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Gap-Toothed Women

Lauren Hutton

Les Blank’s “Gap-Toothed Women” is an admirable film that all but reviews itself. It is a documentary about women who have only one thing in common: a gap between their front teeth. Blank, one of America’s most prolific and unfailingly interesting documentarians, apparently shot this film on the way to, and from, other projects, whenever he found a woman with a gap between her teeth.

What does it mean to be a gap-toothed woman? To one of the women in this film, the gap was a great embarrassment for her mother. To another, the model and actress Lauren Hutton, it was a quality admired by some and shunned by others. Some directors frankly admired the gap, but others made her wear a false middle tooth. Most of the subjects agreed that, on balance, they would rather have a gap than not.

The women in the film include U.S. Supreme Court Justice Sandra Day O’Connor, the owner and operator of an 18-wheel rig, a woman who is being treated for cancer and another woman who speaks mystically about the special wisdom that comes with having a gap.

As we witness the parade of women, and gaps, a peculiar process takes place. At first, we see only the gaps. Toward the end, we see only the women.

Roger Ebert

Roger Ebert was the film critic of the Chicago Sun-Times from 1967 until his death in 2013. In 1975, he won the Pulitzer Prize for distinguished criticism.

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Film Credits

Gap-Toothed Women movie poster

Gap-Toothed Women (1988)

Rated NR

31 minutes

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