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52 Films by Women Vol 9. 4. The Last Showgirl (Director: Gia Coppola)

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Pictured : Channelling her inner Gena Rowlands, Shelly ( Pamela Anderson ) worries about the future in director Gia Coppola 's film, ' The Last Showgirl ', written by Kate Gersten . Still courtesy of Roadside Attractions (US) / Picturehouse Entertainment (UK) I am generally suspicious of films and television series that begin with the words ‘The Last’. For every The Last of the Mohicans , there is The Last Boy Scout , The Last Black Man in San Francisco and The Last of Us . While we live in a time of absolutes – it won’t be long before there is a film entitled The Last Civil Servant , describing the US Department of Government Efficiency’s current purges of US administrative departments – generally, beliefs, races, pastimes, professions survive in one form or another. If children are no long cleaning chimneys in London, they are certainly picking through toxic trash in South America. The latest film destined for the middle of an alphabetized DVD shelf is The Last Showgirl...
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52 Films by Women Vol 9. 3. If I Had Legs I’d Kick You (Director: Mary Bronstein)

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  Pictured : Linda ( Rose Byrne ) in a scene from the white-knuckle comedy-drama, 'If I Had Legs, I'd Kick You', written and directed by Mary Bronstein . Still courtesy of Berlinale / A24 Films A contemporary of Greta Gerwig and Sean Baker, writer-director Mary Bronstein is a graduate of the School of Safdie, Summa cum Lauda. That’s Josh and Benny Safdie, the writer-directors of Good Time , a film whose intensity Bronstein’s second feature, the uncompromisingly titled, If I Had Legs I’d Kick You , mirrors. For almost two hours we are caught up in the whirlwind of therapist Linda’s daily routine, Bronstein fixing her camera on Linda’s face to the point where we can read her every thought. Rose Byrne gives a performance of which her work in recent comedies like Bad Neighbours does not prepare us. The film’s relentless pace, the use of sound, with horror movie-like jolts, flashbacks reached by way of journeys through time and space, the demands made of its heroine, reach a ...
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52 Films by Women Vol 9. 2. Magic Farm (Director: Amalia Ulman)

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  Picture : A long way from New York, producer-host Edna ( Chloë Sevigny ) greets a horse in a scene from Spanish-Argentinian director, Amalia Ulman 's comedy, ' Magic Farm '. Still courtesy of Mubi/The Match Factory . Magic Farm , Argentina-Spanish writer-director Amalia Ulman’s follow up to her 2021 feature debut, El Planeta , is the sort of film that looks like it was made when the director’s original planned project set in her home country fell through. She has assembled a name American cast (Chloë Sevigny, Alex Wolff, Simon Rex, Joe Apollonio) and gives them precious little to do. They bicker, panic, embrace, have toilet difficulties or rush to catch the next flight back to New York over the course of a flimsy lightweight empty empanada of a movie. Yet there is pleasure to be had watching this consolation prize, contractual obligation. It clears the moviegoing palate like a sorbet, making you ready to taste something new and exciting. For his second completed feature, ...
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52 Films by Women Vol 9. 1. La Tour de Glace (The Ice Tower) (Director: Lucile Hadžihalilović)

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  Pictured : Cristina (Marion Cotillard), the seemingly aloof 'Snow Queen' featured in co-writer-director  Lucile Hadžihalilović 's film, ' La Tour de Glace ' (' The Ice Tower '). Still courtesy of Goodfellas (France)   Director Lucile Hadžihalilović’s French language fourth feature, La Tour de Glace ( The Ice Tower ) is a film about reflective surfaces. Emotionally distanced, with spare use of dialogue, it tells the story of an orphaned young teenager, Jeanne (Clara Pacini) who becomes obsessed with a movie star, Cristina (Marion Cotillard) cast as the Snow Queen in an adaptation of a Hans Christian Anderson story. Jeanne only sees Cristina ‘in character’. The film is less about celebrity worship – Hadžihalilović eschews modern culture, setting her drama before the advent of mobile phones – and more about understanding the world with a diminished emotional and verbal vocabulary. Reality is fragmented. There is only what you can see and touch. Modern film...
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‘52 Films by Women’ 8th edition – some reflections

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Pictured : Students at the Talent Campus practice 'conscious eating' in a scene from Jessica Hausner 's 2023 film, ' Club Zero '. (Still: Coop 99 ) Over the period 1 November 2023 and 31 October 2024, I watched and reflected upon a further fifty-two fiction films directed by women. 28 of these films had American finance. Six could be classed as British films. Three were French, a surprisingly low number given the number of French auteurs currently working. Two had Indian subjects, if not finance. Two were Belgian, another two Canadian (one in French, the other English). The remaining nine films were from Australia, Austria, Brazil, China, Denmark, Germany, Morocco, Netherlands and Spain. Of the fifty-two, three movies officially grossed more than $100 million (either superhero sequels or spin-offs, namely Venom: The Last Dance , The Marvels and Madame Web ). One ( Yolo ) unofficially grossed this sum; Box Office Mojo does not offer reliable figures on Chinese movie...
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52 Films by Women Vol 8. 52. Good One (Director: India Donaldson)

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Pictured : 'Let's just have a good time.' Chris ( James Le Gros , left) and teenage daughter Sam ( Lily Collias ) in a scene from writer-director India Donaldson 's 'the hiking trip where everything changed' drama, ' Good One '. Still courtesy of Metrograph Pictures (US) Good One , the feature debut of writer-director India Donaldson , is a deeply textured, seemingly low-stakes drama about being the child of divorced parents. Donaldson’s father, New Zealand-born film director Roger Donaldson , did divorce her mother, Mel Clark , but whether she behaved like her teenage protagonist, Sam ( Lily Collias ), who lives with her mother but chooses not to take sides, is none of this reviewer’s business. What I can categorically write is that her film repays three viewings – two at Cannes , one in a small arthouse cinema in Paris . It is not a film in which the characters emote, tell each other how they feel, and have a cathartic moment. Rather the film, set ove...
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52 Films by Women Vol 8. 51. Venom: The Last Dance (Director: Kelly Marcel)

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Pictured : 'Eddie, what's a xenomorph?' Fugitive former journalist Eddie Brock ( Tom Hardy ) and his symbiote, Venom (CGI, voiced by Hardy) plan their next move in the Marvel superhero threequel, ' Venom: The Last Dance ', written and directed by Kelly Marcel . Still courtesy of Columbia - Sony Pictures . One of the highest grossing films of 2024 directed by a woman is the Marvel superhero sequel, Venom : The Last Dance , the third in a series of films featuring British actor Tom Hardy as journalist Eddie Brock and the voice of his computer-generated alter ego, Venom, an alien symbiote that needs Eddie to survive, or at least complete a tax return.  Hardy, whose signature roles include Bane in The Dark Knight Rises , Charles Bronson (the serial killer) in Bronson and building contractor Locke in Locke , not to mention both Kray twins in Legend , is an actor who exudes menace that is to some extent diffused by the heightened voices he adopts when playing a role. A...
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