A WOMAN-HATING MOVIE THAT WOMEN LOVE WHEN DISTRIBUTORS--mostly male--saw In the Company of Men at the Sundance Film Festival last January, their first reaction was that their wives would kill them if they picked up this independent first feature by director Neil LaBute. The black comedy, which opens on Aug. 1, follows a business trip of two executives who want revenge on women because both have been dumped by their girlfriends. Their plot is to woo a vulnerable woman--a deaf stenographer at their company--and then both ditch her abruptly. Sony Pictures Classics decided to take the counter-intuitive approach in marketing: It would aim primarily at women and especially corporate women. First, Sony assigned an all-woman marketing team to make a trailer, design the movie's advertising, and publicize it. Early screenings were filled with professional women to build word of mouth. So far, it has worked. Women, including several critics, are embracing the movie. One viewer described the conspiracy as ''real life in the office.'' Says the film's publicist, Shannon Treusch at Clein & White: ''It's like the film opened the door to the men's room and let women inside.'' Sony's only problem, says Co-President Tom Bernard: How do you sell the movie to men who see too much of themselves in it? EDITED BY PAT WECHSLER RELATED ITEMS PHOTO: Scene from ``In the Company of Men'' Return to top of story

Updated July 31, 1997 by bwwebmaster
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