Between this and Stagecoach I wasn't expecting how pro-sex-worker John Ford is. ("So was Jesus."—Camille) This is the one that really hammers the point home, though. So cheesy and heartfelt and effective. Not believable, but effective. People marching with a banner saying "He Saved Us From Ourselves"—the ultimate liberal fantasy!
I don't know about the politics of this movie, I guess it's pretty good for 1982. Overall it's kind of a mess in my mind. It's worth watching just to see Robert Preston (who has aged a normal amount) be a huge ham. There were a lot of funny moments but also a lot of duds, like the... bumbling private detective? What, did Blake Edwards direct this? Oh, he did? Well, he should know better.
PS: In an act of sheer cowardice, a "nobody's perfect"-style line was cut from the romantic lead's part, leaving him nearly as Zeppo-ish as the dude in The Sun Shines Bright.
So watch The Great Race instead. It's one of my favorite movies and maybe the best thing about It's a (Mad )* World is that it ensured The Great Race would be greenlit.
In our collection of Amar Chitra Katha we found a comic called "Bahubali", and although it shares some similarities to the movie it's not the same story. The comic is notable for having a conflict between two brothers which could lead to war, but is instead resolved by contests of brotherly roughhousing: backyard wrestling, splashing water at each other, and so on.
The performances in this are great, but it's ultimately another in Paul Thomas Anderson's explorations of horrible men being horrible, so... I'd stick with There Will Be Blood. At least there's blood in that one.
Sat Sep 05 2015 16:52 August Film Roundup:
I think this month is about as close as Film Roundup has gotten to a random sample of movies. The museum did a series based on the 70mm film format, so we got three movies that have nothing in common except a decision to put really big film in the camera. Overall pretty happy with this month's crop though.
The above-linked list is very quirky, and although the idiosyncracies generally work in the reader's favor (gotta figure out a way to see Jodie Mack's Dusty Stacks of Mom (2013)), it left rhetorical space for men to come into the comments section and say HOW could you OVERLOOK this GROUNDBREAKING film, [potentially useful recommendation], for you see, I know a LOT about FILM. Which I must admit would have happened anyway.
I don't know a lot about film, but I do know how to run SQL queries against IMDB data, so I thought I would make an intersubjective list of the top 100 films directed by women, judged by their IMDB ratings. In general I copied the implicit rules of the hand-picked list. Only feature-length films are here. No documentaries, no concert footage. (There is one comedy special in here, but whatever.)
As usual, films with fewer than 150 votes on IMDB were not considered. Also as usual, there are no links because the IMDB dataset is far too ancient for such things. I did some spot checks and kicked a couple movies off the list for obvious astroturfing. I don't believe one of the movies on this list is real, but I left it on the list because it's so weird.
Here's the list:
There are 113 movies in this list because IMDB ratings only have 0.1 star precision. If you're a woman and you direct a movie that gets a 7.5, congrats, you're tied for 84th place.
Susanne Bier and Ann Hui each have five films on the list. Naomi Kawase has four. Some of the directors share the credit with a man, notably Finally, here's the base query I used to get the info I needed out of the database. I used the same database I built for Ghostbusters Past.
Update: The pedantry continues with Darius Kazemi telling me that Loveleen Tandan was the casting director on Slumdog Millionare, not the director who yelled "cut!" and "action!" and "it's a wrap!". If IMDB says Update #2: danima asked about English-language films. I don't think IMDB tracks the primary language of a film, just whether a language is used in the film. So I can filter on "English", but I'll still pick up films that are primarily in French or Hindi, so long as there is some English dialogue.
Our story begins right after Across the Universe, where the previous list leaves off. Basically if your film is in English you only need to get a 7.4 or 7.3 (still several standard deviations above the median) to get in the top 100. I have not vetted this list for astroturf:
![[Comments]](/nb//themes/Default/comments.png "4 comments")
(4) Wed Sep 30 2015 21:50 Top 100 Films From Women Directors:
Sumana is tired of dude movies, so I went through this list of 100 great movies by female directors and noted the ones that a) I think Sumana would like (no Pet Sematary) and b) I am willing to watch (no Jeanne Dielman, 23 Quai du Commerce, 1080 Bruxelles, a film Sumana really likes but just thinking about it makes me fall asleep. I'm asleep right now!) There were about twenty-five such movies.
Title Director IMDB Genres 1. The Matrix (1999) Wachowski, Lana 8.7 Action, Sci-Fi 2. Cidade de Deus (2002) Lund, Kátia 8.7 Drama, Crime 3. Voskhozhdenie (1977) Shepitko, Larisa 8.3 Drama, War 4. Drushyam (2014) Sripriya 8.3 Drama, Thriller, Family 5. Moe no suzaku (1997) Kawase, Naomi 8.2 Drama 6. Zindagi Na Milegi Dobara (2011) Akhtar, Zoya 8.1 Drama, Romance, Comedy, Adventure, Family 7. Salaam Bombay! (1988) Nair, Mira 8.1 Drama, Crime 8. Mr. and Mrs. Iyer (2002) Sen, Aparna 8.0 Drama 9. Le roman de Renard (1930) Starewicz, Irene 8.0 Comedy, Fantasy, Animation, Family 10. Slumdog Millionaire (2008) Tandan, Loveleen 8.0 Drama, Romance 11. Persepolis (2007) Satrapi, Marjane 8.0 Drama, Animation, War, Biography 12. Chelovek s bulvara Kaputsinov (1987) Surikova, Alla 8.0 Romance, Comedy, Musical, Western 13. Zero Motivation (2014) Lavie, Talya 7.9 Drama, Comedy 14. Chou tin dik tong wah (1987) Cheung, Mabel 7.9 Drama, Romance 15. Out 1, noli me tangere (1971) Schiffman, Suzanne 7.9 Drama 16. Tau ban no hoi (1982) Hui, Ann 7.9 Drama 17. Gett (2014) Elkabetz, Ronit 7.9 Drama 18. Sharasôju (2003) Kawase, Naomi 7.9 Drama 19. Gangoobai (2013) Krishnaswamy, Priya 7.9 Drama, Family 20. Patrice O'Neal: Elephant in the Room (2011) McCarthy-Miller, Beth 7.9 Comedy 21. Jeanne Dielman, 23 Quai du Commerce, 1080 Bruxelles (1975) Akerman, Chantal 7.9 Drama 22. Little Miss Sunshine (2006) Faris, Valerie 7.9 Drama, Comedy, Adventure 23. English Vinglish (2012) Shinde, Gauri 7.9 Drama, Comedy, Family 24. Shrek (2001) Jenson, Vicky 7.9 Comedy, Fantasy, Animation, Adventure, Family 25. La distancia más larga (2013) Pinto, Claudia 7.9 Drama 26. Pasqualino Settebellezze (1975) Wertmüller, Lina 7.9 Drama, Comedy, War 27. Dönüs (1972) Soray, Türkan 7.8 Drama, Romance 28. Strangers in Good Company (1990) Scott, Cynthia 7.8 Drama 29. Awakenings (1990) Marshall, Penny 7.8 Drama, Biography 30. Dolgie provody (1971) Muratova, Kira 7.8 Drama 31. Ne dao Bog veceg zla (2002) Tribuson, Snjezana 7.8 Romance 32. Tong nien wang shi (1985) Yang, Li-Yin 7.8 Drama, Biography 33. Dedictví aneb Kurvahosigutntag (1993) Chytilová, Vera 7.8 Comedy 34. Cheshmane John Malkovich 1: Viggo Mortensen (2004) Solati, Sara 7.8 Drama, Fantasy, Horror, Mystery 35. Earth (1998) Mehta, Deepa 7.8 Drama, Romance, War 36. Nu ren si shi (1995) Hui, Ann 7.8 Drama, Comedy 37. Lost in Translation (2003) Coppola, Sofia 7.8 Drama 38. Efter brylluppet (2006) Bier, Susanne 7.8 Drama 39. Water (2005) Mehta, Deepa 7.8 Drama, Romance 40. Die Abenteuer des Prinzen Achmed (1926) Reiniger, Lotte 7.8 Romance, Fantasy, Animation, Adventure 41. Rocks in My Pockets (2014) Baumane, Signe 7.7 Comedy, Drama, Animation 42. Kirschblüten - Hanami (2008) Dörrie, Doris 7.7 Drama, Romance 43. Selma (2014) DuVernay, Ava 7.7 Drama, Biography, History 44. Nirgendwo in Afrika (2001) Link, Caroline 7.7 Drama, Biography 45. Hævnen (2010) Bier, Susanne 7.7 Drama 46. S tebou me baví svet (1983) Polednáková, Marie 7.7 Comedy, Family 47. Nastroyshchik (2004) Muratova, Kira 7.7 Drama, Comedy, Crime 48. Die Höhle des gelben Hundes (2005) Davaa, Byambasuren 7.7 Drama 49. Sita Sings the Blues (2008) Paley, Nina 7.7 Comedy, Fantasy, Romance, Animation, Musical 50. Sans toit ni loi (1985) Varda, Agnès 7.7 Drama 51. Olivier, Olivier (1992) Holland, Agnieszka 7.7 Drama 52. Little Fugitive (1953) Orkin, Ruth 7.7 Drama, Family 53. Film d'amore e d'anarchia, ovvero 'stamattina alle 10 in via dei Fiori nella nota casa di tolleranza...' (1973) Wertmüller, Lina 7.7 Drama, Romance, Comedy 54. Le bonheur (1965) Varda, Agnès 7.7 Drama 55. Krylya (1966) Shepitko, Larisa 7.7 Drama 56. Jibeuro Ganeun Gil (2013) Pang, Eun-jin 7.7 Drama 57. Whale Rider (2002) Caro, Niki 7.7 Drama, Family 58. Frozen (2013) Lee, Jennifer 7.7 Family, Fantasy, Animation, Adventure, Comedy, Musical 59. Europa Europa (1990) Holland, Agnieszka 7.7 Drama, War, History 60. Elsker dig for evigt (2002) Bier, Susanne 7.7 Drama, Romance 61. Die Fremde (2010) Aladag, Feo 7.6 Drama 62. Away from Her (2006) Polley, Sarah 7.6 Drama 63. Saving Face (2004) Wu, Alice 7.6 Drama, Romance, Comedy 64. Tou ze (2011) Hui, Ann 7.6 Drama 65. En chance til (2014) Bier, Susanne 7.6 Drama, Thriller 66. Wadjda (2012) Al-Mansour, Haifaa 7.6 Drama, Comedy 67. My Life Without Me (2003) Coixet, Isabel 7.6 Drama, Romance 68. Neposlusni (2014) Djukic, Mina 7.6 Drama 69. 36 Chowringhee Lane (1981) Sen, Aparna 7.6 Drama, Romance 70. Depuis qu'Otar est parti... (2003) Bertuccelli, Julie 7.6 Drama 71. The Hurt Locker (2008) Bigelow, Kathryn 7.6 Drama, War, Thriller 72. American Psycho (2000) Harron, Mary 7.6 Drama, Crime 73. The Secret Life of Words (2005) Coixet, Isabel 7.6 Drama, Romance 74. Brødre (2004) Bier, Susanne 7.6 Drama, War 75. Yeo-haeng-ja (2009) Lecomte, Ounie 7.6 Drama 76. Ting shuo (2009) Cheng, Fen-fen 7.6 Drama, Romance 77. I Am Sam (2001) Nelson, Jessie 7.6 Drama 78. The Namesake (2006) Nair, Mira 7.6 Drama 79. Boys Don't Cry (1999) Peirce, Kimberly 7.6 Drama, Biography 80. Büyük adam küçük ask (2001) Ipekçi, Handan 7.6 Drama 81. Hanezu no tsuki (2011) Kawase, Naomi 7.6 Drama 82. Pora umierac (2007) Kedzierzawska, Dorota 7.6 Drama 83. La faute à Fidel! (2006) Gavras, Julie 7.6 Drama, History 84. Kazoku no kuni (2012) Yang, Yong-hi 7.5 Drama 85. Zir-e poost-e shahr (2001) Bani-Etemad, Rakhshan 7.5 Drama 86. Proof (1991) Moorhouse, Jocelyn 7.5 Drama 87. Ramchand Pakistani (2008) Jabbar, Mehreen 7.5 Drama 88. Te doy mis ojos (2003) Bollaín, Icíar 7.5 Drama, Romance 89. Nanayomachi (2008) Kawase, Naomi 7.5 Drama 90. La misma luna (2007) Riggen, Patricia 7.5 Drama 91. Travolti da un insolito destino nell'azzurro mare d'agosto (1974) Wertmüller, Lina 7.5 Drama, Comedy, Adventure 92. Samt el qusur (1994) Tlatli, Moufida 7.5 Drama 93. Et maintenant on va où? (2011) Labaki, Nadine 7.5 Drama, Comedy 94. The Japanese Wife (2010) Sen, Aparna 7.5 Drama, Romance 95. An Angel at My Table (1990) Campion, Jane 7.5 Drama, Biography 96. Antonia (1995) Gorris, Marleen 7.5 Drama, Comedy 97. Hooligans (2005) Alexander, Lexi 7.5 Drama, Sport, Crime 98. Trolösa (2000) Ullmann, Liv 7.5 Drama, Romance 99. A New Leaf (1971) May, Elaine 7.5 Romance, Comedy 100. We Need to Talk About Kevin (2011) Ramsay, Lynne 7.5 Drama, Thriller 101. Ke tu qiu hen (1990) Hui, Ann 7.5 Drama 102. Mita Tova (2014) Granit, Tal 7.5 Drama 103. Ratcatcher (1999) Ramsay, Lynne 7.5 Drama 104. ...ing (2003) Lee, Eon-hie 7.5 Romance 105. Tin shui wai dik yat yu ye (2008) Hui, Ann 7.5 Drama 106. American Splendor (2003) Berman, Shari Springer 7.5 Drama, Comedy, Biography 107. Tian yu (1998) Chen, Joan 7.5 Drama 108. Cloud Atlas (2012) Wachowski, Lana 7.5 Drama, Sci-Fi 109. Jestem (2005) Kedzierzawska, Dorota 7.5 Drama 110. Korotkie vstrechi (1968) Muratova, Kira 7.5 Drama, Romance 111. Dogfight (1991) Savoca, Nancy 7.5 Drama, Romance, War 112. Across the Universe (2007) Taymor, Julie 7.5 Drama, Fantasy, Romance, Musical 113. Sedmikrásky (1966) Chytilová, Vera 7.5 Drama, Comedy Lana Wachowski and Suzanne Schiffman. Barring any titles I don't recognize because they're not in English, the only films on this list I've seen are Sita Sings the Blues, Whale Rider, Frozen and A New Leaf. My personal favorites, among movies I know were directed by women, are A New Leaf and Wayne's World.
select distinct(title.id), title.title, title.production_year, rating.info, votes.info, movie_info.info, kind_id, name.name, name.gender from title join cast_info on title.id=cast_info.movie_id join name on cast_info.person_id=name.id join movie_info_idx as rating on rating.movie_id=title.id join movie_info_idx as votes on votes.movie_id=title.id join movie_info on movie_info.movie_id=title.id where cast_info.role_id=8 and kind_id=1 and movie_info.info_type_id=3 and rating.info_type_id=101 and votes.info_type_id=100 and name.gender='f';
role_id=8, that's good enough for me, but YMMV.
57. Pismo do Amerika (2001) Triffonova, Iglika 7.4 Drama 58. Bastard Out of Carolina (1996) Huston, Anjelica 7.4 Drama 59. Frida (2002) Taymor, Julie 7.4 Drama, Romance, Biography 60. Chance (2002) Benson, Amber 7.4 Drama, Comedy 61. Kaméleon (2008) Goda, Krisztina 7.4 Drama, Comedy, Thriller 62. Paris, je t'aime (2006) Chadha, Gurinder 7.4 Drama, Romance, Comedy 63. Le fils de l'autre (2012) Lévy, Lorraine 7.4 Drama 64. Lifted (2010) Alexander, Lexi 7.4 Drama 65. Belle (2013) Asante, Amma 7.4 Drama 66. Desert Flower (2009) Hormann, Sherry 7.4 Drama, Biography 67. Me and You and Everyone We Know (2005) July, Miranda 7.4 Drama, Comedy 68. On Dangerous Ground (1951) Lupino, Ida 7.4 Drama, Romance, Thriller, Film-Noir, Crime 69. Paris, je t'aime (2006) Coixet, Isabel 7.4 Drama, Romance, Comedy 70. Bound (1996) Wachowski, Lana 7.4 Drama, Thriller, Crime 71. Zero Dark Thirty (2012) Bigelow, Kathryn 7.4 Drama, Thriller, History 72. También la lluvia (2010) Bollaín, Icíar 7.4 Drama, History 73. Monsoon Wedding (2001) Nair, Mira 7.4 Drama, Romance, Comedy 74. Mimì metallurgico ferito nell'onore (1972) Wertmüller, Lina 7.4 Comedy 75. Hollow Reed (1996) Pope, Angela 7.4 Drama 76. The Trouble with Angels (1966) Lupino, Ida 7.4 Comedy 77. The Selfish Giant (2013) Barnard, Clio 7.4 Drama 78. Mikey and Nicky (1976) May, Elaine 7.4 Drama 79. José Rizal (1998) Diaz-Abaya, Marilou 7.3 Drama, War, Biography, History 80. Titus (1999) Taymor, Julie 7.3 Drama, Thriller, History 81. Sepet (2004) Ahmad, Yasmin 7.3 Drama, Romance, Comedy 82. Kung Fu Panda 2 (2011) Yuh, Jennifer 7.3 Family, Drama, Animation, Adventure, Action, Comedy 83. Put oko sveta (1964) Jovanovic, Soja 7.3 Comedy, Adventure, Western 84. Fish Tank (2009) Arnold, Andrea 7.3 Drama 85. Infinitely Polar Bear (2014) Forbes, Maya 7.3 Drama, Comedy 86. An Education (2009) Scherfig, Lone 7.3 Drama 87. The Black Balloon (2008) Down, Elissa 7.3 Drama, Romance 88. North Country (2005) Caro, Niki 7.3 Drama 89. Thousand Pieces of Gold (1991) Kelly, Nancy 7.3 Romance, Western 90. Funny Valentines (1999) Dash, Julie 7.3 Drama 91. The Secret Life of Bees (2008) Prince-Bythewood, Gina 7.3 Drama 92. Stander (2003) Hughes, Bronwen 7.3 Action, Drama, Biography, Crime 93. Shao nu xiao yu (1995) Chang, Sylvia 7.3 Drama 94. The Prize Winner of Defiance, Ohio (2005) Anderson, Jane 7.3 Drama, Biography 95. Craig's Wife (1936) Arzner, Dorothy 7.3 Drama 96. Firaaq (2008) Das, Nandita 7.3 Drama, History 97. Blood and Sand (1922) Arzner, Dorothy 7.3 Drama, Romance, Sport 98. My Brilliant Career (1979) Armstrong, Gillian 7.3 Drama, Romance, Biography 99. Eve's Bayou (1997) Lemmons, Kasi 7.3 Drama 100. The Name Is Rogells (Rugg-ells) (2011) Warner, Rachel 7.3 Romance, Adventure 101. The Voices (2014) Satrapi, Marjane 7.3 Comedy, Thriller, Crime 102. The Woodsman (2004) Kassell, Nicole 7.3 Drama 103. Talaash (2012) Kagti, Reema 7.3 Drama, Mystery, Thriller, Crime 104. My First Mister (2001) Lahti, Christine 7.3 Drama, Romance, Comedy 105. Big (1988) Marshall, Penny 7.3 Drama, Fantasy, Romance, Comedy 106. Monster (2003) Jenkins, Patty 7.3 Drama, Biography, Crime 107. The Secret Garden (1993) Holland, Agnieszka 7.3 Drama, Fantasy, Family 108. Little Women (1994) Armstrong, Gillian 7.3 Drama, Romance 109. Fire (1996) Mehta, Deepa 7.3 Drama, Romance 110. The Connection (1962) Clarke, Shirley 7.3 Drama
