50 Films Made By Women – Part 2 of 10

These 100 Films Made By Women (in 20 parts) might not be the all-time greatest films that women have directed, might not be Oscar winners, or being talked about in coffee shops – but every single one is essential. These women scream loud, stand tall, and you will find they are making / have made better, more important movies than a lot of the mediocre you are fed. Here are 5 more:

Titus (1999) – Julie Taymor — Steve Schweighofer

Julie Taymor’s love of the theatrical is well-known, for better or worse, so when she takes on one of Shakespeare’s least popular and bleak plays, Titus Andronicus, she manages to inject it with considerable glee. On the page, the play is text-heavy and dark – if ever there was a Shakespeare work in need of modern subtitles, Titus Andronicus is it – but by way of Taymor’s considerable skill with visuals and movement, it becomes almost playful Grand Guignol fare of the sort that has entertained audiences from medieval puppetry smackdowns to Saw. Great, go-for-broke performances by Anthony Hopkins in the title role that would appall Sweeny Todd, and, especially, Jessica Lange as Tamora, the very horny Queen of the Goths. Sex, violence, vivisection, nudity, torture and cannibalism – all set in iambic pentameter with choreographed marching, jaw-dropping sets and costumes, and imagination sequences only Julie Taymor could come up with. Will Shakespeare knew how to please the cheap seats 16th Century horror fans; this time around, though, it’s Taymor who turns it into art.

Tomboy (2011) – Céline Sciamma — Asif Khan

French filmmaker and screenwriter Céline Sciamma is a refreshing new voice in the cinema. The way she tackles subject of gender, sexual and personal identity among girls in their defining period, with a sense of understanding and warmth is wonderful. Her debut Water Lilies as well as her recent Girlhood along with Tomboy are her three feature-length films she has made on the subject. Always working with non-actors and keeping things to a minimum, including dialogues, she is able to not only tell stories but make them felt. Tomboy is a film that beautifully explores the theme of ambiguous gender. It stands out for portraying the confusion experienced by the character Laure (or Mikäel as he introduces himself to other kids) and the way he/she acts out and wants to be seen as. Laure is 10-year-old child who moves to a new apartment in Paris with his family. She introduces herself as a boy to a neighborhood girl Lisa, who introduces him to others kids. “Mikäel” wants to fit in with other boys, to play with them as boys usually do and develops friendship with a girl, an important plot. Sciamma’s command over the character’s existential turmoil, at such an age and about a crucial aspect of life is marvelous. Added to that, the actress Zoé Héran gives a very affecting performance. Deeply touching and heartfelt at every turn. Whether it’s Mikäel’s complex relationship with the kids outside or Laure’s relationship with her family and understanding of herself.

Rosa Luxemburg (1986) – Margarethe von Trotta — Paddy Mulholland

Film lovers, historians and liberals could do far, far worse than to seek out the works of German writer / director Margarethe von Trotta, in particular a string of classics produced by the filmmaker in the 1980s, all of them desperately under-sung. One of several memorable collaborations with the iconic Barbara Sukowa is Rosa Luxemburg, an appropriately vivid, vital account of the work of the titular character in the early 20th Century. von Trotta’s film is politically acute, historically aware and both philosophically and psychologically sensitive, and Sukowa’s performance is characterized by a subdued radiance, a conviction that perfectly matches that of her extraordinary subject. It’s engaging enough to appeal to those not exactly jumping for joy at the prospect of sitting through a political biopic, and well-made enough to appeal to those on the right of the political spectrum also. An excellent, under-appreciated film from an equally excellent, under-appreciated filmmaker.

Monsoon Wedding (2001) – Mira Nair — Asif Khan

Mira Nair, the Indian director based in United States is probably the more followed female filmmaker internationally. She started off as a documentary filmmaker, focusing on controversial subjects before moving to narrative filmmaking. Her films have been nominated for Oscar, Globes, BAFTAs and have won several others. Her 2001 film, Monsoon Wedding made her the first female recipient of the Golden Lion at the Venice Film Festival. Written by Sabrina Dhawan, the film centers on a big, expensive and colorful traditional Punjabi Hindu wedding in Delhi. Arrange marriage, organized chaos of the ceremony, families coming together and old wounds unearthing. This is a film brimming with colors as much as emotional agitation and messiness of love and romance. You can feel the smell of monsoon rain mixed with that of the flowers. The visual, textural vibrancy is further supported by the beautiful music. Some of it is original but mostly a mixture of several types of it such as Qawali, Ghazal, Punjabi music, folk songs and Hindi tracks. Nair creates a full-blown picture of India and its traditions using a wedding ceremony. It is a film not afraid to go into darker corners as a sub-plot involves the cousin of the bride accusing a close relative of molestation when she was young. Boosted by big cast with standout turns by Naseeruddin Shah, Lillete Dubey and Shefali Shah. Love is glorious and destructive, weddings are heavenly and tiresome at the same time. In Monsoon Wedding, the audience loses themselves in the rhythm of life. Other notable films by Nair include her multiple award-winning debut Salaam Bombay!, Mississippi Masala and The Namesake.

Middle of Nowhere (2012) – Ava DuVernay — Marshall Flores

If I had to choose one film made since the death of Polish auteur Krzysztof Kieslowski that is an exemplary continuation of the femme-centric cinematic poetry found in his Three Colors trilogy and The Double Life of Veronique, it would be Middle of Nowhere. Just the second feature film from Ava DuVernay, Nowhere won the Best Director prize from Sundance in 2012 and unequivocally demonstrates an emerging film-making superstar at work. On its surface, Middle of Nowhere tells a familiar story of a young wife whose life is stuck in neutral as she attempts to stand by her jailed husband. But as told by DuVernay, Nowhere is an acutely directed triumph of emotional ambiguity, of nuanced characterization, of introspective humanism – all channeled through a resplendent Emayatzy Corinealdi. Corinealdi’s Ruby imprints upon the audience with her complexity, alternating between fortitude and vulnerability, earnestness and uncertainty – all done without dramatic histrionics. Ruby is both accessible and inaccessible, and that hazy duality (made apparent on screen through the use of shallow depth-of-field close-ups) results in a refreshing honesty that makes for one of the best lead female performances in recent memory. From start to finish, DuVernay and Corinealdi work to ensure Middle of Nowhere is a film that embeds in our consciousness long after the end credits roll.

Originally posted July 2015.