7 Movies About Women You’ve Never Seen Like This | culture | DW

79th Venice Film Festival |  L'IMMENSITA

“TÁR”: Women are crazy geniuses too

The genius and madness of artists, especially musicians, is a much-plotted field in film history. The US director Todd Field treats the theme in a female version: the fictional character Lydia Tár is a conductor who is the first woman ever to direct an orchestra in Berlin. Cate Blanchett plays the world-renowned artist who has to fight for her emotional balance in a male-dominated profession.

79th Venice Film Festival |  L'IMMENSITA

Penelope Cruz in “L’immensita”

“L’immensità”: The loneliness of the imprisoned (wife) wife

“L’immensità” means immensity or infinity. The drama by Emanuele Crialese is set in Italy in the 1970s. Penélope Cruz plays Clara Borghetti, who moves into an apartment in Rome with her husband Felice (“The Happy One”) and their three children. However, there is hardly anything happy about the parents’ relationship anymore, their love is in the past. But both lack the strength to separate. Clara throws herself into her role as a mother – but here, too, a conflict smolders beneath the supposedly healthy surface: her eldest, twelve-year-old Adriana, hates her name – and her gender identity.

“The Eternal Daughter”: Impressive mother-daughter relationship

Julie (Tilda Swinton) visits the mansion that used to belong to the family with her elderly mother. She wants to make a film about the mother. In the now empty hotel, the mysterious receptionist only shows them a shabby room. At night they hear noises and cannot sleep. Is the hotel haunted? Long-forgotten or suppressed secrets are revealed. Visually stunningly told family dynamics in an expressionistic vision.

Movie Scene Blonde

Ana de Armas as Marilyn Monroe in “Blonde”

“Blonde”: A sex goddess has had enough

The Netflix-produced film, directed by Andrew Dominik, follows a woman who – behind the facade of screen goddess Marylin Monroe – has a life all her own. She is caught in the images that others construct of her, which she re-enacts herself, but which she perceives as shackles and tries to break free. Ana de Armas plays Monroe unsettled, confused, angry, driven, in a word: complex. The novel adaptation is based on the fictional novel of the same name by Joyce Carol Oates, who was nominated for the Pulitzer Prize in 2000. The author expressed enthusiasm after viewing a rough cut version. What she saw was “staggering, brilliant, very disturbing and perhaps most surprising: a totally feminist interpretation,” Oates said.

Italy I Grand Canal in Venice

Impressive backdrop: Venice’s Grand Canal

“Saint Omer”: The many ambivalences of motherhood

The film “Saint Omer” by French director Alice Diop, who has made a name for herself as a documentary filmmaker, is also in the running for the Golden Lion. Her feature film debut tells the story of two women, the pregnant writer Rama (Kayije Kagame) and the young woman Laurence Coly (Guslagie Malanda), who is accused of murdering her 15-month-old daughter in the northern French town of Saint-Omer. Rama wants to write a novel and use the court case to transport the Medea myth from Greek mythology to the present day. The process works on how Laurence, who was raised strictly in Senegal, had to experience racism in Europe and isolated herself more and more. He confronts the pregnant author with her own family history and future role as a mother.

Movie scene BONES AND ALL

Taylor Russell (left) and Timothée Chalamet in “Bones and All”

“Bones and all”: Cannibal looking for himself

The special kind of road movie is based on the young adult book by the US author Camille de Angelis. The protagonist Maren Yearly, played by Taylor Russell, is in search of herself – and her father, whom she never met. Because she wants to understand why she feels the need to kill and eat people she loves. Cannibalistic horror and teenage love with shooting star Timothée Chalamet. The careful staging and special aesthetics of the Italian director Luca Giadagnino promises a pleasant shudder.

“Les enfants des autres”: The possible life of a woman at 40

France 46th Cesar |  Virginie Efira

The actress Virginie Efira

A teacher in her 40s, played by Belgian actress Virginie Efira, falls in love with a man and unexpectedly becomes a caregiver for his four-year-old daughter. In this tragic comedy, the French director and screenwriter Rebecca Zlotowski tells of the internal (keyword: wanting to have children at this age) and external conflicts (e.g. with the biological mother).

All the stories presented here by and about women offer a consistently female perspective that has never been seen in cinemas. A total of 23 films are competing for the Golden Lion in the competition at the 79th Venice International Film Festival, including five directing works by women. It will be interesting to see whether one of the productions presented here will make it to the top.

Julianne Moore President of the Jury at the 2022 Venice Film Biennale

Julianne Moore is the Jury President of the 79th Venice International Film Festival


LEAVE A REPLY

Please enter your comment!
Please enter your name here