A Week of Movie Recommendations: Celebrating Female Directors 1
Ever since shelter in place began in March, on my Facebook page, I have been recommending a film daily. Several people have asked if I could compile those recommendations. So this begins a series of recommendations where each day I recommend a movie based on a theme.
Celebrating Female Directors
This week, I will be recommending films by female directors, a truly underappreciated group of filmmakers who have taken on a system and beaten it by making their films despite all of the obstacles in their way. There have always been female filmmakers since the beginning of cinema whether they were editors like Blanche Sewell, or screenwriters like June Mathias ("The Four Horsemen of the Apocalypse" [1921]) and Joan Harrison ("Rebecca" [1941]), or directors like Ida Lupino who went from being an actress to directing films like "The Hitch-hiker" (1953). This series will celebrate more recent female directors. Sometimes they will have taken the path like Ida Lupino or Jodie Foster, famous stars who used their influence to convince a sexist industry to give them a chance at direction; other times locked out by the system, they have pursued independent filmmaking. For the films selected, some will be iconic, but for most, I hope to select a film that is not considered their best work to continue to celebrate the diversity of their careers.
Day 1 Movie Recommendation
Obviously, 1 week is not enough, so we will return to this subject again. And now here we go. I had to start with a film by the great Agnes Varda.
"The Gleaners and I" ****
Agnes Varda (who passed away a little over a year ago on March 29, 2019 at the age of 91) is filmmaking royalty. One could call her the Queen of French Cinema, but that would separate her from celebrated her male counterparts as someone who can't be compared to them when she was an equal in every sense of talent. In fact, she probably stayed truer to the ideas of the French New Wave long after most of its other masters had abandoned it. She made such famous films as "Cleo from 5 to 7" which partially inspired "Roma", "Vagabond", and "One Sings, the Other Doesn't" as well as documentaries including her final feature length work "Faces Places". For this selection, I have chosen the first film of hers I saw in theaters "The Gleaners and I" (2000).
"The Gleaners and I" is an incredible documentary about gleaners in France. Unlike in America, where "dumpster diving" has only recently become an activity that could be considered good, gleaning has been protected by the French constitution since it's inception. The right to scavenge has limitations on it. It must be done from sunup to sundown, after it is considered thievery. Varda's film places the gleaners in France into a noble roll. Traditionally, they follow the harvest where they are welcomed by farmers to go through their fields after the paid hands have come through and done the picking. There are always hidden fruit hiding that can be picked. But modern machinery has caused them to no longer be needed and so they moved into the cities.
The film's real focus is on urban gleaners. People who make art out of the trash other people throw away. People who make food out of perfectly good produced tossed by a grocery store. And it is here, that Agnes Varda brings her signature style to their story. She brings herself. Agnes Varda is one of the most recognizable directors in history, with her signature bangs and her inquisitive style, she always has been visibly on the forefront of cinema.
Lik Coppola and Werner Herzog after her, Anges makes herself a part of her film. As the gleaners gleam the treasures they find, she gleans them and assess her own life. As she does this, she comes to some profound revelations about herself and society.
I first encountered these notions in my own life leading the LA Immersion trip for my school where we stay in Skid Row, the largest homeless population in America, and also, Boyle Heights. It is here that I have been present to the people who live on these streets, to the forgotten, to the incredible talents and stories they have, to their hope and their despair. It is here that I realize my own biases and see the face of Christ in those who live there. As Father Boyle says, we must go to the margins not to help those there, but with an open heart to let them touch our lives and change us. It is here that we realize that we should not judge the poor for how they carry their burden, but rather, be in awe for how many burdens they carry. It is here I met Joseph, someone I still keep in contact with, who may be the smartest man I've ever met. He suffers from mental illness that forced him onto the streets in his post high school years, but he spends most of his time in the library and with an eidetic memory and could recite page number and text. The only other person I've seen with that talent is Noam Chomsky.
Although in a different country, Agnes Varda celebrates these people and through sharing their lives with her, she finds herself.
Day 2 Movie Recommendation
Continuing our selection of films by female directors, today's selection highlights not necessary this director's most famous work, but certainly a recognized one.
"Dogfight" *** 1/2
Nancy Savoca burst onto the film scene in 1989 winning the Grand Jury prize at Sundance Film Festival for "True Love". That film helped catapult Sundance into fame and along with "Sex, Lies, and Videotape" kick started the American independent film movement. Famed film critic, Janet Maslin, named "True Love" the best film of that year.
For many artists, their sophomore film is not as successful. With new found money and influence, sometimes the best intentions are laid bare, but not for Nancy Savoca. "Dogfight" is a powerful film, carefully and patiently paced and directed, eliciting great performances from her two leads Lili Taylor and River Phoenix.
"Dogfight" shows the vileness of toxic masculinity, but also hope for room and capacity to grow. River Phoenix, in one of his best performances, plays a military officer about to ship off for Vietnam who decides to participate in a game called a "dogfight" where each officer tries to bring the ugliest date they can find to the bar that night. River chooses Lili Taylor's character, a young but world weary woman who is amazed by the flattery of the offer until the game is revealed to her. Lili Taylor's character shows such resilience and strength in the face of such cruelty. The subtlety with which this is shown is amazing because it could so easily become caricatures, but instead, Savoca focuses on the small details how a simple gesture can communicate so much.
Day 3 Movie Recommendation
This next director is an actress, but was never a star. Unable to leverage her star power to direct a film, she had to pave her own path. In the 90's, securing a star in your film often meant some sort of a funding. For Kasi Lemmon's, Samuel L Jackson's commitment to her first film allowed her to make the movie she wanted to make and it is one of the great films of all time.
"Eve's Bayou" ****
"Memory is a selection of images, some elusive, others imprinted indelibly upon the brain. The summer I killed my father I was twelve years old, my brother, Poe, was nine, and my sister, Cisely, had just turned fourteen." With this narration from the present day, "Eve's Bayou" begins. The reflection of the trauma Eve saw in her youth still reflects in her present day eyes, but the present moment is black and white. As her narration continues, the camera begins snaking down the river of a swamp and as it passes by a white tree that fills the screen, we are at first unaware that the film has changed to color. The sound also changes from mono to stereo. We have traveled in to the past, which is more alive than the present, because some memories are imprinted indelibly upon the brain.
This is a beautiful story with an entire African American cast set in the town of Eve's Bayou, the slave woman who founded the community a hundred years ago. The main character is named for her. Another way the past is alive.
The Batiste family are royalty in this town. Dr. Louis Batiste (played by Samuel L Jackson) is the patriarch of his house whose word is law, but is too often the absent father, always away on "work". The Batiste house is truly run by the women of the family. The mother, Roz Batiste, decides to keep her children locked up in the house after her sister, Mozelle (an electric Debbie Morgan), has a vision in which she sees a child being hit and killed by a bus. In these endless summer days, we feel the truth of childhood, and the coming darkness and confusion of adulthood.
Notice how mirrors are used in the film. In one of the best sequences, as Mozelle describes how one of her husbands was killed, she sees the memory, but then enters into it as if it is real.
The ending revelation haunts the audience and brings clarity to everything that has come before, but it is Mozelle's monologue to her niece Eve that gives Eve the insight and courage to grow up. Her end decision that leads to the revelation is indeed one of the great coming of age moments in cinema.
Kasi Lemmons has not been able to bring her vision to the screen often. This movie is a testament to her ability and vision.
Day 4 Movie Recommendation
Continuing recommendations for films by great female directors, today's filmmaker has risen to be hugely influential, helping to introduce America to Indian and Indian-American culture through cinema. Mira Nair has an impressive resume including her Indian masterpiece "Monsoon Wedding", the underrated "Vanity Fair", and her first American film "Mississippi Marsala" that really was on the forefront of introducing Indian-American culture to America in a bold film starring Denzel Washington who falls in love with a local Indian-American woman whose family runs a hotel. But, today, I am selecting what I consider to be her greatest film; a must see.
"Salaam Bombay" ****
This is not a film for the faint of heart. Alluding to both "Bicycle Thief" and "Pixote", Mira Nair nods towards these greatly influential films, but ultimately finds her own style. A cross between cinema verite and her culture, "Salaam Bombay" feels like a both a great documentary and a great drama. "Salaam Bombay" gives us the harsh truth about life on the streets that "Slumdog Millionaire" tries to do, but without the fantasy elements that I find so problematic in that film.
To make the film, Mira Nair interviewed actually children living on the streets. Eventually employing them to play roles, she wove their life stories into a narrative. The story begins with a reverse on "Bicycle Thief" where instead of the bicycle being stolen, the main character, Chaipau, angered at his treatment at home versus how they treat his older brother, sets fire to his brother's motorcycle. His mother, sensing an opportunity to avoid one more mouth to feed, drops him off at a Circus and tells him he may come home after he has earned the 500 dollars to replace the bicycle. Poor Chaipau believes throughout the movie that if he does get that money, he will be welcomed home, but that is unfortunately not true.
The circus ends up leaving and he takes a train to Bombay where he joins a group of boys living on the street. He ends up working for a man who sells tea as a delivery boy and through this he ends up meeting the inhabitants of the street around him. There is a girl who has been sold into slavery and whose virginity will catch a high price. He falls for this girl and wants to save her. There is a mother who is a prostitute and afraid that her children will be taken away from her. Then there is a drug addict whom sort of befriends and mentors him.
It is amazing how life like Mira is able to make this film feel and yet it follows a narrative, building to a powerful climax. The children eventually get rounded up and sent to a juvenile center. It unfortunately is worse than the streets. And in a scene very reminiscent of "The 400 Blows", but completely her own, Chaipau escapes.
Like "Bicycle Thief", "Salaam Bombay" does not offer solution to these problems. There is no easy answer, but this is the reality for far too many and must call us to action.
Day 5 Movie Recommendation
Today's recommendation, continuing recommendations showcasing great female directors, comes from critically acclaimed director, Sally Potter. Sally has been directing movies since she was fourteen. Her first major independent film introduced the world to the great Tilda Swinton as the titular character "Orlando". But today, I want to recommend what I consider to be Sally's best film and most daring.
"Yes" ****
It takes a certain sense of bravery to write in Iambic Pentameter these days. But, in Shakespeare's time, Iambic Pentameter elevated the English language and was certainly the language of love. Watch how Romeo and Juliet slip so easily into it whenever they speak to each other. Here, Sally Potter makes a movie that really pulls back the veil on Hollywood romantic love and dives in the complicated and yet simple reality of sexual love.
The story is simple. She (Joan Allen in an incredible performance) is a biologist who works in Stem Cell research and is stuck in a loveless marriage to Anthony (Sam Neil), a politician. But then, She meets He. He (Simon Abkarian, a veteran actor from Atom Egoyan's films) is a Lebanese immigrant who was a doctor in his home country, but fleeing persecution left, and now is a waiter in London. She belongs to the height of high society; He is a poor immigrant. She is an atheist; He is a Muslim. She is from London; He is a foreigner. Yet, like so many love stories, opposites attract.
Their love affair is visceral. It is shot in an almost cinema verite style, stripping the Hollywood-esque style of filmmaking out of the film. The language strangely rather than feeling distant becomes intimate as if we are hearing the inner thoughts of these two characters as they explore their love.
Unfortunately, as with almost all tragic love stories, love cannot exist in a vacuum. The world judges and the complications that society pile on us come to bear on this relationship. Yet, this is one of the most powerful films about love that I have ever seen. Sally Potter, always intelligent, using references to great literature and art (the title comes from the last chapter of James Joyce's "Ulysses"), but here, also finds such genuine and strong emotions that leave the viewer breathless.
Day 6 Movie Recommendation
Next up in the daily movie recommendations highlighting female directors, we turn towards a director whose work has never been easy, and yet, always portrays characters who are at first repugnant, always hurt, and yet, somehow sympathetic. The director of course is Lynne Ramsay. Her most controversial film that some hated, "We Need to Talk about Kevin" is my favorite film she's made. Even with saying that, and having seen it twice, I never want to see it again. It is a painful look at an "unloving" mother and her child who commits a school massacre. Her most recent film was also incredible and by far the most violent film she's directed. "You Were Never Really Here" is a bloodsoaked story about tracking down missing girls and killing starring a breathtaking Joaquin Phoenix. But, today, I want to highlight her first film and another underrated character study:
"Morvern Callar" *** 1/2
The beginning of this film is one of the most fascinating openings of any film I've ever seen. The film starts on Morvern (Samantha Morton) waking up next to her boyfriend who has committed suicide during the night. His blood soaks the floor. Lynne focuses on the blinking colored Christmas lights on the tree where his presents for her lay wrapped. On the computer is a suicide note and a copy of his novel that she will eventually replace the by line with her own name.
Morvern almost doesn't react. She appears numb. She gets dressed, opens the presents, particularly likes the leather jacket her boyfriend bought her. She goes out to clubs and dances. Eventually comes home with other men. All the while, her boyfriend's body lies on the floor. Eventually, she needs to get rid of it, but instead of burying it and having a funeral (he left money for that), she cuts up the body to get rid of it.
Movern's behavior is so confusing at first, but Lynne's attention to the small details eventually allows us to begin glimpsing what is going on with Morvern. She is not without feelings or emotions. She is someone who has been scared. Grew up extremely poor. Although she was dating someone who was wealthy, she continues to work as a grocery store clerk. Here, her boyfriend is dead and that is sad, but... there's nothing she can do about that and she must survive. She feels that he has left her a mess to clean up. That she is being controlled even in his death. She wants to make decisions for herself.
Lynne never makes movies about easy characters. She challenges us to find both pity and empathy without necessarily forgiving the protagonists for their flaws or actions. In "Morvern Callar", she gives us a character study similar to the Dardenne brothers' "Rosetta", but with for more insight in her protagonist.
Day 7 Movie Recommendation
The final recommendation this week celebrating female directors (we will return to this topic in a couple weeks. Next week will be escapism films again) is a masterpiece from only a couple years ago. Chloe Zhao is now directing Marvel's "The Eternals" off the success of this film.
"The Rider" ****
I've written about this film a number of times before in both my top ten films of 2018 and my best of the decade as well, but celebrating this film I think is important. Chloe Zhao's sophomore effort revealed an understanding of both film, visual and subtle, as well as an ingenious director of actors, pulling performances out of non-actors that rivaled those of trained stars.
"The Rider" is an incredibly personal movie. Based on the life of an actual horse trainer, Native American Brady Blackburn, he plays a version of himself. Brady Jandreau, and his attempt to recover from a life threatening injury. Brady has suffered a head injury falling off a horse, but a new wild stallion lures him back. Against the advice of his surviving family, and still carrying for his friend who is paraplegic and mentally handicapped from his own horse injury, Brady's journey is one of reflection and hope.
Chloe Zhao reflects this in the way she uses both the camera and editing to linger on the landscape. Using visuals as poetry, similar to Terrence Malick, Chloe constructs one of the most beautiful, haunting, and breathtaking movies of this past decade. An American tale, about a Native American, written and directed by a Chinese immigrant.
Trailer: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=AlrWRttLTkg&t=13s
