52 Films by Women Vol 2. 20. XX (Directors: Jovanka Vukokic, Annie Clark, Roxanne Benjamin, Karyn Kusama)
Entirely unplanned – all right, I was struggling to say something nice about The Zookeeper’s Wife – but the twentieth film in this series is called XX , the roman numerical value of twenty. The poster represents the title as blood red kisses – red x not to be confused with Fed X, two-thirds of a Vin Diesel film. The cryptic crossword clue – double x is cross letters – writes itself. This is an all-female directed horror anthology film – about bloody time. Admittedly, I would quite like to see what Sally Potter, Claire Denis, Jane Campion and Catherine Breillat could do together, but for now we are treated to a quartet of short films by Jovanka Vukokic, Annie Clark (aka the singer-songwriter St. Vincent), Roxanne Benjamin and Karyn Kusama. Kusama directed one of my favourite films of 2016, The Invitation , so I couldn’t wait. The films are knitted together by animation by Sofia Camillo. She uses doll faces and fabrics in her work. You might think of the misfit toys in Toy Stor...