Coping: Maria Schrader’s film “She Said” about the Harvey Weinstein case

The dream factory coming to terms with the past: Maria Schrader’s film “She Said” about the Harvey Weinstein case has just premiered in New York and London. The film is based on the book of the same name by journalists Jodi Kantor and Megan Twohey.

Zit’s undoubtedly classic Hollywood footage: David versus Goliath, good versus evil, a modern fairy tale with all the ingredients of great cinema. Two seemingly hopeless heroines take on a powerful tyrant, suffer setbacks, are intimidated, refuse to give up, and ultimately bring down the ugly monster against all odds. And then the story is true. At first glance, She Said is a film Hollywood has told many times: suspenseful, tear-jerking and uplifting with a great happy ending.

In reality, “She Said” couldn’t be further from the perfect Hollywood story. In fact, the film is quite the opposite, dealing with the downfall of a powerful mogul that has left the dream factory damaged, unsettled and shamed. “She Said” tells of Hollywood’s nightmare, of those weeks almost exactly five years ago, when the repulsive underside of the world’s most famous film industry was brought to light and one of its dirtiest secrets was revealed.