Call Me Kate

An interesting and objective doc on Katharine Hepburn. It gives an honest and balanced portrayal of the kind of person she was. I enjoyed the objectivity of it, with many surviving family members giving their insights. It doesn't overly glorify her or unnecessarily undermines. I'm quite neutral to her celebrity and found this worth my time. There is a great deal about her childhood and the family she grew up in before her acting career. Included are audio recordings of interviews in her own voice though much is read by a voice actor. My personal takeaway is that once she knew she wanted to be famous, she became basically a quite selfish person. Not completely heartless but ultimately very self-absorbed and only attuned to what she wanted.

I found the film to be a mess. Using a character actor only seen from the back to represent Kate in various aspects of her life was annoying. The actual tapes of her speaking were not for the most part able to be understood. Hearing a Larry King interview while seeing other film clips or stills, not knowing who he was interviewing - annoying. The style of watching someone take notes from the tape recording while the narrator spoke of aspects of her life was confusing. It seemed like a high school film project gone wrong. It did provide the actual facts of her life but presented in jumbled mess.

Some critics here have been very harsh on this documentary. But I found it very informative and sweet. Sure, for those already very familiar with Katharine Hepburn's life and work, there may not be a lot that's new. But I had not known a lot about her and so I learned a lot. It is an affectionate piece, obviously, with input from her family and from the family of her lover Spencer Tracy, but what's wrong with that? Hepburn was unlucky in that Tracy was married and so she did not get to have a traditional relationship, except for in Tracy's final years when she lived with him. But mostly in her life Hepburn was very lucky indeed. She happened to meet people in Hollywood who liked and encouraged her, who wrote for her and directed her in some of the top movies of her day. She had a wonderful and wealthy family including a wise, steadfast and feminist mother, she had good people around her as her assistants and friends. Even her first husband sounds like he was a very nice man, even though she admits she broke his heart. But aside from being lucky, Hepburn also was courageous and intelligent in standing up for herself so that she was paid well, could dress the way she wanted and did not have to compromise and play the sex object like many other actresses. Her mother taught her to get back up when she was down. Hepburn has a reputation for being somewhat cold emotionally but this documentary gives a more rounded insight into her life and character. She paved the way for female actors and characters to be actual characters as opposed to love interests, and she lived her life as she wanted it to be.

A netflix documentary on kathryn hepburn. Her life, career, and relationship with spencer tracy. Brash, independent, headstrong. Coming from an activist mother and a progressive, upper class father, it set up kathryn for a successful move to hollywoood. Combine that with a family tragedy that pushed her to be the best she could be. Interviews with kate and her brother. Bursting on the scene in 1932, 1933, she gives it her all. Some success, some bombs, then more successes. Howard hughes. Kate becomes a producer, wheeling and dealing. And much smarter now. Buying and selling stories, deciding if she wants to star in it, still pushing women's rights. It's good! Nothing too new, no big revelations here, but it's so interesting to watch. Directed by lorna tucker. Check it out. She had style. Like her character in "desk set", even while she was repressed, we knew she was destined for bigger things!

This documentary covers an iconic actress whose life is well known.

But the film uses very good primary sources, mainly actual interviews, and the editing is first rate.

I don't think I learned anything dramatically new, but the way the subject is arranged brought some new insights into the information.

If nothing else, it's interesting to have a documentarian openly discussing gender and orientation. (As Hepburn herself would have been open to doing--as she actually did on tape in years past.)

Katharine Hepburn was ahead of her time. She may well still be ahead of our time. Because the woman lived a truly authentic life without the usual self-limiting worries most of us have.