Directed by Laura Fairrie and produced by the Academy Award®-winning Passion Pictures, along with AGC Studios, CNN Films, BBC Arts, and John Battsek, 'LADY BOSS: The Jackie Collins Story' ta... Read allDirected by Laura Fairrie and produced by the Academy Award®-winning Passion Pictures, along with AGC Studios, CNN Films, BBC Arts, and John Battsek, 'LADY BOSS: The Jackie Collins Story' takes viewers on an immersive journey through the trailblazing life of novelist Jackie Colli... Read allDirected by Laura Fairrie and produced by the Academy Award®-winning Passion Pictures, along with AGC Studios, CNN Films, BBC Arts, and John Battsek, 'LADY BOSS: The Jackie Collins Story' takes viewers on an immersive journey through the trailblazing life of novelist Jackie Collins. Spinning together fact and fiction, this feature documentary reveals the untold story ... Read all
- Awards
- 1 nomination total
- Self
- (archive footage)
- Self
- (archive footage)
- Self
- (as Laura Lizer)
Featured reviews
Jackie wasn't always known for her big hair and leopard prints and risqué writing. In fact, she wasn't known at all before she visited Los Angeles for the first time in 1956, during which she was referred to as Joan's little sister. Ms. Fairrie spends some time with Jackie's childhood and family life, and then takes us through both of her marriages, the career, and her illness. Much of the source work is provided from Jackie's lifelong habit of writing in her diaries, and although much of what is read doesn't dig too deeply into Jackie's psyche, we do get the gist of her focus on observing people and turning those observations into stories that millions loved to read.
In addition to the diaries, there are interviews with Jackie's daughters, her brother, her long time literary agent, her business manager, her personal assistant, and her sister Joan. Some of her ("best") friends also offer insight, including Barbara Davis, widow of oil man and former owner of 20th Century Fox, Marvin Davis. Some segments feature these folks reading passages directly from Jackie's books, but it's their personal recollections that come closest to adding substance.
Therein lies the biggest hurdle with the film. It succeeds in tracking Jackie's rise to the top as an author, but it doesn't go deep enough into her books' influence on society, and we get even less about Jackie's personal makeup. She was a woman succeeding in a man's world, and she carefully crafted and cultivated a public image that included plastic surgery, so that what they read is what they see. One of her daughters states there were "two sides to this mom", but even that doesn't result in the breakthrough we hope for.
Husband number 2, Oscar Lerman, encouraged Jackie to write her first book, "The World is Full of Married Men", and that was the start of an incredible writing career. Sister Joan's interviews are in line with the rest of the film in never going too deep, but she does make the comparison of "a marriage" to her relationship with Jackie, and maybe the best insight is the difference in how Joan describes their father to how Jackie's diary entries do. By assembling the bits and pieces we do understand Jackie had significant insecurities behind her public façade.
Clearly there were times a sisterly rivalry was in play, and that's somewhat offset by the fact that Joan starred in two movies based on books written by sister Jackie ("The Stud" and "The Bitch"). In the 1980's Joan's career got a huge boost playing Alexis in "Dynasty", while at the same time, Jackie was enjoying the success of one of her biggest sellers, "Hollywood Wives". As a ground-breaking author, Jackie Collins deserves this documentary profile, and towards the conclusion, there is a segment where she faces a live audience in a televised talk show sometime in the 1990's. The audience is vicious in their attacks on Jackie's writing, but she remains strong in the face of adversity ... a trait that was every bit as important as her book sales.
The film had its World Premiere at Tribeca Film Festival and will air on CNN Films in late June and on BBC Two and BBC iPlayer later this year.
My curiosity in watching this was in the sibling relationship she had with her sister and their origins. A famously beautiful sister and the comparatively plain (quite attractive actually) writer who invests in plastic surgery to make herself prettier.
Interesting when the tables are turned after many years and she becomes more famous than Joan.
Interviews are fairly flat apart from those with Joan. Her daughters are candid on her subsequent marriage after the "love of her life" Oscar dies.
Her perfectly crafted persona was a sham, but then again that is nothing new for performers of any kind.
5/5 I'd like to see a film about the sisters. Their father sounds like a monster.
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- Also known as
- Lady Boss - tantsnuskets drottning Jackie Collins
- Production companies
- See more company credits at IMDbPro
Box office
- Gross worldwide
- $22,766
- Runtime1 hour 36 minutes
- Color
- Aspect ratio
- 16:9 HD