Meryl Streep: 1979 to 1985—The Present and the Past

Abstract

This chapter looks at the nine films that Meryl Streep made between The Seduction of Joe Tynan in 1979 and Out of Africa in 1985. It argues that for an audience in the early 1980s the social changes of the previous decade posed unanswered questions about the status and meanings of marriage and adultery. In addition to these two films, the chapter looks at Streep’s films directed by Robert Benton, Kramer vs. Kramer alongside Still of the Night. It also discusses The French Lieutenant’s Woman, Sophie’s Choice, Silkwood, Falling in Love, and Plenty. Connecting these analyses is a discussion of the changing representation of the home: what it is to feel at home, and other kinds of homely and unhomely spaces.