Lady Macbeth (writer: Alice Birch, director: William Oldroyd) stole our hearts, and she’s capable of a lot more. This episode of the podcast focuses on why…this film resonates so much with women and what it says about feminism, given that the film barely passes the Bechdel test.
There’s an interview with star Florence Pugh and we discovered how amazing her accent is in the movie…
We might also need to apologise to writer, producer and major talent Amy Jump….
Click right here to listen to the episode
The full Bafta interview with Alice Birch can be found here and more on guest Becky Matthews found here.
Remember, if you don’t listen…through hell and high water, we’ll follow you…
I have a comment not really related to your this post, but more about the Bechdel concept itself. A film called The Miracle Season has just come out. It is based on a true story. It is about a young woman high school volleyball player who comes from incredible privelege who dies when she is in a moped accident in which she hasn’t worn a helmet. The story continues after that.
In this very same area a young high school aged male will lose his life to cancer. He is a minority whose family can’t pay all the hospital bills. His story is inspiring, but yet no movie will be made about him.
I haven’t seen the movie, but if it isn’t emphasized that this young woman’s death may have been prevented by her wearing a helmet, I would find that unfortunate.
I of course would like to see more movies made about women. But there are other stories that go outside the Bechdel test that should be told.
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I see your point, which feels more about privilege and is valid in itself. However, I think it slightly differs to the purpose of the Bechdel test. In either of your examples a film could be made that passes the Bechdel test, regardless of which story you choose, but the one with the female volleyball player may find it easier to pass the test because for some reason filmmakers don’t put enough women on film together, so if you have a female protagonist she might have to talk to another woman – shock! If we can’t even establish one passing conversation then it suggests that women are secondary to men and that must change because it’s both wrong and not representative of real life.
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