Favorite Movies by Female Directors

Anyone noticed the lack of female directors/films in all these ‘all-time favorite’ polls, or in the Criterion, et cetera?

My favorite would be the underground classic ‘Jeanne Dielman’.

Love & Basketball- Gina Prince-Bythewood

Beau Travail and L’Intrus by Claire Denis

Me You and Everyone we Know – Miranda July

I second Robert Trapped In Nowhere with L’Intrus. I had mixed feelings on a first viewing. But my mind keeps going back to the film.

I’m intrigued by Denis’ exploration of form and by her desire to synergise non-linear story events with memory, dream, prophesy and inter-textual references to other films and artistic mediums. To achieve this and still deliver a readable and engaging film is no mean feet on the part of the director and for me L’Intrus represents a very valid attempt. I grow to like the film nearly as much as I like the idea of the film.

Aaron, yes at least a couple of threads have raised the issue of under-representation of female directors in lists here. I was thinking of doing a poll, but this should pre-empt that need

my choices:

1. Innocence (Hadzihalilovic)
2. Madchen in Uniform (Sagan)
3. Jeanne Dielman (Akerman)
4. Silences of the Palace (Tlatli)
5. Take Care of my Cat (Jeong Jae-eun)
6. The Piano (Campion)
7. The House is Black (Farrokhzad)
8. The Ascent (Shepitko)
9. The Day I Became a Woman (Meshkini)
10. the films of Alice Guy

+ Cleo from 5 to 7, Red Road, Story of the Weeping Camel, Europa Europa, The Apple, Daisies, Big, Orlando, An Angel at my Table, The Holy Girl, Little Dorrit, Chronicle of Anna Magdalena Bach, The Smiling Madame Beudet, Meshes of the Afternoon..

to see: India Song, and stuff by Solntseva, Zheliazkova, Muratova…

Lost and Delirious – Lea Pool
Cleo de 5 a 7 – Agnes Varda

Wendy and Lucy by Kelly Reichardt

The Virgin Suicides.

“Working Girls” by Dorothy Arzner
“Cleo From 5 to 7” by Agnes Varda
“Daisies” by Vera Chytilova

Some favorites…

No Fear, No Die (Claire Denis)
Innocence (Lucile Hadzihalilovic)
Dans ma peau (Marina de Van)
Morvern Callar (Lynne Ramsay)
Mikey and Nicky (Elaine May)
What About Me (Rachel Amodeo)
Sib (Samira Makhmalbaf)
Baxter, Vera Baxter (Marguerite Duras)
The Seashell And The Clergyman (Germaine Dulac)
The Hitch-Hiker (Ida Lupino)
Old Joy (Kelly Reichardt)
Open Hearts (Susanne Bier)
Strange Days (Kathryn Bigelow)
Whale Rider (Niki Caro)
Daisies (Vera Chytilová)
My Life Without Me (Isabel Coixet)
Keiner liebt mich (Doris Dörrie)
Olivier, Olivier (Agnieszka Holland)
Bildnis Einer Trinkerin (Ulrike Ottinger)
The Joy of Life (Jenni Olson)
Wanda (Barbara Loden)
The Goddess of 1967 (Clara Law)
The Mourning Forest (Naomi Kawase)
Night Games (Mai Zetterling)
Cléo de 5 à 7 (Agnès Varda)
Faithless (Liv Ullmann)
Das Versprechen (Margarethe von Trotta)
Smithereens (Susan Seidelman)
Deutschland, bleiche Mutter (Helma Sanders-Brahms)
Prinz Achmed (Lotte Reiniger)
Orlando (Sally Potter)
Away From Her (Sarah Polley)
Kissed (Lynne Stopkewich)

Rat Catcher – Lynne Ramsay
Trouble Everyday – Claire Denis
Fat Girl – Catherine Breillat

Waitress by Adrienne Shelly

A New Leaf – Elaine May
Humanoids from the Deep – Barbara Peters
Fast Times at Ridgemont High – Amy Heckerling
Chocolat – Claire Denis
My Brilliant Career – Gillian Armstrong
Starstruck – Gillian Armstrong
Wanda – Barbara Loden (Kazan’s 2nd wife who died WAY too young)
The Boys Next Door – Penelope Spheeris
Scrubbers – Mai Zetterling

and Titus by Julie Taymor (I’m probably very much in the minority on that one, but I really like that movie)

Trouble Every Day, Beau Travaile from Claire Denis

The Night Porter from Liliana Cavani

The Hitch-Hiker. Lupino.

A few of my own favorites (some have been mentioned already):

Cleo from 5 to 7 – Agnes Varda
The Night Porter – Liliana Cavani
Siesta – Mary Lambert
A Real Young Girl – Catherine Breillat
Daisies – Vera Chytilova
Meshes of the Afternoon – Maya Deren
Smithereens – Susan Seidelman
Suburbia – Penelope Spheeris
Decline of Western Civilization I & II – Penelope Spheeris
Outrage – Ida Lupino
The Hitch-Hicker – Ida Lupino
Bad Girls Go to Hell – Doris Wishman
The Velvet Vampire – Stephanie Rothman
Orlando – Sally Potter
I Shot Andy Warhol – Mary Harron
American Psycho – Mary Harron
Innocence – Lucile Hadzihalilovic
Lost in Translation – Sofia Coppola
Harlan County USA – Barbara Kopple
Olivier, Olivier – Agnieszka Holland
Near Dark – Kathryn Bigelow
Titus – Julie Taymor (you’re not alone Jaspar!)

Amercan Psycho, i forget the directors name though…does anyone know what other films she has directed?

o i forget The Dead Girl directed by Karen Moncrieff. That film is incredible

Je, tu, il, elle (Chantal Akerman)
La mujer sin cabeza (Lucretia Martel)

Harlan County U.S.A and American Dream. Two great Barbara Kopple docs.

Fat Girl, Anatomy of Hell, and pretty much any film by Catherine Breillat. In my opinion she’s like the female version of Miike.

Riding in cars with boys (Penny Marshall).

Sekzee…Mary Harron also directed I Shot Andy Warhol

HOUSEHOLD SAINTS, by Nancy Savoca
THE PIANO, by Jane Campion
LA MOÑOS, by Mireia Ros
THANK YOU AND GOOD NIGHT, by Jan Oxenberg
SONG OF THE EXILE, by Ann Hui
SALAAM BOMBAY!, by Mira Nair

@ Jaspar & Kimberly – I’m a fan of Julie Taymor’s Titus as well, so that makes three.

Jane Campion’s “The Piano” and Sally Potter’s “Orlando”, most definitely. I absolutely cannot wait for Niki Caro’s “The Vintner’s Luck” either :D

I also admired Titus, Anthony Hopkins is superb and there’s that extraordinary heart-renching scene with sweet Lavinia and the tree branches; i hadn’t read the play before and i was pleasantly surprised, well not always pleasnatly it;s quite gruesome dark and bloody, let’s say quite impressed- given that it’s often considered among Shakespeare’s weakest, in fact there’s debate over whether it’s by him at al. Anyway, Julie Taymor did a good job i thought. It was something rich and strange

here’s Jessica Lange in the film

The Asthenic Syndrome by K. Muratova
Daisies by Vera Chytilova
Boat people by Ann Hui (never tired to mention it)
Meshes of the Afternoon by Maya Deren

The Piano (Jane Campion)
Monsoon Wedding (Mira Nair)
Marie Antoinette (Sofia Coppola)
Trouble Every Day (Claire Denis)
Wanda (Barbara Loden)
Prince Achmed (Lotte Reiniger)
The Gleaners and I (Agnes Varda)
The Connection (Shirley Clarke)
Morvern Callar (Lynne Ramsay)
Moe no suzaku (Naomi Kawase)