Category Archives: Female Filmmaker Friday
Female Filmmaker Friday: Fish Tank, 2009 (dir. Andrea Arnold)
I saw this one for the first time a few years back when Michael Fassbender was in all the movies and I was doing some catch up (still haven’t seen all his films, though). This one really struck a chord with me because it’s a nice riff on the Angry Young Man/Kitchen Sink/British New Wave films of the late-50s/early-60s, but with a female protagonist and a female filmmaker, which gives a whole other perspective to the angst of the youth of this socioeconomic class. Beware, there be spoilers after the cut.
Female Filmmaker Friday: Bright Star, 2009 (dir. Jane Campion)
In honor of director Jane Campion being the head of this year’s Cannes Film Festival jury and this film’s five-year anniversary (it premiered at Cannes on May 15th, 2009), I decided I would finally write about Bright Star. I love this movie so dearly that I know I won’t be able to cover everything that I love about it (I could write a whole book!), so instead I have picked out a few of my favorite moments from the film.
Female Filmmaker Friday: The Bride Wore Red, 1937 (dir. Dorothy Arzner)
I’ve been watching my way through Joan Crawford’s filmography (I’m at 57 I think now!) and finally was able to watch this gem from, at the time, the only female director in Hollywood: Dorothy Arzner. The one review I could find of the film from its initial release is not too generous, but I have to say I absolutely loved this film.
Female Filmmaker Friday: Hôtel Monterey, 1972 (dir. Chantal Akerman)
Last summer I bought Chantal Akerman in the 1970s from Criterion and I’ve been slowly watching my way through it. La Chambre, Hôtel Monterey and News From Home (which I will also write about soon), are all very interesting films, that I believe lie somewhere between “documentary” and “experimental.” They were all made while Akerman was living in NYC “like a vagabond” – her words. She was 21 and interested in art and life and from these films we see just what aspects of life intrigued her at the time.
Female Filmmaker Friday: Girlfriends, 1978 (dir. Claudia Weill)
I first saw this film last fall and I fell head over heels for it. It was directed, produced and co-written by Claudia Weill, who collaborated with friend Vicki Polon on the screenplay. Weill directed the film on weekends over a the course of a year. Somehow it got picked up by Warner Bros. and was given a limited run. Stanley Kurbick saw the film and said in a 1980 interview that it was one of the most interesting American films he had seen in recent years. Anyone who enjoyed last year’s Frances Ha, will love this film. They’re surprisingly similar and I wouldn’t be shocked if Baumbach and Gerwig drew some inspiration for their film from it. 
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Female Filmmaker Friday: Bridget Jones’s Diary, 2001 (dir. Sharon Maguire)
It’s Friday, so it’s time for another edition of Female Filmmaker Friday. Next week I might not post one because of TCMFF, but I think you guys can handle that. This week I’m going to talk about one of my all-time favorite films. There’s a lot to say about Bridget Jones’s Diary and I’m definitely not going to hit all the points; instead I’m just going to write about the aspects and scenes that have stuck with me over the years. I’ve seen this film a million times since it came out in theaters (it was one of the very first DVDs I ever owned) and I’ve also read the book(s). As much as I enjoyed them, this film is my favorite interpretation of the iconic Ms. Jones.
Female Filmmaker Friday: The Punk Singer, 2013 (dir. Sini Anderson)
For this week’s Female Filmmaker Friday, I’m actually going to write a bit about my favorite film from 2013: Sini Anderson’s The Punk Singer, which is a documentary about musician and activist Kathleen Hanna. The film just got released on DVD this week and is also available on Netflix, so you should spend the next 80 minutes watching it and then go out and change the world.
Female Filmmaker Friday: Orlando, 1992 (dir. Sally Potter)
We’re entering the third month of the Female Filmmaker Friday feature. I hope I have introduced y’all to some great cinema and hope to keep doing for a long time! The more I read about the abysmal numbers of women behind the scenes in cinema, the more I realize we need to rally around the few who have gotten to make films, make them as well-known as their male contemporaries and ignite a spark in the younger generation of women to carry the torch and not give up. If I help in that in any way, I will. That said, this week I am writing about Sally Potter’s Orlando, which I just saw for a first time a few weeks back. I used to own the Virginia Woolf book on which it is based, but somehow never read it.
Female Filmmaker Friday: Sedmikrásky (Daisies), 1966 (dir. Věra Chytilová)
This is my 8th piece for Female Filmmaker Friday and I thought with the news of Věra Chytilová’s passing this week it would be the perfect time to discuss her seminal work of 1960s feminist film. Chytilová was an important member of the Czech New Wave and basically the only major voice of that movement to stay in her home country despite its harsh reception of subversive art and often being subjected to censorship and having her films banned in her own country. She’s a fascinating figure and deserves much more attention that she often gets.
Female Filmmaker Friday: Starstruck, 1982 (dir. Gillian Armstrong)
Gillian Armstrong is one of my favorite directors. Later on I will write about My Brilliant Career and Little Women (1994), which is one of my all-time favorite movies. I’ve seen that one more than any other film I think. Which brings me to this week’s Female Filmmaker Friday on Armstrong’s sophomore feature Startruck. I actually bought this film without knowing anything about it other than it was directed by Armstrong and came in a shiny pink DVD case. Amazon recommended it when I bought Susan Seidelman’s Smithereens. Definitely one of the best cold-buys I’ve ever done.
the diary of a film history fanatic 