The lie of a girl has devastating consequences in this daring adaptation of Lillian Hellman's famous play.
This landmark film, starring Audrey Hepburn and Shirley Maclaine both awarded by the Academy with James Garner, Miriam Hopkins and Fay Bainter as co-stars, is one of the most elaborate dramas in movie history.
Karen (Hepburn) and Martha (MacLaine) are the directors of an exclusive girls' school.
A student malicious and vengeful, jilted by a punishment that has received a comment overhears and uses it, distorting it, to accuse their teachers of reprehensible conduct, homosexuality.
The scandalous rumors spread quickly across the school community, with an immediate impact, devastating and tragic.
The real story of the world explains why and at what time we are shooting this film: From the Second World War changed the situation of women in the United States. The men went to the front and they took their places. They did the work of men, did the work which had hitherto considered themselves belonging to men.
When the war ended, American society had a resurgence of conservatism and strongly revived the idea that lesbianism was a disease.
During the war period lesbians had gained some ground, which was threatening to the established order. Hays Code censorship remained intact, and without allies in the industry, lesbians still did not have a fair portrait.
Some films alluded to the topic with less ambiguity, but the word "lesbian" is never uttered. Lesbians were not only invisible but also had no name.
Slander is the most important lesbian film industry in decades filmed in the late classical period, but within the codes of censorship, where the lesbian teacher (Shirley MacLaine) has a crush on the teacher heterosexual (Audrey Hepburn).
This version was directed by William Wyler, is based on the work of lesbian writer Lillian Hellman, where the lesbianism has been treated in a subtle way.
The final, eyes on top of Audrey Hepburn, is a militant lesbian act (and by extension it is an act in favor of freedom) and pride who years later served for a rereading of the film.