Don’t Box Her In

So what if “Boxing Helena” will generate controversy. So what if it’s about a surgeon who amputates his beloved’s legs and arms and keeps her in a box to control her. I saw the film in November at a test screening, and all I can say to Jennifer Chambers Lynch is “Bravo!” (“Shadow Boxing,” by Steve Weinstein, Aug. 29).

Lynch’s statement about sending her child off to school--”where it will either be bullied by the bullies or make friends . . . and even if my kid only has a bent finger, he will forever be seen as the retarded kid”--is exactly the way all filmmakers feel about releasing their first efforts.

Let’s all just cease the ridiculous prattle about the film’s depicting violence against women and remember two things: It was written and directed by a woman, and it is fictitious.

I’m sure both Julian Sands and Sherilyn Fenn were proud to have made the film and stand behind it. All actors love a challenge, and “Boxing Helena” is that challenge.

LEN J. GOLDSTEIN

Los Angeles

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After weeks of hype about “Boxing Helena,” I had little interest in seeing it; however, a friend suggested we go, and I thought, “What the hell.” I had seen part of an interview with Lynch, and she seemed to have integrity. I thought, “Wow, a young woman director who fought so hard to get something made.” How bad can it be? Well-- bad !

It is just a sexually gratuitous movie with no point and no story. I really couldn’t find any artistic value in the film. When a woman director gets a platform, a shot to direct something, shouldn’t she try to say something that means something? Anything ?

I am an actress--or was an actress. In the past few years I have grown so tired of reading gratuitous, ridiculous scripts. When I told my agent I would not audition for these types of films, my auditions went from three or four a week to maybe one every two weeks. It seems a woman must do nudity, or portray a hooker, or her chances of working become very slim.

Given this, I would hope that when a woman has an opportunity such as Lynch had, she would fight to change this image of women.

TAWNY ELLIS

Hollywood