your favorite american films of the past 50 years with female protagonists

Morbius: the Bechdel Test

oops, i want to expand the criteria to include canada then, cuz ginger snaps is great

so's hanna, can't believe i forgot that one

A Question of Silence, for example, tackles the intense emotional reactions of three women

Nobody's mentioned "3 Women" yet! Where are the Altman stans?

it has been

Has anyone said Juno yet? Or Whip It?

I mentioned both.

haha I totally read Morbius: the Bechdel Test as the title of an imagined film.

xxxxxpost Ah, so it has. I knew it was unlikely to have been missed (except by me obv.)

the end result of this thread is gonna be another poll, amirite?!?

Nobody's mentioned "3 Women" yet! Where are the Altman stans?

― Race Against Rockism (Myonga Vön Bontee), Thursday, May 3, 2012 11:32 PM (Yesterday) Bookmark Flag Post Permalink

that's one of his worst movies, though (IMO).

Blue Car is really good.

It's interesting to note that many of these movies fail to pass the Bechdel test... I think one reason I had a hard time coming up with good examples was because I was unconsciously excluding movies that don't pass.

The thread premise is 'with female protagonists' tho, not 'which pass the Bechdel test'.

haha I totally read Morbius: the Bechdel Test as the title of an imagined film.

Call yr contacts at Marvel. I'll have my treatment ready by monday.

the Runaways! def passes the Bechdel test

I'd like the Runaways a whole lot more if it had nothing to do with the Runaways and was just a throwaway movie about a fictional girlband

Anyway, the Bechdel test is an interesting exercise to look at the state of women in movies in general, but isn't very useful in assessing individual movies, IMO.

yeah i agree with that.

otm

Oh yeah, for sure. I mean, nor is the 'female protagonist' thing, without a list of criteria... Though asking for favourites does make it a slightly different exercise.

Where are the Altman stans?

The only movie I mentioned was an Altman! Even though most of his films featured ensembles where few individuals really stood out above the pack, he generally made good use of female protagonists. He was a very female-friendly director (in many senses).

No one likes Terms of Endearment?

prefer Steel Magnolias

love terms of endearment

I really like Nicole Holofcener's movies, Lovely & Amazing and Friends With Money. Both are largely populated by female protagonists and both pass the Bechdel test (according to bechdeltest.com).

Bring it On!

dug friends with money, haven't seen lovely & amazing. have meant to forever, just never got around to it.

Walking and Talking is my favorite of hers

walking and talking and please give are the best holofceners imo; walking and talking is my fave, too.

Anyway, the Bechdel test is an interesting exercise to look at the state of women in movies in general, but isn't very useful in assessing individual movies, IMO.

― MrDasher, Friday, 4 May 2012 16:57 (3 hours ago) Permalink

yeah, it's idiotic as some kind of litmus test for watching/appreciating individual films but thinking about it gives you a sense of hollywood's generally sexist orientation.

Nobody's mentioned "3 Women"

I mentioned it yesterday morning

disagree w/r/t hollywood -- hollywood's sexism is evidenced by gender disparity in high-power/high-pay jobs. the actual product is pretty much audience-driven.

thanks for making me Google the "Bechdel test"

disagree w/r/t hollywood -- hollywood's sexism is evidenced by gender disparity in high-power/high-pay jobs. the actual product is pretty much audience-driven.

― Philip Nunez, Friday, May 4, 2012 3:09 PM (7 minutes ago) Bookmark Flag Post Permalink

which doesn't mean it's immune from dysfunctional attitudes on gender!

Nobody's mentioned "3 Women"

I mentioned it yesterday morning

― Exile in lolville (Alfred, Lord Sotosyn)

And morbs mentioned that you mentioned it last night!

i'm gonna mention it again just in case: 3 women.

"which doesn't mean it's immune from dysfunctional attitudes on gender!"
it ... sort of is! having no principles w/r/t making money means that the only barrier is the audience's willingness to pay for it.

i mean, mel gibson got his foreign-language torture movies made because enough people wanted to see it, jesus!

"which doesn't mean it's immune from dysfunctional attitudes on gender!"
it ... sort of is! having no principles w/r/t making money means that the only barrier is the audience's willingness to pay for it.

― Philip Nunez, Friday, May 4, 2012 3:26 PM (9 minutes ago) Bookmark Flag Post Permalink

but... i don't follow.

What, is this a poll or a listing?

1. Aliens
2. Alien
3. Heathers

"but... i don't follow."
what i mean is that the sexism in hollywood that puts a glass ceiling on, say, a woman wanting to become a director or producer wouldn't stop a movie with two or more female characters talking about stuff getting made, provided it could make a lot of money.

You're assuming that hollywood has a crystal ball that shows it what people want - the evidence here is shaky to say the least.

It's not so much a crystal ball as simply thinking "people like Julia Roberts/Cameron Diaz/Kate Hudson/Anne Hathaway etc., so let's develop stuff for them."

the fact that hollywood doesn't have a crystal ball makes them that much more likely to embrace a non-sexist formula movie if one were shown to be highly profitable. like if elfquest starring naomi klein as capt. nologo made $200million, there'd be nothing but non-sexist, socially progressive elf movies forever.

dare to dream

so where are all the Bridesmaids knockoffs btw

aren't there like 2 or 3 already in the pipeline?

panic room

is carnival of souls too old to make the cutoff?

no ones mentioned the travelling pants movies fyi

havent seen them but the protagonists are female pants i hear