Invariably, in Silver's films, there's a scene in which a woman eyes herself in a mirror as she tries on a new image that she hopes (or fears) will become her identity. "The relationship between a person's past and present," says Silver, "is an ongoing concern, though it's not so much that I even knew that until I looked at my films with hindsight."

Though Silver is a serious filmmaker, she is not somber. The theme of change, lightheartedly treated,… runs through "Bernice Bobs Her Hair"—which Silver adapted (from the F. Scott Fitzgerald story) and directed for the PBS series "The American Short Story." Bernice … finds that her small-town values and her tendency to cite the older generation as authorities make her fairly unpopular with her cousin Marjorie and Marjorie's Ivy-League circle of friends. Bernice submits to instruction: she changes her image, changes her conversational banter, and...