Seven contemporary films by female directors
I feel that the habit of offering flowers and buying the traditional trinkets in March has become rather a social obligation and less an act of true celebration of women; we're far from understanding the real needs of women everywhere, so then these vulgar gifts only manage to add insult to injury. In cinema, surely, changes started to happen, albeit things seem to turn around in slow motion - just the other day, Chloe Zhao was distinguished with two Golden Globes for her film Nomadland (Best Director & Best Motion Picture - Drama), following the Golden Lion won in Venice. The fact that she is the second woman to receive the award for directing, after Barbra Streisand, in 1984, shows only how blind the voting members can be; a film directed by a woman barely makes it within range. I'm not here to play the vigilante, it's pretty clear that women will never do great in this regard, nor that we will ever be able to even simulate the idea of equal opportunities; that being so, I'm aware that the list I put together will not make such a difference. For each film that stems from a real, feminine experience, ten more arise that hinder it with harmful stereotypes, and further sexualize/objectify the female characters (and, therefore, cancel out all its efforts); and besides, there are so many male viewers who don't even notice this aspect - and to whom I would offer, as a remedy for their ignorance, a film by Catherine Breillat, a French filmmaker with a scandalous reputation who destroys the mythology built around female sexuality.
Journalist and film critic, with a master's degree in film critics. Collaborates with Scena9, Acoperișul de Sticlă, FILM and FILM Menu magazines. For Films in Frame, she brings the monthly top of films and writes the monthly editorial Panorama, published on a Thursday. In her spare time, she retires in the woods where she pictures other possible lives and flying foxes.
