Rachel, Rachel

US (1968): Drama

Paul Newman makes his directorial debut and his wife Joanne Woodward stars as Rachel Cameron, a 35-year-old unmarried schoolteacher who feels as though she's wasted her life. Rachel's best friend Calla Mackie (Estelle Parsons) invites her to attend a religious revival meeting. Here Rachel is swept up in the emotional fervor orchestrated by a young guest-preacher (Terry Kiser). This is the first of several cathartic incidents which convince Rachel to kick over the traces and express her own needs and emotions. She has a brief sexual liaison with an old family friend (James Olson), and is delighted at the notion that she might have become pregnant. Rachel ends up alone and childless (her "pregnancy" was nothing more than a benign cyst), but still determined to forge a new life for herself. The cast also features Geraldine Fitzgerald. Based the novel A Jest of God by Margaret Laurence, the film won New York Film Critics awards for both Woodward and Newman, and an Oscar nomination for Woodward. (Kayos/Warner Bros.-Seven Arts) (Hal Erickson, All Movie Guide)

· Best Picture 1968: Paul Newman - Producer (Kayos, Warner Bros.-Seven Arts)
· Actress 1968: Joanne Woodward
· Supporting Actress 1968: Estelle Parsons
· Writing (Screenplay based on material from another medium) 1968: Stewart Stern

4 nominations