ESSENTIAL FILMS BY WOMEN

By: Kenji

Silences of the Palace (Moufida Tlatli)

*The HIStory of cinema is still to be re-written. Alice Guy-Blaché was one of the great pioneers of cinema, made hundreds of films, the first in 1896 before Méliès. Do check her out, there is skill and charm aplenty: I’ve done a list Alice Guy-Blaché, Queen of the Pioneers. In 1910s Hollywood, in films like Suspense, Lois Weber matched Griffith for panache. Lotte Reiniger was a pioneering feature film animator in the 1920s, with her silhouettes in The Adventures of Prince Achmed, while Germaine Dulac is widely credited with the first Surrealist film, The Seashell and the Clergyman (1928). Before Fantasia’s animated abstract Bach Fugue there was Mary Ellen Bute’s. Maya Deren was very influential on the post-war American avant-garde, though i must say her husband in the 40s Alexander Hammid, who co-directed Meshes of the Afternoon, deserves more recognition too. Marie Menken is described by our great list-maker Grey Daisies as the unsung heroine of the avant-garde. Agnes Varda is the mother of the French New Wave, Chantal Akerman surely a major director, Jeanne Dielman one of the great minimalist films. Is the Bulgarian Binka Zheliazkova’s The Attached Balloon one of the neglected treasures of the world? In notoriously patriarchal Iran, there have been several prominent female directors, putting Hollywood to shame. Often female co-directors get overlooked; Miéville with Godard, Ágnes Hranitzky with Bela Tarr, Evelyn Lambart with Norman McLaren…

2009 was a strong year for women- Sight and Sound had an unprecedented 4 films by women, 2 by Claire Denis, in its annual top 8-, and maybe the 2010s will see an unprecedented flourishing? Certainly the major Oscars for Kathryn Bigelow and Hurt Locker (albeit a film i’m not keen on) may give impetus to female careers in Hollywood? Anyway, expect this list to be a grower! Update: 2 in the top 7, 4 of the top 23, by women in Sight and Sound’s 2010 poll; steady if not spectacular. Further consolidation with Susanne Bier’s In a Better World winning the “Foreign Language” Golden Globe. But of course the attention of Hollywood and Anglophone critics is mereley the tip of an iceberg, with so many fine but neglected films from a wide range of countries*

This site is honoured to have Chantal Akerman, Maria de Medeiros, Sally Potter, Julie Dash, Sadaf Foroughi, Allison Anders, Ava DuVernay among the users. Sally Potter has even done a list, My Teachers, as have Julie Dash. And good to now have Agnes Varda’s liaison with the site and her films being championed

Mädchen in Uniform, dir Leontine Sagan, Germany, 1931

Mädchen in Uniform is still a surprisingly neglected film in the history of cinema. It’s about an orphaned teenage girl who attends a Prussian all-girl boarding school, which is run by the headmistress with a rod of iron. The girl develops a crush on a pretty and kind female teacher, but problems arise when she goes public about her feelings.

This certainly wasn’t the first German film with prominent lesbian tones- the much more famous Pandora’s Box comes to mind, and of course we had Marlene Dietrich in trouser suit serenading a woman in (the Hollywood film) Morocco, but here the sexual urges go beyond flirtatiousness. It’s a surprise to read that at the time critics were more interested in the critique of authoritarian education, since the film has become something of a landmark Lesbian cult classic. I very much like the way both main themes, of authoritarianism (going beyond education to the whole disciplined and intolerant state machine), and same-sex love are handled; of course in a repressive system they are linked, and the Nazis were quick to ban the film on coming to power not long after.

The sexual frissons are not only sensual but also delicate and very poignant, with excellent central performances. Although officially co-directed by a man, to my mind this is very much Sagan’s film. Today we still have boarding schools, maybe less authoritarian, but in many countries they are part of and support a privileged class system. In such cases, get rid of them, i say.

Another of my favourite films by a female director, Innocence, by Lucile Hadzihalilovic, is set in a girls’ boarding school, albeit a more mysterious and less aggressive establishment

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A longer list of significant films by women:

Joey Lauren Adams: Come Early Morning

Maren Ade: Everyone Else
Forest for the Trees

Carine Adler: Under the Skin

Yasmin Ahmad: Talentime

Eija-Liisa Ahtila: Love is a Treasure

Peggy Ahwesh: The Colour of Love

Peggy Ahwesh, Margie Strosser: Strange Weather

Mania Akbari: 20 Fingers

Chantal Akerman: All Night Long
The Captive
D’Est
Jeanne Dielman, 23 Quai du Commerce, 1080 Bruxelles
Je Tu il Elle
News from Home
Night and Day
Les Rendezvous d’Anna

Barbara Albert: Nordrand/Northern Skirts
State of the Nation: Austria in Six Chapters

Haifa Al-Mansour: Wadjda

Mercedes Alvarez: the Sky Turns

Susana Amaral: Hour of the Star

Rachel Amodeo: What about Me

Allison Anders: Gas Food Lodging
Grace of my Heart

R.Anderson: Black Harvest

Ando Momoko: Kakera

Antouanetta Angelidi: Thief or Reality

Antoniak: Nothing Personal

Fanny Ardant: Ashes and Blood

Jane Arden: Anti-Clock
The Other Side of the Underneath

Asia Argento: Scarlett Diva

Gillian Armstrong: Little Women
My Brilliant Career
Oscar and Lucinda

Andrea Arnold: Fish Tank
Red Road
Wuthering Heights

Dorothy Arzner: Christopher Strong
Dance, Girl, Dance

Jamie Babbit: But I’m a Cheerleader

Julia Bacha: Budrus

Yamina Bachir: Rachida

Jennifer Baichwal: Manufactured Landscapes

Josiane Balasko: Gazon Maudit

Rakshan Bani-Etemad: The May Lady
Nargess
Under the Skin of the City

Clio Barnard: The Arbor

Pina Bausch: The Complaint of an Express

Cynthia Beatt: The Invisible Frame

Edet Belzberg: Children Underground

Maria Luisa Bemberg: I, the Worst of All
Nobody’s Wife

Margot Benacerraf: Araya
Reveron

Sadie Benning: It Wasn’t Love

Amy Berg: Deliver us from Evil

Shari Springer Berman: American Splendor

Francesca Bertini: Assunta Spina

Julie Bertucelli: Since Otar Left

Besson: Quelque part quelqu’un

Radha Bharadwaj: Closet Land

Susanne Bier: After the Wedding
Brothers
In a Better World

Kathryn Bigelow: The Hurt Locker
Near Dark
Point Break
Strange Days
Zero Dark Thirty

Antonia Bird: Priest

Rosemarie Blank: Crossing Borders

Iciar Bollain: Even the Rain
Flowers from another World
Take my Eyes

Sandrine Bonnaire: Sabine

Lizzie Borden: Working Girls

Joan Braderman: Joan does Dynasty

Catherine Breillat: A Ma Soeur
Brief Crossings
The Last Mistress
Romance

Zana Briski: Born into Brothels

Mary Bronstein: Yeast

Rama Burshtein: Fill the Void

Mary Ellen Bute: Synchromy 4

Jane Campion: An Angel at my Table

Bright Star
A Girl’s Own Story
The Piano
Sweetie

Margarida Cardoso: A Costa dos Murmurios/The Murmuring Coast

Niki Caro: Whale Rider

Helene Cattet: Amer

Liliana Cavani: The Night Porter
Ripley’s Game

Marianne Chaud: Himalaya, Land of Women

Mabel Cheung: An Autumn’s Tale

Abigail Child: Mayhem

Lisa Cholodenko: High Art
The Kids Are All Right

Joyce Chopra: Smooth Talk

Zero Chou: Drifting Flowers

Vera Chytilova: Daisies
Fruit of Paradise
Something Different

Shirley Clarke: Bridges-Go-Round
Connections
Cool World

Isabel Coixet: My Life without Me

Martha Coolidge: Rambling Rose
Valley Girl

Sofia Coppola: Lost in Translation
Marie Antoinette
Somewhere
The Virgin Suicides
Somewhere

Margarida Cordeiro: Tras-Os-Montes

Catherine Corsini: Leaving

Tizza Covi: Babooska

Jill Craigie: Blue Scar

Sally Cruikshank: Quasi at the Quackadero

Ariani Darmawan: Sugiharti Halim (segment from the omnibus “9808”)

Julie Dash: Daughters of the Dust
Illusions

Julie Dash

Byambasuren Davaa: Cave of the Yellow Dog
Story of the Weeping Camel

Julie Delpy: 2 Days in Paris

Emmanuelle Demoris: Mafrouza – Oh Night!

Claire Denis: Beau Travail
Chocolat
The Intruder
35 Shots of Rum
Trouble Every Day
White Material

Maya Deren: At Land
Divine Horsemen
Meshes of the Afternoon
A Ritual in Transfigured Time

Virginie Despentes, Coralie Trin Thi: Baise-Moi

Storm de Hirsch: Peyote Queen

Niki de Saint-Phalle: Daddy

Marina de Van: Dans ma Peau

Nia Di Nata: Arisan

Assia Djebar: The Nouba of the Women of Mount Chenoua

Lola Doillon: Contre Toi

Valérie Donzetti: Declaration of War

Doris Dorrie: Keiner Liebt Mich
Men

Doroteya Droumeva: The Letter

Germaine Dulac: L’Invitation au Voyage
The Seashell and the Clergyman
The Smiling Madame Beudet

Cheryl Dunye: The Watermelon Woman

Marguerite Duras: Le Camion
India Song
Les Mains Négatives
Nathalie Granger
Le Navire Night
Son nom de Venise dans Calcutta Désert

Ava DuVernay: I Will Follow

Christine Edzard: Little Dorrit

Olga Egorova: Partisan Songspiel

Judit Elek: Lady from Constantinople

Ildiko Enyedi: My Twentieth Century

Nora Ephron: Sleepless in Seattle
You’ve Got Mail

Heidi Ewing, Rachel Grady: 1th & Delaware

Valerie Export: Invisible Adversaries
Remote..,Remote

Valerie Faris: Little Miss Sunshine

Forugh Farrokhzad: The House is Black

the great Iranian poet Forough Farrokhzad

Pascale Ferran: Coming to Terms with the Dead
Lady Chatterley

Sophie Fiennes: Over Your Cities Grass will Grow

Anne Fontaine: Nathalie

Amanda Forbis, Wendy Tilby: When the Day Breaks

Sadaf Foroughi: Féminin, Masculin
Sara in 10 Minutes

Jodie Foster: Little Man Tate

Su Friedrich: Sink or Swim

Nicole Garcia: The Adversary

Julie Gautier: Free Fall

Dyana Gaye: Deweneti

Valeriya Germanika: Everybody Dies But Me

Greta Gerwig: Nights and Weekends

Delphine Gleize: Carnages

Sara Gomez: One Way or Another

Marleen Gorris: Antonia’s Line
A Question of Silence

Debra Granik: Down to the Bone
Winter’s Bone

Maggie Greenwald: Songcatcher

Sabina Guzzanti: Viva Zapatero!

Alice Guy: Falling Leaves
La Fée aux Choux
Heroine
La Saucisse

Alice Guy-Blaché

Lucile Hadzihalilovic: Innocence

Randa Haines: Children of a Lesser God

Barbara Hammer: Double Strength
Dyketactics
Nitrate Kisses

Genevieve Hamon: Acera, or the Witches’ Dance
The Love Life of the Octopus

Haneda Sumiko: Into the Picture Scroll

Mia Hansen-Love: All is Forgiven
Father of my Children

Mary Harron: American Psycho

Jessica Hausner: Lourdes

Amy Heckerling: Clueless
Fast Times at Ridgemont High

Astrid Henning-Jensen: Palle Alone in the World

Joanna Hogg: Archipelago
Unrelated

Agnieszka Holland: Europa Europa
In Darkness
Olivier Olivier
Screen Tests
The Secret Garden

Nicole Holofcener: Lovely and Amazing

Heddy Honigmann: O Amor Natural

Pirjo Honkasalo: The Three Rooms of Melancholia

Agnes Hranitzky: Werckmeister Harmonies
The Man from London
The Turin Horse

Huang Shuqin: A Soul Haunted by Painting

Ann Hui: Boat People
Love in a Fallen City
Song of the Exile

Daniele Huillet: Chronicle of Anna Magdalena Bach
Class Relations
From the Clouds to the Resistance
L’Itinéraire de Jean Bricard
Not Reconciled
Sicilia
A Visit to the Louvre

Courtney Hunt: Frozen River

Inoue Tsuki: Woman who is Beating the Earth

Dianne Jackson: The Snowman

Wanda Jakoubowska: The Last Stage

Eugenie Jansen: Calimucho

Agnes Jaoui: Look at Me
The Taste of Others

Patty Jenkins: Monster

Jeong Jae-eun: Take Care of my Cat

Angelina Jolie: In the Land of Blood and Honey

Miranda July: Me and You and Everyone We Know

Nelly Kaplan: Charles et Lucy
Nea

Anna Karina: Vivre Ensemble

Naomi Kawase: Forest of Mourning
Katatsumori
Shara
Suzaku

Diane Keaton: Heaven

Dorota Kedzierzawska: Crows
The End of the World

Kim So Yong: In Between Days
Treeless Mountain

Alison Kobayashi: Dan Carter

Barbara Koppel: Harlan County, U.S.A

Tirill Kove: The Danish Poet

Ester Krumbachová: The Murder of Mr Devil

Ellen Kuras: The Betrayal

Diane Kurys: Entre Nous

Karyn Kusama: Girl Fight

Nadine Labaki: Caramel

Evelyn Lambart: Begone Dull Care
Mr Frog Went a-Courting

Clara Law: Autumn Moon
Goddess of 1967

Caroline Leaf: Metamorphosis of Mr Samsa
The Street
Two Sisters

Isild Le Besco- Bas-Fonds

Kasi Lemmons: Eve’s Bayou

Nanouk Leopold: Guernsey

Sophie Letourneur: La Vie au Ranch

Helen Levitt, Janice Loeb: In the Street

Frieda Liappa: A Quiet Death
The Years of the Big Heat

Sue Lingford: Pleasures of War
What She Wants

Caroline Link: Nowhere in Africa
A Year ago in Winter

Barbara Linkevitch: Traces

Lynne Littman: Testament

Liu Jiayin: Oxhide
Oxhide II

Claudia Llosa: MadeinUSA
The Milk of Sorrow

Sharon Lockhardt: Lunch Break

Barbara Loden: Wanda

Kim Longinotto: Divorce, Iranian Style
Hold me Tight, Let me Go
Runaway
Shinjuku Boys

Angela Lucchi: From the Pole to the Equator

Ida Lupino: The Bigamist
The Hitch-hiker
On Dangerous Ground

Jennifer Chambers Lynch: Boxing Helena
Chained

Alison Maclean: Kitchen Sink
Jesus’ Son

Hana Makhmalbaf: Buddha Collapsed out of Shame
Joy of Madness

Marzieh Makhmalbaf/Meshkini: The Day I Became a Woman
Stray Dogs

Samira Makhmalbaf: The Apple
At Five in the Afternoon
Blackboards
Two Legged Horse

Samira Makhmalbaf

Sarah Maldoror: Sambizanga

Laura Mañá: Morir in San Hilario

Aline Mare: Mutable Fire

Marais: The Unpolished

Tonia Marketaki: John the Violent

Penny Marshall: Awakenings
Big

Lucrecia Martel: La Cienaga
The Headless Woman
The Holy Girl

Mara Mattuschka: Cerolax 11
NabelFabel
S.O.S Extraterrestria

Elaine May: The Heartbreak Kid
Mikey and Nicky
A New Leaf

Maria de Medeiros: The Captains of April

Deepa Mehta: Earth
Fire
Water

Ursula Meier: Home

Marie Menken: Glimpse of a Garden
Go! Go! Go!
Visual Variations on Noguchi

Nina Menkes: Bloody Child

Agnes Merlet: Artemisia

Marta Meszaros: Adoption
A Diary for my Children

Nancy Meyers: Something’s Gotta Give
What Women Want

Anne-Marie Miéville: Deux Fois Cinquante Ans du Cinéma Francais
Ici et Ailleurs

Tahmineh Milani: The Hidden Half
Two Women

Rebecca Miller: Personal Velocity

Ariane Mnouchkine: Moliere

Tracey Moffatt: Night Cries: A Rural Tragedy

Jocelyn Moorhouse: Proof

Milagros Mumenthaler: Back to Stay

Kira Muratova: Asthenic Syndrome
Brief Encounters
Chekhov’s Motifs
Long Farewells

Mira Nair: Monsoon Wedding
The Namesake
Salaam Bombay

Laurel Nakadate: The Wolf Knife

Gunvor Nelson: My Name is Oona

Shirin Neshat: Turbulent
Women without Men

Nishikawa Miwa: Dear Doctor
Yureru

Maria Novaro: Danzon

Obomsawin: Incident at Restigouche
Kanehsatake: 270 Years of Resistance

Jenni Olson: 575 Castro Street

Gulshat Omarova: The Recruiter

Louise Osmond: Deep Water

Halima Ouardiri: Mokhtar

Euzhan Palcy: A Dry White Season
Rue Cases Negres

Euzhan Palcy

Verena Paravel: Leviathan

Park Chan-Ok: Jealousy is my Middle Name
Paju

Kimberly Peirce: Boys Don’t Cry

Regina Pessoa: Tragic Story with Happy Ending

Jeanette & Ann Petrie: Mother Teresa

Alexandra Pigg: Letter to Brezhnev

Suzan Pitt: Asparagus

Ana Poliak: Pin Boy

Sara Polley: Away from Her

Sally Potter: Gold Diggers
Orlando
The Tango Lesson
Yes

Proskurina: Truce

Rached: Four Women of Egypt

Yvonne Rainer: Film about a Woman who

Lynne Ramsay: Gasman
Morvern Callar
Ratcatcher
We Need to Talk about Kevin

Jackie Raynal: Deux Fois

Kelly Reichardt: Meek’s Cutoff
Old Joy
Wendy and Lucy

Lotte Reiniger: The Adventures of Prince Achmed
The Little Chimney Sweep

Leni Riefenstahl: The Blue Light
Olympia
Triumph of the Will

Pipilotti Rist: i’m a Victim of this Song

Marta Rodriguez: The Brickmakers

Francoise Romand: Mix Up

Ros: La Monos

Isabella Rossellini: Green Porno, Scandalous Sea

Esther Rots: Kan door Huid Heen/ Can go through Skin

Patricia Rozema: I’ve Heard the Mermaids Sing

Sach: Investigation of a Flame

Leontine Sagan: Madchen in Uniform

Helma Sanders-Brahms: The Future of Emily
Germany, Pale Mother
Shirin’s Wedding

Nancy Savoca: Household Saints

Angela Schanelec: Passing Summer

Scherfig: An Education
Italian for Beginners

Carolee Schneemann: Fuses
Snows

Céline Sciamma: Naissance des Pieuvres

Lillian Schwartz: UFOs

Scott: Strangers in Good Company

Susan Seidelman: Desperately Seeking Susan
Smithereens

Aparna Sen: 36 Chowringhee Lane
Mr and Mrs Iyer

Coline Serreau: Three Men and a Cradle
Think Global, Act Rural

Jana Sevcikova: Jakub
Old Believers

Shariar: Daughters of the Sun

Larisa Shepitko: The Ascent
Motherland of Electricity
Wings

Larisa Shepitko

Cate Shortland: Somersault

Esfir Shub: The Fall of the Romanoff Dynasty

Shum: Long Life, Happiness and Prosperity

Joan Silver: Chilly Scenes of Winter

Juliya Solntseva: Enchanted Desna
Poem of the Sea

Susan Sontag: Promised Lands

Maria Speth: The Days Between
Madonnas

Penelope Spheeris: The Decline of Western Civilization

Spinell: Viki Ficki

Lynne Stopkewich: Kissed
Suspicious River

Deborah Stratman: Kings of the Sky
O’er the Land

Barbra Streisand: Yentl

Caroline Strubbe: Lost Persons Area

Anocha Suwichakornpong: Mundane History

Margaret Tait: Aerial

Sophia Takal: Green

Kimi Takesue: Summer of the Serpent

Tan Chui Mui: Company of Mushrooms
A Tree in Tanjung Malin
Love Conquers All

Tanada Yuki: Moon and Cherry

Tanaka Kinuyo: The Moon has Risen

Giovanna Taviani: Return to the Aeolian Islands

Julie Taymor: Frida
Titus

Suzie Templeton: Peter and the Wolf

Sara Terry: Fambul Tok

Stella Theodoraki: Close, So Close

Daniela Thomas: Foreign Land

Ondi Timoner: Library of Dust
We Live in Public

Moufida Tlatli: The Season of Men
Silences of the Palace

Fina Torres: Oriana

Trinh T Minh-ha: The Fourth Dimension
Reassemblage
Surname Việt Given Name Nam

Margarethe von Trotta: The German Sisters
The Lost Honour of Katherina Blum
Rosa Luxemburg

Athina Tsangari: Attenberg

Ann Turner: Celia

Sarah Turner: Perestroika

Hermina Tyrlova: Modra Zasterka

Liv Ullmann: Faithless
Sofie

Yesim Ustaoglu: Araf- Somewhere in Between
Journey to the Sun
Waiting for the Clouds

Agnes Varda: The Beaches of Agnes
Le Bonheur
Cleo from 5 to 7
The Gleaners and I
L’Opéra Mouffe
La Pointe Courte
Vagabond

Agnes Varda

Cecile Vernant: Il était une Fois….Sasha et Désiré

Sandrine Veysset: Will it Snow for Christmas?

Drahomira Vihanova: The Pilgrimage of Students Peter and Jacob
Squandered Sunday

Anne Villaceque: Riviera

Teresa Villaverde: A Idade Major
Os Mutantes
Transe

Virginie Wagon: Le Secret

Lucy Walker: Waste Land

Rachel Ward: Beautiful Kate

Lois Weber: Hypocrites
Shoes
Suspense

Claudia Weill: Girlfriends

Adrienne Weiss: Guardian of the Frontier

Lina Wertmuller: Love and Anarchy
Seven Beauties
Swept Away by an Unusual Destiny..

Nettie Wild: A Place Called Chiapas

Juanita Wilson: As If I’m Not There

Yang Yong-hi: Dear Pyongyang
Sona, the Other Myself

Youssef: Marjoun and the Flying Headscarf

Jasmila Zbanic: Grbavica, Land of my Dreams

Zhang Nuanxin: Sacrificed Youth

Binka Zhelyazkova: The Attached Balloon
The Last Word
The Swimming Pool

Innocence (Hadzihalilovic)

Turbulent (Neshat)

Jeanne Dielman (Akerman)

Tragic Story with Happy Ending (Pessoa)

Daisies (Chytilova)

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My favourites:

Innocence (Hadzihalilovic)
Jeanne Dielman (Akerman)
Silences of the Palace (Tlatli)
Werckmeister Harmonies (Hranitzky) co-d
Madchen in Uniform (Sagan)
The Attached Balloon (Zheliazkova)
Brickmakers (Rodriguez) co-d
The House is Black (Farrokhzad)
Adoption (Meszaros)
Oriane (Torres)
Le Bonheur (Varda)
From the Clouds to the Resistance (Huillet) co-d
A Tree in Tanjung Malim (Tan Chui Mui)
Invisible Adversaries (Export)
Take Care of my Cat (Jeong Jae-Eun)
The Ascent (Shepitko)
The Other Side of Underneath (Arden)
Women without Men (Neshat)
Chronicle of Anna Magdalena Bach (Huillet) co-d
Daughters of the Dust (Dash)
The Day I Became a Woman (Meshkini)
The Piano (Campion)
Begone Dull Care (Lambart) co-d
Orlando (Potter)
La Cienaga (Martel)
Katatsumori (Kawase)
Celia (Turner)
Story of the Weeping Camel (Davaa) co-d
Archipelago (Hogg)
Foreign Land (Thomas) co-d
Quasi at the Quackadero (Cruikshank)
The Love Life of the Octopus (Hamon) co-d
From the Pole to the Equator (Lucchi) co-d

Chocolat (Claire Denis)

See this list for a July 2011 poll of favourite films by women, Also, Apursansar’s list Japanese Female Directors

The list below is in year order. I’m hoping many more films by Alice Guy-Blaché will be added to the site, and too many others on the list above are also missing. As well as personal favourites, i’ve included some popular hits and landmark films i’m less keen on.