Category Archives: female director

8,0-8,9, comedy, drama,, female director, romance,

“Adore” by Anne Fontaine (Australia, 2013)

 

Adore

Excellent scenario and some fantastic editing.
Many have called it a bad movie (see the main ratings) because of its scandalous theme – two middle-aged women falling for two young men they know. However, the same critics wouldn’t have blinked if the movie had staged two men falling for their daughter-in-law. Hypocrisy at its best!

Cast: Naomi Watts, Robin Wright, Xavier Samuel, James Frecheville, Ben Mendelsohn, Sophie Lowe
Director: Anne Fontaine
Screenplay: Christopher Hampton
Novel: Doris Lessing
Music by Christopher Gordon
Cinematography by Christophe Beaucarne
Film Editing by Luc Barnier, Ceinwen Berry

3,0-5,9, comedy, female director, romance,

“Laggies” by Lynn Shelton (USA, 2014)

Laggies

Summarized: only the perfect (male) match can give sense to a woman’s life. No story to be proud of!
Just like Touchy Feely, a female reacts dramatically when her boyfriend offers her to commit herself more fully to their relationship. Adding to the sequel feeling, both movies stage an adult female, a teenager, and 2 adult males. In both movies, the “mother” is absent.
But instead of defining its personages realistically as they are in Touchy Feely, those in Laggies are inconsistent. A hopefully one-time hiccup in an up-to-now interesting oeuvre.

Cast: Keira Knightley, Sam Rockwell, Chloë Grace Moretz, Mark Webber, Ellie Kemper, Jeff Garlin, Kaitlyn Dever
Director: Lynn Shelton
Screenplay: Andrea Seigel
Director of Photography: Benjamin Kasulke
Original Music Composer: Benjamin Gibbard

6,0-6,9, comedy, female director, romance,

“Your Sister’s Sister” by Lynn Shelton (USA, 2011)

Your Sister's Sister

Parallel relationships built between 2 half-sisters and 2 brothers / The father of the 2 half-sisters is evoked as a constant figure, whereas their mothers are replaceable (see Laggies)

Cast: Emily Blunt, Rosemarie DeWitt, Mark Duplass, Mike Birbiglia
Written and directed by Lynn Shelton
Music by Vinny Smith
Cinematography by Benjamin Kasulke
Film Editing by Nat Sanders

6,0-6,9, comedy, female director

“My Effortless Brilliance” by Lynn Shelton (USA, 2008)

 

My Effortless Brilliance

Intimate situations around 2 or 3 personages characterize this director’s work
My Effortless Brilliance and Humpday are built around male relationships, while the following movies are more female oriented, with males used as catalysts

Cast: Basil Harris, Jeanette Maus, Sean Nelson
Director: Lynn Shelton
Writers: Basil Harris, Jeanette Maus
Music by Ted Speaker
Cinematography by Benjamin Kasulke
Film Editing by Sean Donavan, Lynn Shelton

7,0-7,9, drama,, female director, Sci-fi

“Advantageous” by Jennifer Phang (USA, 2015)

Advantageous

Slow-moving satire of the corporate world that dehumanize the individual.
A movie depicting our world in a not too far-fetched future, a world that has no advantage to offer for us, humans, a world in which we have to become inhuman to survive.
Among some of the ideas brought forward:

  • We should talk about “natural deselection” because humanity makes the same errors again and again
  • “There’s nothing fiercer than a mother’s love”
  • Corporations prefer to fire women because they will stay at home, and men won’t

Cast: Jacqueline Kim, James Urbaniak, Freya Adams
Director: Jennifer Phang
Writers: Jacqueline Kim, Jennifer Phang
Music by Timo Chen
Cinematography by Richard Wong
Film Editing by Sean Gillane, Jennifer Phang

7,0-7,9, drama,, female director, romance,

“When Night Is Falling” by Patricia Rozema (Canada, 1995) (2)

When Night Is Falling (sec view)

The passion a woman feels for another woman makes her abandon all her moral certitudes.
Some weaknesses in the script / Excellent camera work on bodies and movement, when she and he make love (lights on the wall), followed by the two women making love, beautifully underscored by two female trapezists exercising.

Cast: Pascale Bussières, Rachael Crawford, Henry Czerny
Director: Patricia Rozema
Writer: Patricia Rozema
Music by Lesley Barber
Cinematography by Douglas Koch
Film Editing by Susan Shipton

8,0-8,9, drama,, female director, romance,

“Mansfield Park” by Patricia Rozema (Canada, 1998)

Mansfield Park

Social hierarchy is a recurring theme in this director’s work. In Mansfield Park, the lead personage comes from a poor branch of a family whose wealth is built on slavery. Kit Kitteridge: An American Girl (2008) depicts the social destitution and disintegration of a family as a consequence of the Great Depression, and the parallel world of hobos. Into The Forest shows again a society in the process of disintegration, which leads to the rape of a woman – both woman and rapist being honorable members of that society prior to these events.
“This is an uncommonly intelligent film, smart and amusing too, and anyone who thinks it is not faithful to Austen doesn’t know the author but only her plots.” writes Roger Ebert.

Cast: Frances O’Connor, Jonny Lee Miller, Alessandro Nivola
Director: Patricia Rozema
Writers: Jane Austen (novel), Patricia Rozema
Music by Lesley Barber
Cinematography by Michael Coulter
Film Editing by Martin Walsh