Susan turns 40! SEEKING ALL THE GOSSIP

Rosanna and Madonna's film celebrated girls getting into their groove

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Forty years ago, the world went wild for Desperately Seeking Susan, a screwball New York fantasia including amnesia, Egyptian artefacts, mistaken identities, an armful of bracelets and an absolutely fabulous jacket! It made Madonna a movie star, won her costar Rosanna Arquette a BAFTA and, in recent years, spawned a plethora of GIFs. We did some desperate seeking of our own and came up with some curious facts about the movie.

Woman power

Desperately Seeking Susan was a revolutionary movie - even by today's standards. Its two leads were both female, and it was also written, produced and directed by women. It took a while, however, for the revolution to occur. Scriptwriter Leora Barish (left) spent years being told "only women and gay men" liked her story about a bored New Jersey housewife who develops a fascination with a free-spirited, adventurous, New York femme fatale called Susan. When it was finally made, it struck a chord with audiences across the globe.

Madonna's chutzpah