The Movie Guide for Women

Women in Film greeting cards available this week!

1/10/2022

The other day I picked up the proofs for my new Women in Film greeting cards from the print shop. The prints will be ready this week, so they should be available for purchase by the end of the week. Each card (blank inside) features an illustration by my friend Stella Perrett, a British political cartoonist and book illustrator. Stella created these lovely, uplifting illustrations to help me promote my film guide for women. From left to right you can see: Star Wars (1977), The Help (2011), Aliens (1986), Thelma & Louise (1991) and Hidden Figures (2016). They will be available individually and as a Fabulous Five pack.

Speak up, stay safe and may your film picks have much to offer female viewers!

Copyright © 2022 Alline Cormier

0 Comments

The Batman (2022)

1/4/2022

0 Comments

I would love to hear a good argument for why we need a new feature film about Batman in 2022. Of course, we don't actually. This franchise is a money printing machine though, so here we go again. I have watched the trailer for The Batman (2022) a few times now. It looks like it will score poorly for women’s voice. No two women speak in the trailer, which is never a good sign. Voice is one of the dozens of things I address in my upcoming film guide for women. It also looks like Zoë Kravitz will be hypersexualized and sporting whore couture throughout—another sign that this movie will have little to offer female viewers. Moreover, the trailer is full of angry, vengeful men and ultraviolence, which are hardly things we need more of at this point.

It looks like this will be one of the unhealthiest movies of the year. In 2022 we need hope, joy and the strength to make the world a better place. For my part, I’m hoping for many more movies like Little Women (2019), The Help (2011), Made in Dagenham (2010) and Suffragette (2015), which are all feature films that have much to offer female viewers. In 2022 may your movie picks show regard for women and girls by being full of things to offer female viewers! Happy New Year!

Copyright © 2022 Alline Cormier

0 Comments

Women in Film greeting cards!

12/22/2021

0 Comments

Hopefully you had a lovely, bright winter solstice! I decided to solve my greeting card problem and have blank cards of my friend Stella's illustration of The Help (2011) for my upcoming film guide for women printed. Stella is a British political cartoonist and book illustrator. In January I'll turn more of her illustrations for my film guide into greeting cards. Not bad, eh? They will be available for purchase at the end of January. Happy Holidays!

0 Comments

The Women in Film 2022 Calendar

11/26/2021

0 Comments

Earlier today I finally made it to the print shop (with a little help from a friend) and picked up the Women in Film 2022 calendars. So I'm going to start mailing out the pre-orders tomorrow, and they'll be under the tree in plenty of time.

Visit my Shop page to order your Women in Film 2022 calendar!

0 Comments

Women in Film 2022 calendar now available!

11/22/2021

2 Comments

My Women in Film 2022 calendar featuring artwork by British illustrator and political cartoonist Stella Perrett is now available! The original artwork Stella created to help me promote my upcoming film guide for women includes illustrations for the following feature films: The Help (2011), Thelma & Louise (1991), The Empire Strikes Back (1980), Nine to Five (1980), The Sound of Music (1965), Made in Dagenham (2010), Gone With the Wind (1939), Hidden Figures (2016), Aliens (1986), The Wizard of Oz (1939) and Little Women (2019).

Drop me a line to order your copy of the calendar that puts women first. Included holidays: International Women’s Day and International Day of the Girl.

2 Comments

Women in film postcards!

10/12/2021

4 Comments

Last week I picked up my new Women in Film postcards from the printers and couldn't be happier with how they turned out. British cartoonist Stella Perrett created several illustrations to help me promote my upcoming film guide for women, and I had four of them (Hidden Figures, Little Women, Thelma & Louise and Star Wars) turned into 4'' X 6'' postcards. I've begun sending them out, and soon they will be available for purchase. Drop me a line to place your order.

Over the Thanksgiving weekend I was grateful for many things, including Stella's marvellous, endearing illustrations of some of the women in film we love best. Happy (belated) Thanksgiving!

Copyright © 2021 Alline Cormier

4 Comments

The escalating VAW in Disney’s Cruella De Vil stories

9/6/2021

0 Comments

Let’s compare the violence against women (VAW) in Disney’s Cruella De Vil stories, shall we?

In One Hundred and One Dalmatians (1961), which was, up until recently, the only Disney movie I had seen about the Cruella De Vil character, Cruella is a wealthy older woman. True to Disney form the wealthy older woman is portrayed as a horrible person. Viewers are led to dislike her immensely and rejoice at her fall in the end. However, if memory serves, Cruella (voice of Betty Lou Gerson) does not suffer any actual physical violence.

The same cannot be said of the 1996 remake, which does contain VAW. In 101 Dalmatians (1996) Cruella De Vil is played by Glenn Close, who gets quite a bit of abuse and several humiliating moments. Just in terms of physical violence: a horse kicks at her, sending her flying across a barnyard; and later a horse sends her flying through the air (again) and she crashes through a wooden roof (she lands in a massive mud puddle). Whereas Cruella is the one being kicked by a horse here, in One Hundred and One Dalmatians (1961) it is two men, her henchmen, who are kicked by the horse—not her. I haven’t read the book by Dodie Smith that the movies are based on, but I have to wonder why Disney went from a horse kicking men to a horse kicking a woman. It is also worth noting that Jeff Daniels, who plays Roger (owner of one of the original two dalmatians), integrates Cruella into a video game he designs, and the boy shown playing it blows her up with dynamite. So viewers get to see the animated and the 2D Cruella punished.

Cruella (2021) goes further still in its inclusions of VAW. I won’t list them all. Here is the worst of it: two women are pushed off a cliff to their death (two different scenes); a woman is bound by her wrists and ankles to a chair in her home by two men, then one of the men gags her; and then her own mother sets fire to her flat to kill her—and this is just the first of two attempts to murder her. Keep in mind that this is a PG-13 rated film.

The ending of Cruella (2021), in which the adult Cruella character is played by Emma Stone, who is in her early thirties, suggests that Disney will be releasing another Cruella movie soon. Given the trend of escalating VAW (and now violence against women and girls, or VAWG) in these film adaptations I shudder to think of the VAWG that awaits viewers in the sequel. Since we have already been subjected to assault, attempted murder and murder what’s next? Food for thought and something to keep an eye on.

Copyright © 2021 Alline Cormier

0 Comments

Analysing movies from my treehouse

7/10/2021

2 Comments

Recently I moved into a space that feels like a treehouse. This is a first for me, and I am quite enjoying the experience. This move is also the reason I have been very distracted and unavailable for weeks. Now that I am settled in though—and have been to the beach and located some good eateries—I am ready to roll up my sleeves and get back at it. I was hoping to analyse Cruella (2021) last night but Disney wanted me to cough up more than $30 for it, which is completely unreasonable. So it will have to wait a few weeks when it becomes available to everyone. I am very curious to see how much congeniality there is between Cruella’s female characters and how they are treated. In 101 Dalmatians (1996) Glenn Close (Cruella DeVil) is treated pretty shabbily (harmed, humiliated, etc). Over 20 years later it is reasonable to expect that the female characters will fare better but given what I have observed in feature films these last two decades there is reason to doubt this will be the case.

Stay tuned for more notes from the treehouse!

Copyright © 2021 Alline Cormier

2 Comments

Uncommon inclusions in Nomadland (2020)

5/25/2021

0 Comments

There are many uncommon inclusions in Nomadland (2020), but I want to draw your attention to just three noteworthy ones today. Firstly it is one of the very few feature films in which women appear without makeup intended to make them look more attractive to men. Most of the female characters look like they aren't wearing any makeup at all. Secondly it boasts at least three named female characters with lines that are over sixty, including the protagonist, 63-year-old Frances McDormand. The third inclusion occurs more than halfway through in a short scene in which McDormand is performing janitorial duties. She is cleaning the mirror of a men's public restroom when a man walks in, and she tells him the restroom is closed (for cleaning). He ignores her completely, walks to the stall next to her and begins urinating without acknowledging her in any way. It is obvious that she is uncomfortable, and she leaves before he finishes, clearly not wishing to remain in the restroom with this rude, inconsiderate man.

None of these inclusions receive attention from any of the characters. They do not comment on the absence of makeup, the women's ages or the man's lack of regard for a woman in a public restroom. However, these inclusions merit our attention. The screenplay was written by Chloé Zhao, based on a book by Jessica Bruder, and was also directed by Zhao. It is not an insignificant detail that women were instrumental in making this film. Female filmmakers tend to portray female characters more realistically than their male counterparts. Their female characters tend to be treated better. Female filmmakers are also much more likely to focus on men's blameworthy behaviour towards women. It's a film that is definitely worth a watch.

Copyright © 2021 Alline Cormier

0 Comments

Bend it Like Beckham's gender non-conforming girls

5/24/2021

0 Comments

Because I was in the mood for feel good movies this weekend I watched Little Women (2019) and Bend it Like Beckham (2002). They did the trick. However, there were a couple of things about the latter that struck me. At one point Parminder Nagra and Keira Knightley are (mistakenly) believed to be lesbians and Knightley is mistaken for a boy because she has short hair (and wears pants). Writer/director Gurinder Chadha effectively makes the point that people are quick to jump to the conclusion that girls who have an affectionate, congenial relationship are lesbians. She also demonstrates how unusual some people find it for girls to have short hair (they expect girls to have long hair and equate short hair with boys). She makes the point that short hair for girls is normal (i.e. just as normal as long hair). I would have found it incredible that these inclusions were necessary but for the fact that nearly 20 years later they are likely still necessary. People are still making similar regressive assumptions about girls and women (i.e. that girls who are affectionate must be lesbians and not adhering to regressive sex stereotypes makes one a boy). Now society is going one step further and brainwashing girls into thinking that if they want short hair (not long) and prefer pants and flat shoes to dresses, skirts and high heels they aren't really girls and must actually be boys. It's absolute rot of course but believed by many at the moment. I suppose because I come from a family of heterosexual women with short hair (both grandmothers, aunts, mother) who wear pants much more often than skirts and dresses these regressive assumptions always seemed ridiculous to me. They should seem ridiculous to anyone thinking critically. I wonder what future movies made about the madness, sexism and misogyny of the second decade of the 21st century will look like.

P.S. Both Bend it Like Beckham and Little Women (2019) have much to offer female viewers.

Copyright © 2021 Alline Cormier

0 Comments

<<Previous

Women in Film greeting cards available this week!

The Batman (2022)

Women in Film greeting cards!

The Women in Film 2022 Calendar

Women in Film 2022 calendar now available!

Women in film postcards!

The escalating VAW in Disney’s Cruella De Vil stories

Analysing movies from my treehouse

Uncommon inclusions in Nomadland (2020)

Bend it Like Beckham's gender non-conforming girls

Author

Archives

Categories