Bechdel test

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tinker
Posts: 134
Joined: November 25th, 2012, 10:56 pm

Bechdel test

Post by tinker »

I was reading about this being used to classify Swedish films as pro-feminist.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Bechdel_test

To pass the test
It has to have at least two women in it,
who talk to each other,
about something besides a man
Apart from obvious "women's movies" it seems very hard to find a modern film that passes the test. I think The King's Speech may squeak in because two women do have a short conversation about staying for dinner.

I was trying to think of older films that passed the test and the outcomes were not great but much better than current one.

Almost every Marilyn Monroe film seems to pass the test because their is usually a female character to whom she unburdens herself about her life. I am not sure what that says!!!

Also in the fifties Thelma Ritter was around, and her role was often to have a conversation with the female lead which means quite a few Doris Day films pass. So to do many of the old musicals, Calamity Jane, Guys and Dolls, Carousel. They are not long conversations but at least they happen.

Many of the Joseph Mankiewicz films A letter to Three Wives, The Ghost and Mrs Muir and also many of the Hitchcock films pass the test (Thelma Ritter again) and even a few John Ford films The Searchers, How Green was my Valley and Howard Hawks films like His Girl Friday. I think pretty well anything that stars Deborah Kerr and quite a few Katherine Hepburn films pass the test

Can anyone think of any more?


dee
[b]But I, being poor, have only my dreams; I have spread my dreams under your feet; Tread softly because you tread on my dreams[/b]. (William Butler Yeats )
[b]How did I get to Hollywood? By train.[/b] (John Ford)
tinker
Posts: 134
Joined: November 25th, 2012, 10:56 pm

Re: Bechdel test

Post by tinker »

I agree the definition is pretty basic. If they put in the criteria the conversation had to be meaningful, or not about clothes, meals, children or parents I am not sure any movie (except curiously the Marilyn Monroe ones) would get by.

I wonder what the Wizard of Oz would have looked like if one of Dorothy's companions was female (or ToTo). Still it did have more major roles for women that did not involve men than almost any movie made today.

dee
[b]But I, being poor, have only my dreams; I have spread my dreams under your feet; Tread softly because you tread on my dreams[/b]. (William Butler Yeats )
[b]How did I get to Hollywood? By train.[/b] (John Ford)
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