Women on film

The Accused had strong female characters in it. But, because of the subject matter, I don't think it passes the test.

And what about my childhood favourite - Freaky Friday!

It's odd, but I can think of plenty of books that pass the test, but not many films.

Not sure if it passes the test (another awful memory here, and there's understandably a lot of talking about Howl) but I also like Howl's Moving Castle, because Sophie is never changed back from being an old woman to being a pretty girl. She and the witch of the waste and Madame Suliman are all powerful figures, and all talk to each other, and are all (in appearance at least) oldish women.

I loved Bright Star too blackcurrants, it is so wonderful and I just read and read about Fanny Brown afterwards, I can't believe she kept that secret almost all her life.

Love the Bechdel test, it is excellent IME for making cynics who give the "but things are equal now" line see how wrong that is.

I like "Women on the Verge of a Nervous Breakdown" as it passes the test and it really is all about the women. Black mark against Almodovar for signing the petition defending the child rapist Polanski, but I still like this film for the way it explores women's anxieties about different stages of their lives - marriage, pregnancy, relationship breakdown, job trouble etc. So often (i.e. nearly always) films are about male characters' anxieties and character development, while the women are just supposed to be totally unfazed.

Can anyone remember that Mike Leigh film about the mixed race girl who was adopted and then finds her mother who is white? I really like that film and I think it would pass this test...

Is it Secrets and Lies?

yes, I've seen Rabbit Proof Fence! An Angel at My Table is v. good Campion film, about the NZ writer Janet Frame. Also her Portrait of a Lady is v. good I think.

Recent mainstream films with more interesting women, that I can think of, are:

Up in the Air

Juno

Rachel's Getting Married

Doubt - with Meryl Streep and Amy Adams and nuns

Oh and Kirsten Scott Thomas in that french film - was it called I've Loved You too Long or something like that??

I liked that film about Coco Chanel too.

They are there but they v. rarely are allowed to 'carry' the film.

Ah, good old the Bechdel Test. You're right that some films pass it that aren't particularly feminist (astoundingly, Sin City passes it, due to the part where the hookers-with-a-heart-of-gold plot to take back the city from the evil cop dude!). As I understand it, what the Bechdel test is doing is measuring the agency of the women in question - are they there only to serve the men in the plot or do they have their own plot, their own reasons for doing stuff. It is a feminist analysis but not a complete one - though I always like to bear it in mind as it does yield some interesting results. For instance, Transformers is not anyone's idea of a feminist film, and indeed it does not pass the Bechdel test, but the reason it doesn't is because the two female characters (who in their own way are coded as 'strong' - one is good at fixing cars, and one is very clever) never actually meet & talk. They are there as separate tokens in two separate strands of plot.

DP reckons The Descent more than passes the Bechdel test - all the main characters in the film are female. Haven't seen it myself but while it may well not talk about female concerns (I realise you weren't asking about that exactly), just the fact that the film unapologetically and straightforwardly has an almost entirely female cast is pretty good, seems to me. Having said that, it is a horror film so you could argue that we're watching women being picked off one by one... So, female agency and well-rounded female characters, but you may still not be madly keen?!

Gas, Food lodging is a great film

Ooh, what about 'The Group' the 60s film from the Mary Mcarthy book, that is a fab film.

Have you seen any Allison Anders films? She did 'Gas, Food, Lodging' and 'Grace of My Heart' amongst others, I'm pretty sure most of her films fit your criteria. The first mainstream film that jumped to mind was 'The Descent' the British 'pot-holing horror'! I am going to go off and have a think. I can't believe there aren't more. I have to admit the traditional 'for women' films like 'Beaches' and 'Fried Green Tomatoes', leave me a bit cold.

Oh, and what about Fried Green Tomatoes at the Whistle Stop Cafe? I used to love that film. May give it another viewing.

Anyone seen:

Two Women (La Ciociara,)1960 Italian film directed by Vittorio De Sica. The story of a woman trying to protect her teenaged daughter from the horrors of war. Stars Sophia Loren, Jean-Paul Belmondo, Eleonora Brown. (Black & white)

Waiting Women (1952)
Three women discuss their marriages over coffee as they wait at a remote holiday cottage for the arrival of their husbands. Ingmar Bergman's comedy drama, with Anita Bjork, Eva Dahlbeck and Maj-Britt Nilsson
Director Ingmar Bergman
Cast
Rakel Anita Bjork (IMDB)
Karin Eva Dahlbeck (IMDB)
Marta Maj-Britt Nilsson (IMDB)
(Black & White)

Rabbit Proof Fence (2002)
Western Australia, 1931. Government policy includes taking half-caste children from their Aboriginal mothers and sending them a thousand miles away to what amounts to indentured servitude, "to save them from themselves."

Two women (1999)
(Do zan) - Iranian motion picture written and directed by Tahmineh Milani.
Two Women charts the lives of two promising architecture students over the course of the first turbulent years of the Islamic Republic, creating a portrait of traditions that conspire to trap women and stop them from realizing their full potential.

The Legend of Walks Far Woman(1982)
The story of two years in the life of Walks Far, a woman of the Blackfoot tribe who is forced by circumstance to join a Sioux tribe, following her gradual acceptance into the tribe, her first encounters with European ways, her marriage, the battle of the Little Big Horn in 1876 and its bloody aftermath.

It's not a particularly 'feminist' film in purport or message, but Zombieland did pass the Bechdel test for me - two female characters in it talked about something other than a man (their plans together, in fact).
"Bright Star" (Jane Campion's latest) may not pass the test, now I think of it - though I'm not certain, but it's a very feminist film to my mind. Fanny Brown was eviscerated by everyone when her and Keats' letters were published (and not just the Victorians, people were mean about her well into the twentieth century) and Campion tells the story about HER, not about Keats.... oh it's beautiful.

Julie & Julia - the characters never speak to one another. nearly like 2 separate films intermingled.

Corina, Corina - although one of the "women" is a child

Beaches

Primary Colours

Parenthood

Bend It Like Beckham?

Terms Of Endearment?

Muriel's Wedding?

In Her Shoes?

Whale Rider is quite good.

Agree re women directors - was shocked that Lost in Translation, by Sofia Coppolla open with lingering shots of Scarlett Johannsons almost naked bum.

Angel at my Table is by Jane Campion. Def more than one woman and I don't remember them talking about men (ahem, should come clean at this points: have TERRIBLE memory)

if, not it

And it TV series count, Battlestar Galactica is good: woman president, best pilot is a woman, many other strong female leads (as many as male leads, I think).

In Juno they prob do talk about the man Jennifer Garner's character is married to, but I think they must also be talking about Juno's baby, adoption and parenthood?

panic room? (think that's the name) a mum & daughter?

really must go & get dinner ready, dh due in from work soon. i used to teach media & once did a unit on women in film, trying to remember more now.

have you looked into 'the male gaze' - v. interesting. the whole film industry is vv male dominated, even when women portray women (e.g. female writers, directors, producers, etc) they still come out how men want them to look, rarely how women really are.

however, i would say there is little main stream film which portrays men how they really are either, so perhaps more about film = fantasy than misogyny.

also interesting to do some comparison of amount of screen time occupied by a woman, compared with a man (especially in a romcom, where surely they should be equal) and the position that the women occupy within the screen e.g. left or right of screen, high up or low down.

do you have a particular aspect you're interested in, or just generally thinking aloud? this is a huge area.

ponyo is quite cool

Blardy Hell.. difficult to think of any mainstream films