I would like to watch a few films that don't leave me frothing at the mouth and lecturing my husband on WHY he shouldn't have enjoyed it

[YunoWhatYouDidLastSummer]

I don't mean specifically feminist agenda films, just mainstream stuff that doesn't portray women as optional extra vaginas / nagging uptight beeatches.

Something feelgood wd be nice, but any suggestions welcome.

Any recommendations?

[EvilAntsAndMiasmas]

Thanks for the link. Unusually since watching the film I have been getting more and more happy about how the female characters were portrayed :) Yes the girlfriend is a bit wet but a) she has had a relationship (i think) with drug-dealer guy and there is no comeback on her for this and b) she works in a needle exchange! Hoorah she is actually doing something worthwhile with her time not shopping/nailpainting etc.

Hit Girl is amazing.

[POFAKKEDDthechair]

I'm so fed up of middle class actresses impersonating working class people in Mike Leigh films, complete with 1930s accents, that I really cannot watch them anymore.

[maninthemooncup]

A few years ago I saw a great little film at local arthouse cinema - no idea of the title, but it was shot in black and white and was South American (Argentinian?), the main characters were lesbians called Marx and Lenin I think, anyway it was funny and sweet and I'm pretty sure that most people would enjoy it, and that it wouldn't make you froth at the mouth.

If anyone knows what it is I'd love to see it again, but obviously can't rent it without knowing the title

[southeastastra]

i just realised that claire skinner is the other girl in life is sweet! she looked so young!

sorry poffthechair's post reminded me

[POFAKKEDDthechair]

Yes I saw Life is Sweet last night and was so IRRITATED by the whole cast with their awful cockney accents and then IRISH Stephen Rea came on with his awful cockney accent and...

Great actors, just wish Mike Leigh didn't always impose these fake working class situations on them [unless the actors really do always come up with them themselves]

[southeastastra]

yes i know what you mean

[POFAKKEDDthechair]

Thankyou!

[southeastastra]

brenda blethyn really put me off secrets and lies with her silly voice.

i love alison steadman though, she came to my son's school for a celebration evening. really down to earth

[POFAKKEDDthechair]

Yes Brenda Blethyn too, but mike leigh obviously loves all that.

Alison Steadman is a genius, but I hated that put on voice.

[ElephantsAndMiasmas]

I don't understand Mike Leigh's continuing popularity/acclaim

It all reminds me of Yr9 drama when the kids spontaneously decide to do something about drugs or bullying or underage pregnancy misery. Dreary. Shove Ken Loach in that pile too. I couldn't stand Happy Go Lucky either, that poor Sally Hawkins having to grimace all the way through it. Only realised she had a normal expression when I saw Made in Dagenham.

[southeastastra]

i hated happy go lucky too, was just 'wtf' at y9 drama

[POFAKKEDDthechair]

Sally Hawkins is a very fine actress, but I hated HGL.

[EdgarAirbombPoe]

has anyone mention 'sept femmes?' ( i think it was seven.?)

Juno - i liked. i think that it was real and egaging and gave a feel of the spirit du temps. Didn't like the anti-abortion campaigner getting her way 'foetus has figernails..wellmaybe depending on gestation..'.

Pans Labyrinth was great though i found it very shocking.

[TheSmallClanger]

Fried Green Tomatoes at the Whistle Stop Cafe. All about love between women, in all of its forms, and the happiness it can bring. The book is even better.

Not feelgood at all, but Alien is great and has one of sci-fi's best female characters. None of the characters are defined by their gender, and the roles were unisex in the original script.

Whip It, for some cheesy all-girls-together fun and classic 90s icons hamming it up.

[GetOrfMoiLand]

I bloody loved Black Book. The dutch actress in it is fantastic imo.

Loathed Juno, mind you I was a teenage mother so was never going tpo embrace it tbh - the dialogue of the kooky teen was so unutterably contrived. It is the vision of what everyone thinks a kooky teen should speak like. I also disliked the anti-abortion theme running through it. It was written by a girl called Diablo, for fuck sake.

I really liked Fried Green Toamtoes.

Tbh (guilty pleasure) I love Working Girl (love the Sigourney Weaver character more than the Melanie Griffith one).

Sig Weav is also brilliant in Alien.

[GetOrfMoiLand]

I also love Linda Hamilton in Terminator/Terminator 2.

[maktaitai]

Hairspray?

mainly because in that film the guy is the token himbo with no lines except 'oh Tracy you're so great, why doesn't everyone like you as much as I do?' [paraphrase, I'm not sure he has any lines that long tbh]

Broadcast News - although that may have dated more than I think it has. May be a bit too much 'look at this weirdo woman in a senior role'.

I recommend The Aviator all over the place but I do love it. I thought Cate Blanchett as Katharine Hepburn was truly fab in it.

Anyone remember A Letter to Brezhnev? Again it may have dated rather a lot, I haven't seen it since the Berlin Wall fell

[GetOrfMoiLand]

Cate Blanchett was brilliant as Katharine Hepburn.

[POFAKKEDDthechair]

Alien absolutely brilliant. One of my favourite films.

[ElephantsAndMiasmas]

You're so right about Bib or Jet or whatever he's called in Hairspray maktaitai :o I secretly eenjoyed that too.

from His Girl Friday here, brilliant film.

[GothAnneGeddes]

Whalerider is marvellous. It's about a Maori girl proving she can lead her tribe.

Also surprised no one's mentioned Frida with Salma Hayek yet. I loved that film.

I loved Good Bye Lenin. I'm not sure if it passes the Blechel test, but it's such a wonderful, wonderful film (with Daniel Bruhl, sigh.)

[AnnVeronica]

Yes to Fried Green Tomatoes and Frida.

I also suggest:

Volver
The Mother
I've Loved You So Long