Martha Coolidge

Lane had a friend he thought was qualified to direct the film, and with their script in hand, he invited her to dinner.

By 36, Martha Coolidge had experienced more highs and lows than a rock and roll biopic.

A distant cousin of Calvin Coolidge, 30th President of the United States, she was born and raised in New Haven, Connecticut.

While some of her high school classmates were contemplating marriage and starting a family, she traveled to Paris to apprentice with printmaker Antonio Frasconi.

So it's time to talk about an infamous movie in the Hilary Duff filmography, which is Material Girls, that she starred alongside her older sister Hayley in.

This was released on August 18th, 2006 and was directed by Martha Coolidge.

So yay for a female director, still something I always want to celebrate.

She's directed a few movies I really like, such as Valley Girl, Rambling Rose, and right before this, she did the Julia Stiles movie, The Prince and Me, which I think is an underrated little rom-com from the early to mid-2000s.

I always loved that one.

They just kind of feel like empty characters that are only associating because they were placed together in this movie.

You don't really feel the connection there.

My theory, and this is why I included the clip that you just heard, is that working with Hailey actually hurt her performance because, like she said in the clip, the director would be telling her to concentrate because she was goofing off with her sister.

And I, I liked working in Rambling Rose 'cause there's another wonderful writer.

And, and Martha Coolidge, like, and two, two lady directors.

Some woman rights directors said, "Bobby Duvall working with women directors?" I loved it.

Working in, uh, you know, Rambling-

Oh, no.

Women, I, I don't mind being directed by as long as they have talent.

I mean, you know, like with, uh, with, uh, Martha Coolidge in, in Rambling Rose, it was like a motherly, uh, presence behind the camera.

Yeah, yeah.

Yeah.

To prepare for Real Genius, Martha Coolidge spent months researching her technology, the laser technology, and the policies of the CIA and interviewed dozens of students at Caltech.

The screenplay was extensively written, first by Lowell Gantz and Babalu Mandel, later by Coolidge and Peter Torres.

Dorkiev.

film kyle uh they went kind of very techie on this to to produce or to promote this i obviously have no memory of this but uh when you say comp you serve you yeah you might as well throw out like blockbuster and all those things that are days gone

this is pre-aol we're even talking about here so come on now um come on well let's be honest we would have all loved to have gone to college and lived in that dorm if nothing else because we would have access to the ice so we didn't actually have to pay for our soft drinks and snacks

The director is Martha Coolidge, and she has a few cult classics under her belt.

Of course, real genius here.

It's a knockout of a film.

That's Martha Coolidge, as well.

Martha Coolidge?

Yeah, fantastic movie.

Um, but he, I, I would dance with him as a little kid.

so h- he wasn't the original director.

They were, they went into production with Martha Coolidge, who directed Valley Girl.

And she had-

Oh, okay

Believe it or not, a lot of serious research went into the making of Real Genius.

Director Martha Coolidge researched everything from laser technology to CIA policy to try and keep the film within the realm of possibility.

You could argue that she was successful.

25 years later, in reference to the classic comedy, the TV show Mythbusters proved that you could actually make popcorn with a laser.