By Design

{{Infobox film

| image = By design movie poster 1982.jpg

| name = By Design

| producer = Beryl Fox
Werner Aellen

| director = Claude Jutra

| screenplay = Claude Jutra
Joe Wiesenfeld
David Eames

| starring = Sara Botsford
Patty Duke
Clare Coulter
Saul Rubinek

| music = Chico Hamilton

| cinematography = Jean Boffety

| editing = Toni Trow
Ralph Rosenblum

| studio = B.D.F. Productions
Canadian Film Development Corporation
Fox Productions
Seven Arts

| distributor = Astral Films (Canada)
Atlantic Releasing Corporation (US)

| released = {{Film date|1982|5|8}}

| runtime = 92 minutes

| country = Canada

| language = English

}}

By Design is a 1982 Canadian comedy-drama film directed by Claude Jutra and starring Sara Botsford and Patty Duke."Jutra's contentious By Design a fight that fails". The Globe and Mail, August 23, 1982. The film was produced by B.D.F. Productions, Canadian Film Development Corporation (CFDC), Fox Productions, and Seven Arts.

Synopsis

Angie and Helen are in love and they live and work together - they design women's clothes and run their own fashion business in Vancouver. Helen wants to be a mother. Angie loves Helen and if Helen cannot feel fulfilled without a child she is willing for them to become parents. When Helen announces she wants to have a child, Angie reluctantly agrees to support her. The only obstacle seems to be the physical factor, at first, an idea of artificial insemination came to their mind. However, "They then quickly reject the idea of artificial insemination when they see an unkempt drunk emerging from the cubicle where he has donated sperm for beer money."{{Cite book|title=Claude Jutra: Filmmaker|last=Leach|first=Jim|publisher=McGill-Queen's University Press|date=1999-01-01|isbn=9780773518599|location=Quebec|pages=242}} "Denied permission to adopt, and rejecting artificial insemination, the couple set their sights on sleazy photographer, Terry, as a potential one-night stand for Helen."{{Cite web|url=http://thecinematheque.ca/we-demand-history-sex-activism-in-canada/by-design|title=That Was Then: Revisiting the Positive Images Debate|date=August 26, 2011|website=thecinematheque}} At the end of the film, Angie gives birth to a girl, while Suzie and Terry move to Los Angeles to promote their new design.

Cast

{{Cast listing|

Patty Duke as Helen (as Patty Duke Astin).
Anya Best as Pineapple
Sara Botsford as Angie
Patricia Best as Pineapple's Mother
Saul Rubinek as Terry
Jan Filips as Paul
Sonia Zimmer as Suzie
Joe Flaherty as Veteran Father
Mina E. Mina as R.B. Corcoran
William Samples as Insemination
Alan Duruisseau as Sven
James Hibbard as Carl (as Jim Hibbard)
Clare Coulter as Ms. Hirshorn
Ralph Benmergui as Mannequin Dresser
Robert Benson as Henri
Steve Witkin as Mannequin Dresser
Jeannie Elias as Cowgirl
Nabuko Hardychuck as Mo
Scott Swanson as Mr. Potter
Bill Reiter as Construction Foreman
Robin McCullough as Server in the Cafeteria
Andrea Olch as Baby Angie
Maria West as Secretary
Don Granbery as Butler

}}

Development

While Jutra was directing this movie, he received an offer by Beryl Fox to direct the movie Surfacing. Initially rejected this offer, he changed his mind until "Fox agreed to produce By Design as well. Although a script existed before Jutra became involved with the project, he was able to rewrite it thoroughly in collaboration with playwright Joe Wiesenfeld."

Reception

The film was favourably reviewed by the critic Pauline Kael in The New Yorker : " a buoyant, quirky sex comedy..the director takes a look around the whole modern supermarket of sex. By Design takes in the bars and beach houses, fast food restaurants and discos, and the sexual patterns of those who inhabit them..Jutra has a light understated approach to farce. His sensibility suggests a mingling of Tati and Truffaut. The scenes are quick and they're dippy, but with a pensive, melancholy underlay."Pauline Kael reprinted in Taking It All In p.421-424

Conversely, Philip Szporer of The Cinema Canada journal published a lengthy film review in January 1983, concluding that "If the film was to have been a bold, inventive, humorous and touching tale, it is instead a completely forgettable experience. Lacking a coherent structure and tone, the film only serves up a mish-mash of moral overtones and misgivings.""{{Cite journal|last=Szporer|first=Philip|date=January 1983|title=Claude Jutra's By Design|url=http://cinemacanada.athabascau.ca/index.php/cinema/issue/view/65.|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20220318184310/https://cinemacanada.athabascau.ca/index.php/cinema/issue/view/65.|url-status=dead|archive-date=March 18, 2022|journal=Cinema Canada|number=92|pages=43|via=CinemaCanada}}