Women and Films

The Falling (2014) is written and directed by Carol Morely, has an almost exclusive female cast, and most of the crew were female too. Maisie Williams, the lead, said in an interview that there aren't as many coming of age stories with female leads because people often feel weird talking about girls wanting to have sex. Like, it's okay for boys, but for some reason when it's about girls people feel like it's taboo, and it's really one of the most normal things in life. She also speculated that it might be because of how most film makers are men, and it's a bit awkward for a male director or producer to be talking about it with a teenage girl. That and the fact that men just can't really understand it because they haven't experienced what it's like to be a teenage girl. Maisie said that it was great working with a female director in that scenario because she understood and they could talk about those things without it being weird.

This video shows interviews of Carol Morely, Maisie Williams, Florence Pugh, and Maxine Peake about the movie The Falling, and also a bit about Game of Thrones from Maisie. That's where I got the above details from.

I simply loved The Help and thats a Women driven Story also and not just a racial issue one.

Zotis, I wrote that you inspired me to look into female directors and this is part of what I came up with so far:

Best director Oscar nominations for women:
Lina Wertmuller for “Seven Beauties” (1976)
Jane Campion for “The Piano” (1993)
Sofia Coppola for “Lost in Translation” (2003)
Kathryn Bigelow for “The Hurt Locker” (2009)

Since there have been 89 or so best director Oscar winners that means that there were approximately 85 times that no woman was nominated for best director. Also, the only woman who won best director was Kathryn Bigelow (2009). So the score is now approximately one woman to 88 men.

One of the first film directors was Alice Guy aka Alice Guy-Blache. She was born on July 1, 1873 in Paris, France and directed her first film “La fee aux choux” (The Cabbage Fairy) in 1896. She is credited with directing 432 films, many of them shorts and also wrote for and produced movies.

Here are two lists of 100 films directed by women. I was mainly interested in the lists so I only skimmed though the written parts:
http://scriptchix.com/2014/02/top-100-movies-of-all-time-by-female-directors/
http://www.tft.ucla.edu/mediascape/Spring07_InResponseToTheAFI.html

In the second linked to page it was stated that “Of the 400 films on the ballot sent to AFI [American Film Institute] voters, only 4 were directed by women. (Five if you include Shrek, which was co-directed by a woman).”

Thank you Godoggo for mentioning “Death Proof”, Zotis for mentioning “The Poker House,” “The Quiet” and “The Falling” and NedStark for mentioning “The Help.” Zotis I am happy that you wrote a description of the “The Falling” and wrote about Lori Petty. I appears that this topic is really taking off.

Also, I may be banned from this board. I am saying that so the people who have been so kind as to respond to my posts know that it is not my decision not to respond in the future.

This week Helen Mirren said that women should chase male roles, however with the release of the Doctor Strange trailer I'm reminded that some male roles are being altered in order to cast females. The character the Ancient One, played by Tilda Swinton, has previously been male, and the thinking behind this change is very similar to that of casting Michelle Gomez in Doctor Who as the first female incarnation of the Master.

I wondered what everyone's take on this was? Do you like or dislike the idea of changing established characters for this reason?

I don't like the idea of women chasing Male roles any more than I like the idea of men chasing female roles. Want to have a man play the Queen of England? No thanks. But that's not to say that it couldn't work in certain scenarios. For movies that don't have a character already firmly established as male, like Doctor Who, or that aren't based on true stories, it is conceivable to change a character based on the actor/actress they find and want to put in the role. But on the other hand that's very hypothetical. The way I understand things characters do sometimes get changed after selecting someone for the role, but I don't know if altering them to that extent is realistic.

I almost did it once.
Couldn't find a good actor to pair with my actress. Very nearly rewrote the part to be lesbian instead but i found someone.

the important part of the story was the relationship between the two

Firstly when did you arrive here Now I'm not the oldest person here

I feel that male characters are generally made to seem more important than female characters.

Just a reflection of the role of women in most areas of life

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SeeingisBelieving, As I said my main interest in seeing more women in the leading dominant roles, but I would prefer original roles to remakes or sequels. Also, I want to thank you for mentioning the movie “Orlando” in another thread. It interested me and as a result I read the book.

Zotis, I agree with what you wrote in your last post. For the record I would enjoy a remake of “Duck Soup” with the “Marx Sisters.”

Foster, good point “The important part of the story was the relationship between the two.”

Nebbit, thanks for your interest. I arrived here maybe two or three weeks ago. If you could make me 17 again, but with what I know now, I’ll allow you to be the oldest.

I agree that it is “Just a reflection of the role of women in most areas of life.”

To all, thank you for your contributions to this topic. I feel it is an important topic and it has become a real discussion.

Tom, if you've not seen the film Orlando, give it a go. It's a really good film, IMO.



Directors like Sally Potter might interest you, too.

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You're welcome. I saw Orlando many years ago and it certainly made an impression – I'm assuming you've seen it? I haven't read the book myself but I'd be interested to know what you thought of it.

It's the role I most associate with Tilda Swinton. I haven't seen that much of her work in other films but I find it unsurprising that she is often called upon to play androgynous characters like Gabriel in Constantine or the aforementioned Ancient One. Some would call that typecasting.

Actually talking of Orlando, it's been done! Quentin Crisp played Elizabeth I and he was brilliant.

That's likely to be the perception today, as Steven Moffat and Neil Gaiman especially have directed their scripts towards Time Lords being able to change sex when they regenerate. It's clearly been a conscious decision to weave their preference into the series' mythology.

When you look back, the Doctor has had 13 male incarnations in a row (and counting) and male characters like Morbius and Borusa are seen to stay male as they change bodies. Also, you'd have to wonder why female Time Lords like Thalia, Flavia, Romana and the Rani would go for such obviously feminine names or aliases if there was a possibility of them changing sex at some point.

This was obviously the only stumbling block Steven Moffat could see when he created the first female Master, coming up with the new alias "Missy", partly to hide the identity of the character but obviously reasoning that the Master would simply choose to call himself "The Mistress" after his sex swap.

My feeling about this decision is that it was based on the assumption that the character of the Master had nowhere left to go. This is something I don't agree with, and I don't see it as a creative decision. Making him female was obviously supposed to energize the character, which it has done, but that appears to be the only new thing about him. It's redundant and probably has a very short shelf life. I also suspect that Moffat used the Master as something of a dry run for a female Doctor because neither he nor the BBC were at that time confident of casting a woman to replace Matt Smith.

HoneyKid, thank you for your suggestion about the film Orlando and the Director Sally Potter. I’m not sure if a movie could capture what I liked about the book.


Seeing is believing, I have not seen Orlando. Let me think about it awhile and maybe I’ll post what I thought about it and why I may not see the movie.

Oh, I wouldn't be put off. It's a fantastic film.

Tom have you seen Suffragette (2015)? It's about the British women's struggle to gain the vote. I watched this last night and was deeply moved by it. It's based on true events which makes it even more potent.

Blue is the Warmest Color is the most interesting film I've seen deal with the sexuality of women, and it is directed by a man. It's also one of the most realistic portrayals of homosexuality in cenema that I've seen. I find it interesting how the source material portrayed the sexual experiences as exploration while the film portrayed them as intense passion.

HoneyKid and Seeing is Believing, I found Virginia Woolf’s writing in Orlando, to be poetic, even though it is prose and that is what I liked best about the book. Also I enjoyed the author’s descriptions of events and places. However, I don’t know if that could come through in the movie. The story was very interesting, but I didn’t feel much for the characters. So, I feel that what I liked best, the poetic descriptions would not be in the movie and in terms of the interesting story I already experienced that.

From what you describe, I think that atmosphere is in the film.