisy and her Chauffeur”) to experience two Oscar winners. Then the touching drama will only be shown again in German cinemas for one day – on April 5th.
“Green Tomatoes” is part of the “Best Of Cinema” series, with which Studiocanal is bringing great classics from film history back to the cinemas – because that’s where they belong. As the official media partner, DashFUN will also introduce you to the next films that will light up the screens of cinemas every month. If you want to know what’s coming soon, please visit the Best of Cinema website.
