Women in Films

This interesting wee video was brought to my attention recently and I thought it was well worth sharing.  It's to do with the role of women in film or, perhaps more precisely, the way the male perspective dominates in cinema.  It's worth checking out the comments and some of the other links (I know Inge will enjoy the ones on Veronica Mars).

According to my little black book I have seen 21 films for the first time so far this year.  Of those, only 4 pass the test- Black Swan, Blame it on Fidel (review forthcoming), Unrelated (sort of review forthcoming), and Fish Tank (review forthcoming if I can be arsed- suffice to say if you haven't seen it then do so).

What's striking is not only the dearth of prominent roles that 50% of the population can identify with but also how we accept as 'normal' the dominance of the male narrative.  A James Bond film is as clear a commentary on masculinity as anything else (what man out there hasn't tried the pose) but we think of it as a kind of default entertainment, almost gender neutral and no reason why it shouldn't appeal to everyone.  Even when we see female leads, it is rare for men to be excluded entirely- the same cannot be said of the reverse.  

Part of the problem is the lack of women elsewhere in the industry.  Women make up only 7% of directors and of the 4 examples I gave above, 3 of them were the only films I have seen by female directors this year.  Things might be changing- of the Time Out 100 best British films referenced in a previous post there were 4 films by female directors, an improvement of 4 on the 1999 BFI poll and all of which were made in the last 20 years.  Some feel that the solution lies in the championing and funding of female writers and film-makers, with the closure of the UK Film Council making this more difficult.   There may be some merit in that but the fact that so many of us accept the secondary role of women in cinema is perhaps a reflection of wider societal attitudes.