Not a Pretty Picture

Martha Coolidge wrote, directed and produced this film about her own experience of being raped when she was 16. The process of making the film is partially captured on screen, with Coolidge actually appearing and discussing the event with the actors, working towards shooting the "proper" scenes, etc. Thus the film becomes her own intensely personal attempt to work out (or through) her feelings on the matter: a kind of psychodrama.

On top of this, the woman who plays the young Coolidge has herself been raped in similar circumstances. The man playing the rapist, a close friend of the actress, finds himself at one point in some sympathy with his character because of the way the two women approach the situation. His contribution on the nature of the male adolescent mind, anxieties hidden beneath manipulative tactics, is said to be one of the most valuable points.

The film has been generally hailed as a first class examination of the social pressures which pervade our sexual and emotional lives. It rests finally on the point that whatever the misconstructions (deliberate or not) which can be placed on a young girl's behaviour, sex and rape are different things and much has to be done for them to be truly recognised as such.