Here's a few examples of films

Crouching Tiger, Hidden Dragon

I Shot Andy Warhol
(not for the easily offended)

Nobody Knows My Name
by Rachael Raimist (about women involved in hip-hop music)

Did we discuss Sex and the City yet, no?

"Chasing men" is what gives meaning to a woman's life, what else can there be?

Edited to add: on a more positive side, has anyone seen Collected Stories on PBS a couple of nights ago? Great play (written by a man, incidentally) in which two women deal with important issues in profound (sorry for the phallocentric metaphore) and provocative ways. I am still under its spell, days later.

As viewers, feminists actually don't ask for too much. You don't have to write "feminist" plays or shows. Just give to your female characters some human features. Is that too much to ask?

And (another) by the way, Helen Mirren: Altman Unafraid of Interesting Women

[ January 22, 2002: Message edited by: Trespasser ]

Orlando
Thelma and Louise
Badlands (not in an obvious way)
Death and the Maiden
Alien
Aliens
Alien Resurrection
Ice Storm
Farewell My Concubine (not obvious)
The Nasty Girl (German with subtitles: highly recommended)
Bandit Queen (so I've heard: violent rape scene)
Clockwatchers
Quills
Land and Freedom
Heavenly Creatures
Silence of the Lambs (debatable)
The Shining
Eyes Wide Shut
Sweetie
Jane Campion's short films
Welcome to the Doll House

Here is a site with more suggestions:
http://www.changesurfer.com/Acad/Films/Fem.html

[ January 22, 2002: Message edited by: judym ]

I beg to differ re. Ice Storm. I've seen nothing women-friendly there. On second thought, I've seen nothing anything-friendly in that movie either.

Edited to add: M'Boy, that's not funny.

[ January 22, 2002: Message edited by: Trespasser ]

Sigourney Weaver's character telling the man she's having an affair with that he's boring her (he's droning on about a work rival), and that she already has a husband ... walking out in the middle of a tryst and not coming back. Kevin Kline (playing the other part of the affair) making himself busy as he waits. Practicing golf swings. Finally discovering his daughter and her son in another room messing around and giving them a lecture about their behaviour. Priceless.

[ January 22, 2002: Message edited by: judym ]

But the Ice Storm (and I agree with JudyM's diagnosis) is full of irredeemably screwed up people, but in comparison to women, male characters look somehow more composed. Less angsty or hysterical.

I remember that scene. Then KK and his daughter go home through an icey scenery and he at one point takes her in his arm and carries her home because her feet are wet. It was depressing.

[ January 22, 2002: Message edited by: Trespasser ]

In general, my film choices are not really about being life affirming, I'll admit. They're more about looking at what is wrong with the status quo.

[ January 22, 2002: Message edited by: judym ]

I also found the Piano revolting. I missed the very end, as I couldn't handle it after the finger chopping scene... if it was redeemed after that, then I'll stand corrected. I also hated Rob Roy.

Crouching Tiger was fantastic... I really like everything about it.

I agree with judy on the Icestorm critique.

[edited to add:]

T - It's Joan Allen, who plays a pretty passive "ideal" woman (to Weaver's active). She's frozen in her role. The inventor was married to Weaver's character ... dreamy and barely there ... the creator of styrofoam packing peanuts, he is also heard to mention silicon as a thing of the future.

... anyway, don't want to give too much away, in case others love to look at bleak lives beautifully filmed. (I actually found this film to be far more humane and honest about the suburbs than I did American Beauty.)

[ January 22, 2002: Message edited by: judym ]

Trinitty, Piano is a serious movie and you should have finished it - to say the least. More on this later.

Added: Frances, yes, I agree! And I agree that American Beauty's goal was to make some Boomers feel politically subversive again.

[ January 22, 2002: Message edited by: Trespasser ]

Judym, I'm curious as to why Quills made your list (although I agree with most of your other choices, esp. the Aliens series). I found that the women in the film were generally victimized (sightless mother, murdered virgin, the Marquise) or just plain nasty and ancillary to the plot. It was a badly written, overwrought period melodrama with a lot of typical male wanking IMNSHO.... And it was predictable, which is even worse.

For feminist films, other than the Ang Lee films noted above....

I Heard the Mermaids Singing
Antonia's Line
Chocolat
Women on the Verge of a Nervous Breakdown

I'll add more when I think of them.... So many films, so little time....

Speaking of my secret crush, 'Children of a Lesser God' isn't bad, either.

'Orlando' is flat-out wonderful.

I almost forgot 'Shirley Valentine'. Dated, maybe, but never stale.

[ January 22, 2002: Message edited by: nonesuch ]

The primary point of terror is concerned with the oral rape and subsequent impregnation of the male character-Kane. The mother alien’s tail encircles itself around the victim’s throat and chokes the target’s mouth open for rape. From a vaginal cavity, a phallic finger penetrates the throat and implants an alien fertilized egg inside the host body. Looking for a receptacle for their eggs, the aliens neglected to consider sexual difference in their hosts. The embryo chomps away at the victim until it is “born” in a grotesque Caesarian birth that annihilates the host.

Both Alien and the sequel reveal a fascination with the maternal body – its appearance, its functions, and its powers. The reproductive system of the female alien resembles human female genitalia and is revealed as a source of horror and monstrosity. The alien’s body fluids are acidic and burn through all materials including metal. The alien monster is represented as a hideous, amoral, primal mother defined by her orifices and her deadly reproductive abilities.

Ripley is heroicized as a figure of maternal rage who develops a warrior-maternal instinct, risking her life to save the life of Newt.

An amusing little film about a sixties hippie rock star who lobbies to get the voting age lowered to fourteen with a fun song called "Fourteen Or Fight", and ends up getting it lowered to fifteen. ("Fifteen And Ready") He then gets elected President of the United States, and has everyone over thirty drop acid full-time and commits them to concentration camps.

This film stars a young Richard Pryor, not to mention Shelly Winters as the protagonist's mom, who has a weird and sick crush on him.

I find it's all just mental masterbation, which can be fun, but not often useful.

Considering that we are under constant bombardment by images and messages I think it’s useful to take a closer look at the concepts we are being spoonfed. The average person who lives to 75 would spend nine years in front of the television, not including reading, web surfing etc. Reading about something more in depth makes me consider more carefully the messages that we consume daily, rather than inducing narcolepsy which is the effect much of television has on me.

[ January 24, 2002: Message edited by: Chris Moore ]

Fat Girl was worth a viewing (though not for the folks in Ontario) as was Lilith On Top.

[ January 25, 2002: Message edited by: MJ ]

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As to the actors, well, they can only do so much with 2nd rate writing....

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[ January 25, 2002: Message edited by: judym ]

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My guess: he's saying that TV is second rate, so being a well written show on TV doesn't mean much.

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