Women on film

[Molesworth]

I'm interested in the ways women are represented in mainstream cinema. Recently I was reading about the Bechdel Test* and how shockingly few mainstream films pass. I'd love to have some recommendations for films which represent women in non-stereotypical ways. I can nominate Andrea Arnold's Fish Tank which I found quite moving/harrowing in the way it represents the experience of its protagonist, a white, working class young woman. It inspired me to watch Arnold's earlier feature, Red Road which I'm afraid I found extremely disappointing from a feminist POV (for reasons I can't detail without giving away the plot). Anyway, any recommendations for films which in some way 'tell the truth' about being a woman and/or represent women in non-stereotypical ways?

• The Bechdel Test:

1. It has to have at least two women in it
2. Who talk to each other
3. About something besides a man

re. the descent - it's a horrible film but pretty good from the perspective that the characters are all female and that having an all-female group of action adventure friends goign away together leaving partners and family at home is shown as totally normal.

there is a young over-cocky one, a sensible one, a vulnerable one etc.. it's just that they're all women.

in the 'horror' part - they certainly don't get their clothes ripped off or run around screaming - i guess it's more like sigourney weaver's character in aliens, fighting the monster - and sometimes fighting each other as the tension gets high.

i'd give it the thumbs up for feminism.

Sex and the City? - well they do talk about shoes

the devil wears prada

Buffy The Vampire Slayer (although I love the TV series I've never seen the original film so don't know if it passes)...

Fluffles and Cock!

The Women's Room (1980)

Chronicles nineteen years in the life of a divorcee (played by Lee Remick), from the repressive 1950s through the liberated 1980s. Women's Room earned three Emmy nominations: one for Best Drama Special, and one each for costars Patty Duke Astin and Colleen Dewhurst.

Muriel's Wedding (1994)

Toni Collette
Rachel Griffiths

Synopsis:
Muriel finds life in Porpoise Spit, Australia dull and spends her days alone in her room listening to Abba music and dreaming of her wedding day. Slight problem, Muriel has never had a date. Then she steals some money to go on a tropical vacation, meets a wacky friend, changes her name to Mariel, and turns her world upside down. Written by Lynn Salmon

Not sure if these all pass the test:

Cathy Come Home (1966)

The story of one young family's descent from security to homelessness. The film was made in 1966. The details have changed over the years but the essential problem has not.

Bad Girls (1994) western (on the telly yesterday)
Madeleine Stowe, Mary Stuart Masterson, Andie MacDowell and Drew Barrymore.

Four former prostitutes on the run following a justifiable homicide and a prison escape, who later encounter difficulties involving bank robbery and Pinkerton detectives.

The Color Purple (1985)
Whoopi Goldberg
Danny Glover
Oprah Winfrey
Margaret Avery
Akosua Busia

American period drama film directed by Steven Spielberg. It is based on the Pulitzer Prize-winning novel of the same name by Alice Walker. The film tells the story of a young African American girl named Celie and shows the problems faced by African American women during the early 1900s; including poverty, racism, and sexism. The character Celie is transformed as she finds her self-worth through the help of two strong female companions.

Girl, Interrupted (1999)
drama film about a teen's 18-month stay at a mental institution, starring Winona Ryder, Brittany Murphy, and Academy Award winners Angelina Jolie, Whoopi Goldberg, and Vanessa Redgrave. It was adapted from the original memoir of the same name, written by Susanna Kaysen

Boys on the Side (1995)

Whoopi Goldberg, Drew Barrymore, Mary-Louise Parker, James Remar

Synopsis: Simultaneously funny and moving drama of self-discovery. Three very different women find themselves together at individual crossroads in their lives. When Jane (Whoopi Goldberg) a street-smart New York lesbian, answers an ad to drive across the country, she meets Robin (Mary-Louise Parker), a prim and proper real-estate agent desperate to flee the city. The seemingly opposite pair embarks on a road trip together, concealing truths about one another: Robin is suffering from AIDS in silence, and Jane hides her homosexuality. Along the way they stop in Pittsburgh to visit Jane's friend Holly (Drew Barrymore). Holly is involved in an abusive relationship with her junkie boyfriend Nick, and when Jane attempts to take Holly with her, Nick violently intervenes. When Robin hears all the commotion, she miraculously saves the day by calming Nick down, then binding him to a chair while Holly packs her bags. However, as the three women travel west, Jane spies Nick's photograph in a newspaper--in an obituary. The trio decides to continue the journey, finding strength in one another's friendship. Director Herb Ross's touching film examines the bonds these women form as they endure heartache and love together in spite of their differences.

9 to 5! Someone must have said it already but I love it.

Beloved, based on the amazig book by Toni Morrison.

Charlie's Angels of course.

Sunshine Cleaning looked good, came out last year but not to my cinema sadly.

Also it seemed to get crap reviews but I really liked "Very Annie Mary" - it's written and directed by Sara Sugarman, and features an early appearance from Stacey as in Gavin and. Maybe it's because I'm a country girl but the characters and the village struck a chord, and it features plenty of women all talking to each other, almost none of it about men.

Loads here that I haven't seen.

It doesn't pass the Bechdel Test (or if it does, only just) but I really liked The Savages (with Laura Linney and Philip Seymour Hoffman).

aliens?

Girlfight

You Can Count On Me doesn't exactly pass the test, but it does have a fantastically well-rounded female character in the lead.

Pitch Black has more than one woman in it, and they certainly don't have time to sit around talking about men.

Coyote Ugly?

I heart Boys on the Side!

howard's end

i think probably hilary and jackie (about 6 lines)

breaking the waves (about 6 lines)

truly madly deeply (about 10 lines)

shakespeare in love (about two lines)

there's a bit of a theme here isn't there?

Try TV series and things are loads better though.

TV series have an advantage as it were, or at least a different dynamic. They run for a lot longer than a 2 hour film; they have more sub-plots; they normally have more characters too. In some ways if a TV series doesn't pass the Bechdel test then it's worse than if a film doesn't!

The Hours!!!!! Bloody brilliant, I've watched it about 10 times. It's a bit arty though.
It's got Nicole Kidman as Virginia Woolf, Julianne Moore as a 1950s housewife, and Meryl Streep as Mrs Dalloway (from Virgina Woolf's novella). What a talented group of women they are. If you are into feminism it's unmissable.

Boys don't cry (does this work?)
Devil wears Prada
Spirited away (lots of ghibli studios - but not all mainstream)
Dancer in the dark
Precious
Gone with the wind
Black Narcissus
Sound of music
All the nun movies

Agree about Red road