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

“Hounddog” (Deborah Kampmeier, USA 2007)

Hounddog

“Rape and repressions are the two sides of the same coin. When you rape a girl, the problem is not that you’re taking away her purity, which gets everyone all up in arms. It’s that you’re taking away her wholeness. Trying to keep her pure, repressing her sexuality also takes her wholeness. I don’t want my daughter to grow up pure. I want her to grow whole.”  says Anja in Split.
The idea of sexual violence taking a woman’s or a girl’s wholeness is the leading theme in Deborah Kampmeier’s three movies (Split, Virgin, and Hounddog).

Cast: Dakota Fanning, David Morse, Piper Laurie, Afemo Omilami, Robin Wright Penn, Cody Hanford, Jill Scott
Written and directed by Deborah Kampmeier
Music: Gisburg
Cinematography: Jim Denault
Photography: Edward Lachman
Editing: Sabine Hoffman

 

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

“Virgin” (Deborah Kampmeier, USA 2003)

Virgin

A few aspects that are common to Split and to Virgin: The female lead is a ‘good’ person but some things she does puts her on the margin of society / She loves but is not loved back / A man destroys her life.
Unbearable music

Cast: Elisabeth Moss, Robin Wright Penn, Daphne Rubin-Vega, Charles Socarides, Socorro Santiago, Peter Garety, Stephanie Gatchet
Written and directed by Deborah Kampmeier
Cinematography: Benjamin Wolf
Editing: Jane Pia Abramowitz

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

“Split” (Deborah Kampmeier, USA 2016)

Split

A most intelligent cry of revolt against violence perpetrated on women

SPOILERS AHEAD
Inanna (Amy Ferguson) joins an experimental theater group that works on the Mesopotamian myth of Inanna, and more specifically on the liberation of enslaved women. After a few rehearsals, she comes to the conclusion that she does not possess the primal rage and the raw longing for freedom that the other women in the play possess. In a most upsetting scene, these women tell how they have been victims of extreme sexualized violence.
At the same time, Inanna falls head over heels in love with Derek, a mask maker (Morgan Spector), and marries him. Right from the start, she adapts her life to his, while he refuses to change anything in his own life. He doesn’t even stop the affair he had with his assistant (Antonia Campbell-Hughes), claiming that she was there first.
Inanna soon realizes that she is losing her identity while getting nothing in return. Profoundly wounded and feeling like drowning, she is now able to express the primal rage and the raw longing for freedom that the play requires from her.

Cast: Amy Ferguson, Morgan Spector, Anna Mouglalis
Director: Deborah Kampmeier
Writers: Deborah Kampmeier, Deborah Kampmeier
Music: Leslie Graves, Michelangelo Sosnowitz
Cinematography: Alison Kelly
Editing: Siobhan Dunne

6,0-6,9, action, male director, romance,, Sci-fi

“Rogue One: A Star Wars Story” (Gareth Edwards, USA 2016)

Rogue One

Despite the fact that the main role was given to a woman, it is still a strongly paternalistic movie.

Cast: Felicity Jones, Mads Mikkelsen, Diego Luna, Riz Ahmed, Donnie Yen
Director: Gareth Edwards
Writer: Chris Weitz, Tony Gilroy, John Knoll, Gary Whitta
based on the characters created by George Lucas
Cinematographer: Greig Fraser
Editor: John Gilroy, Colin Goudie, Jabez Olssen
Composer: Michael Giacchino

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

“Summertime” (Catherine Corsini, France 2015)

La Belle Saison

The movie is so relaxed in its storytelling, and so committed to a certain level of realism, that it frequently feels deliberately anti-dramatic.
[Glenn Kenny, July 22, 2016 http://www.rogerebert.com/reviews/summertime-2016]

Cast: Izïa Higelin, Jean-Henri Compère, Cécile De France, Kévin Azaïs, Noémie Lvovsky, Laetitia Dosch
Director: Catherine Corsini
Writer: Catherine Corsini, Laurette Polmanss
Cinematographer: Jeanne Lapoirie
Editor: Frédéric Baillehaiche
Composer: Gregoire Hetzel

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

“Divines” (Houda Benyamina, France 2016)

Divines

In a Parisian ‘hot’ suburb, drug distribution, blackmail, and violence are controlled by women. Strong performances.

Cast: Oulaya Amamra, Déborah Lukumuena, Kevin Mischel
Director: Houda Benyamina
Writer: Houda Benyamina
Music: Demusmaker
Cinematography: Julien Poupard
Editing: Loïc Lallemand , Vincent Tricon

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

“Paterson” (Jim Jarmusch, USA 2016)

Paterson

“‘I breathe poetry’ … the movie is about: the conviction that if you can live at least part of your life breathing poetry (and that poetry is not necessarily a verbal thing), you can make your life more worthwhile.” [Paterson by Glenn Kenny. December 27, 2o16 http://www.rogerebert.com/reviews/paterson-2016]

Cast: Adam Driver, Golshifteh Farahani, Barry Shabaka Henley
Director: Jim Jarmusch
Writer: Jim Jarmusch
Cinematographer: Frederick Elmes
Editor: Affonso Gonçalves
Composer: Jim Jarmusch, Carter Logan, Sqürl