Desperately Seeking Susan (1985)

Rosanna Arquette stars as Roberta Glass, a dreamy, but largely lonely and dissatisfied New Jersey housewife who contents herself to reading about the mysterious lives of others through perusing the personals in the local paper.  One in particular has caught her eye, involving “Jim (Joy) and Susan (Madonna),” who use the ads in order to meet in public places.  Curious Roberta heads out to catch a glimpse of the two when they meet in New York City, and, through a mishap, ends up with amnesia, not to mention a case of mistaken identity that sees her playing the role of being Susan herself.  Trouble is, the wayward playgirl Susan is being followed by a crazed thug (Patton) intent on recovering some heisted priceless Egyptian artifacts that end up given to Jim, earrings that have been seen in the real Susan’s possession.  With the help of Jim’s friend Dez (Quinn, who beat out, among others, a then unknown Bruce Willis for the role), who also mistakenly thinks Roberta is Susan, she must traverse this dangerous territory and find meaning to her own life, even if she has to live the life of another to do it.

At the time of its release it was revealed that first-time screenwriter Leora Barish’s inspiration for creating Desperately Seeking Susan was inspired from a viewing of a 1974 French film from Jacques Rivette called Celine and Julie Go Boating, spinning off from her own personal experiences of loving to read the personals ads in the local newspaper. As Barish modeled the character of Roberta to some degree on her friend, a film producer named Sarah Pillsbury, it’s no surprises that Pillsbury liked the idea enough to co-produce it herself, along with her partner Midge Sanford, and it would be the basis of their new production company’s first venture as Sanford/Pillsbury Productions. They had the script, but needed a director, but with funds being limited, they reached out to Susan Seidelman, who delivered an impressive debut in 1982’s low-budget indie with French New Wave stylings, Smithereens, which offered a similar story of a New Jersey resident trying to enter the hip underground art and music scene in New York.

Warner Bros. had initially been putting in the money to seed the project, but pulled out, making way for Orion Pictures to pick up where they left off, insisting that a few revisions to the script be made to add more romance, conflict, and to punch up the settings so that the film would have more visual cinematic appeal.  This would prove to be Seidelman’s first effort working within a studio system, with a professional crew and an established cast of mostly seasoned character actors.

However, for her leads, she went for younger and inexperienced, casting the role of Roberta Glass, who was written to be older, with a relative unknown at the time, Rosanna Arquette, who was in her mid-20s, over the likes of the proposed Cher, Goldie Hawn or Diane Keaton; the original script envisioned Roberta as an older woman but the push was there from Sanford and Pillsbury to go for someone to appeal to a hipper set. The producers liked the fact that Arquette might appeal to the younger demographic they envisioned for the film, and had a look, a plausibly sexy demeanor when she needs to, and great comic timing they thought would be perfect for the role, despite her young age.  Though the studio wanted Ellen Barkin to be cast as Susan, and even gave looks to the likes of known quantities like Jennifer Jason Leigh and Melanie Griffith, Seidelman lobbied hard for Madonna, eventually prevailing due to budgetary considerations of going with a relative amateur, especially one that was already known by younger film-goers, as well as Seidelman already having a rapport with her from knowing her from her days in the local clubs. 

Madonna, who was already an established star in the world of music off of a few big hits from her self-titled debut album, signed on, and would skyrocket to superstar status during the making of the film, as her second studio album, “Like a Virgin”, would be one of the hottest selling records of the year. This raised interest in the movie exponentially, as it would mark her debut in a major motion picture, to the point where the film would be seen more as a Madonna vehicle than anything else, something that Rosanna Arquette would regret signing on for due to the focus causing an imbalance and trajectory change, due to the high-demand singer’s lack of availability and necessity for more preparation and security, in how the film would be made.

It’s a tale that’s been told before in a variety of forms, including in a Hitchcock film viewed by Roberta toward the beginning of the story, 1940’s Rebecca, where a naive ingenue finds herself unable to ever live up to expectations, living in the shadow of a more glamorous and exciting woman she wishes she could be.  This rather old-fashioned story gets the hip and trendy treatment in this delving into the style and fashion of the artistic side of Manhattan’s SoHo scene.  Although this is a starring vehicle for Rosanna Arquette, who is delightfully cute in her own right, it is most memorable for the appearance of pop superstar Madonna, as she solidifies her image with her mix of leather, lace, and pseudo-brat attitude, while also delivering what is probably her most enduring film role, and her best, even if she is playing what is essentially not far from herself (Madonna essentially filled out the role, personality-wise, based on her own attitudes on the kind of person Susan would be, from her experience – she even did her character’s own hair, make-up and wardrobe).  Madonna’s presence would so overshadow the film that Rosanna Arquette would get a BAFTA Award as a “Supporting Actress” for her performance, despite being the undisputed star of the film (The Golden Globes did nominate her correctly as a lead actress, however).

Desperately Seeking Susan pushes forward a mild theme that dreamers can sometimes live out their dreams by donning the clothes and filling a role with strangers that they can’t do when stuck in the rut of their ordinary lives.  Like many young girls would do by co-opting the “Madonna look,” a Yuppie housewife becomes a sort of hot commodity, not through changing her personality, but by how she is perceived by those around her due to her fashion sense and her own belief that her life is a blank slate (of course, due to her amnesia).  In so doing, Roberta become an “every-girl” by which to identify with as she rubs shoulders with the rarely-seen (at least in mainstream movies) art and performer crowds that embrace originality and personal identity over the cookie-cutter conformism of the suburban American ideals she represents.

Desperately Seeking Susan isn’t a film that would garner many critical accolades, as the story does meander due to director Susan Seidelman’s fascination with showcasing the setting and people of the area more than she is concerned with the main story at the heart of the film. Seidelman wanted to emphasize the wade variety of people, culture and styles in various parts of New York, with an air of mystique and perhaps a dash of magic (literally employed in the Magic Shop sequences). The grit and vibrancy especially contrasts to Roberta’s existence in the vanilla-flavored and pastel-colored suburbs of Fort Lee, New Jersey, a la Roberta Glass, like Alice, though the “Looking Glass” (hence, her name) to find a wild and weird world to marvel and enthrall.  However, as a slice of pop sensibilities of the 1980s, it is an fun and interesting film just for its bells and whistles alone, with some nice performances by a solid cast of character actors.

Although it would be a film that had many conceptual ideas going into it, the one thing that they didn’t have was an adequate ending for the film, resulting in several endings being shot, including one in which Roberta and Susan end up travelling together to Egypt, where they ride camels to return the earrings back to the rightful home.  Reportedly, test audiences didn’t think that shot was necessary, thinking the film would conclude with the one in the cinema between Roberta and Dez, and that’s where they ultimately decided to let it end, but with a final shot of them being rewarded for their return to a museum.

Orion felt they had a potentially big hit on their hands with Madonna to draw big interest, fighting the MPAA’s initial R rating (due to some very brief nudity, primarily) and making a few changes to secure a PG-13 rating (which I think is the right rating, personally) to get the singer’s legion of young fans to flock to the theaters.  Despite all of the pre-release hype, as well as Madonna’s smash hit song and music video (comprised from clips of Desperately Seeking Susan – the song plays in a nightclub in the film, establishing Madonna exists in this world, but no one comments that a doppelganger is out there on the dance-floor grooving to it), “Into the Groove” (which, oddly, was not released as its own single until the April-released movie had all but completely left theaters in July of 1985, though it was available on the B-side to Madonna’s “Like a Virgin” track, “Angel” on the 12″ maxi-single), the film was only a modest success at the box office, taking in a little under $30 million, and never rising above number 5 in any week of its release. 

It was deemed to be what it was – an art-house movie that somehow had a major pop superstar in it, but still of limited commercial appeal beyond that – and struggled to find enough theaters willing to showcase it.  Nevertheless, considering that the shooting budget was roughly $5 million, it should be deemed a hit by any standard, even if it never quite crossed over to become a mainstream phenomenon.  More a cute curiosity than a witty, screwball romp, Desperately Seeking Susan will nevertheless hit home for fans of Madonna, SoHo kitsch, and all things that represent the decade in which it was made.

Trivia: The triplets who were separated at birth and didn’t know of each others existence until adulthood (featured in the 2018 documentary, Three Identical Strangers) make a small appearance in the film, flirting with Madonna in one scene.  Director Seidelman saw them on the street near a shoot and asked them to appear on the screen in order to enforce the theme of lookalikes and the potential for mistaken identities.

Qwipster’s rating: B+

MPAA Rated: PG-13 for nudity, some violence, some drug content and language
Running time: 104 min.

Cast: Rosanna Arquette, Madonna, Aidan Quinn, Mark Blum, Will Patton, Robert Joy, Laurie Metcalf, Anna Levine, Steven Wright, John Turturro
Cameo: Giancarlo Esposito, Ann Magnuson, Iris Chacon, Carol Leifer, Richard Portnow, Michael Badalucco, Richard Hell
Director: Susan Seidelman
Screenplay: Leora Barish