What is a feminist film? Is it a film from a woman’s perspective telling a woman’s story? Is it feminist solely because of that, because film is so often a man’s view of a man’s story? I don’t think it can or should be but it often is. We are not even going to go into the Bechdel Test [I’m lying. Yes we are.]
Like, the idea of a feminist film is so cool but also so weird to me because cinema doesn’t have a large or even decent sized space for feminist film production. This is a post for another time, though, I have a lot of feelings over feminist film theory.The breakdown of Total Film’s 100 Greatest Woman Character’s is laughable slash sad. Women&Hollywood is a cool resource for women-centric films, but not really for feminist films. You can have a “strong woman lead” but that does not make a feminist movie. You can have an all woman-cast but it does not make it a feminist movie. (See: The Help. Fuck that movie.)
Some films and posts I can point you to: this post, this post, this one, this post (so i guess I can point you to a feminist film list after all?), this list of Top 100 Feminist Films of All Time, this list too.
I’m way into this online film journal, this Barnard Journal that deals with Feminist Analysis of HBO, also this journal, this one, this huge and awesome resource.
I can’t give you MY list of movies that are pro-feminist because a film is only as political as you read it to be, and what I read a film as being might be feminist to others but anti-feminist to even more. I think there can be feminist subjects but a film itself might not be feminist. It’s all in the reading. I think my favorite film I’ve seen recently that gave me lots of feminist thoughts to ponder over was Stella Dallas.
Re: Citizen Kane is one of my favorite movies. Ever. I have a deep and abiding love for Orson Welles. I love Rosebud.
