Below is a table with selected films which may be of interest to the Bi Women's Film club to view in the future.
If you think the list is missing any flims the club should see, feel free to email me at the above address
with your recommendations.
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The Secrets
Directed by Avi Nesser, 2008
http://www.thesecretsmovie.com/
Naomi, the brilliant and pious daughter of an orthodox rabbi finds herself at a crossroads of life choices when her mother dies and she is expected to marry her father’s prodigy. She begs that her father allow her one year to study at a women’s religious seminary in order to prepare for the sacrifices she will make as a wife and her father relents.
Devout yet lively, her life begins to take an unexpected turn as she and her new schoolmate Michelle befriend a beautiful, mysterious older woman. Anouk who lives nearby, who may or may not be Jewish, is ill and may be guilty of a crime of passion. Naomi devises a series of rituals which will somehow purge Anouk of her sins. Eventually this journeys into the forbidden and leads to a growing attraction between the two girls and more crossroads are faces. The Secrets explores the complexities of a religious lifestyle in a vibrant environment of youth, rebellion and desire.
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Henry and June
Directed by Philip Kaufman, 1990
http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0099762/
The real-life relationship between two of the most controversial literary figures of the 20th century forms the basis for this drama. Anaïs Nin (Maria de Medeiros) is a struggling author trying to finish her first book, a study of the work of D.H. Lawrence. She also has a keen sexual curiosity that is not being satisfied by her sweet but unexciting husband, Hugo (Richard E. Grant). Through Hugo's friend Richard (Kevin Spacey), Anaïs is introduced to Henry Miller (Fred Ward), a writer from America who shares Anaïs' passion for both eros and literature; she is later introduced to June (Uma Thurman), Henry's wife and a practicing bisexual.
While Anaïs is attracted to Henry, to her surprise, she's even more strongly drawn to June; June, however, must return to America, and with her approval, Henry and Anaïs begin an affair. Anaïs' newfound sense of sexual liberation leads her to several new lovers over the next several months, but she and Henry find themselves pursuing the same object of affection when June returns to Paris. Henry & June's frank but tasteful treatment of sexual themes led the MPAA to threaten the film with an X-rating; instead, the film became the first feature released with the revised NC-17 classification.
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Nothing Else Matters
Directed by Julia Von Heinz, 2007
http://www.fandango.com/nothingelsematters_v392098/summary
Teenager Carla (Paula Kalenberg) is on her way to Lyon to study fashion design when all her belongings are stolen at a train station. Lost and penniless, she meets the sleazy Rico, who offers her a job renovating a barge-but only if she'll sleep with him. She does the dirty deed and the next morning starts work on the boat, where she meets Lucie (Marie-Luise Schramm), a street-smart dyke who shows her the ropes.
Straight Carla and gay Lucie bond, their friendship cemented when Carla discovers she's pregnant. Lucie comes up with a plan to let Carla have the baby using Lucie's identity so Carla can access health care, which means a whole lot of subterfuge and lying on both their parts. Lucie, however, doesn't mind because she's fallen in love with Carla. But how long can these two women pull off their con, and at what cost to the smitten Lucie?
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Fingersmith
Directed by Aisling Walsh, 2005
http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0423651/
Two women from different worlds are brought together by strange circumstances and forbidden desires in this period-drama. Sue Trinder (Sally Hawkins) was left on her own as a young child when her parents died, and she was forced to fend for herself, living on the street in the company of thieves and confidence men. Sue is given a chance to reform when she's taken in by Mrs. Sucksby (Imelda Staunton), who wants to keep her off the streets, but Sucksby's friend Richard Rivers (Rupert Evans) is familiar with Sue's old circle and lures her into an elaborate criminal scheme. Sue is to get a job as a maid to Maud Lilly (Elaine Cassidy), a young woman who lives with her uncle (Charles Dance) and will claim a large family inheritance when she marries. Sue's role is to act as confidante to Maud, so when Richard attempts to court her, Sue will help convince the young heiress that marrying Richard is the right thing to do.
Richard's scheme is to marry Maud, have her sanity called into question, and then take possession of her fortune after she's committed to an asylum, but as Sue becomes close friends with Maud, she begins to wonder if she has the nerve to go through with the plan, especially when her feelings for Maud begin to extend beyond just friendship. As Sue's choice becomes nearly unbearable, fate steps in and she discovers all is not as she'd been led to believe.
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To Each Her Own
Directed by Heather Tobin, 2008
http://www.cherrygrrl.com/%E2%80%9Cto-each-her-own%E2%80%9D-explores-the-coming-out-process/
Jess, a married, twenty-five- year-old woman was brought up in a conservative town and listening to her homophobic mom, Jess has buried her true self-that is, until she meets Casey (Tracey Rae). Jess, sneaking around behind clueless husband Trevor's (Shaughnessy Redden) back, begins a steamy affair with Casey. Yet Jess can't shake her internalized homophobia and, when she becomes pregnant, well, that puts quite a wrench in her coming-out plans.
Emerging filmmaker Heather Tobin's debut feature, sometimes raw and always compelling, brims with the angst of first love while tackling a concept that many dykes know all too well-the path of true love never follows a straight line.
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Go Fish
Directed by Rose Troche, 1994
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Go_Fish_(film)
This hit arthouse ensemble piece traces the romantic and political ups and downs of a group of multicultural Chicago lesbians. The central story involves an unlikely romance between Max (Guinevere Turner), a hip young babe, and Ely (V.S. Brodie), a slightly older woman involved in a long-term, long-distance relationship that's basically a smokescreen for her fear of romantic risk. When the pair are introduced by Max's roommate, teacher/activist Kia (T. Wendy McMillan), Max isn't interested in Ely, whose long hair, hippie accoutrements, and fondness for decaffeinated herbal tea don't impress the younger, more fashion-conscious woman.
Soon, though, fate, friends, and Ely's butch new hairstyle conspire to push the women closer together. As this new romance inches along, the pair's friends have problems of their own: Kia must help her closeted girlfriend, Evy (Migdalia Melendez), come to grips with the disapproval of her conservative Latina mother, while their pal Daria (Anastasia Sharp) incurs the disapproval of the lesbian community for her decision to sleep with a man. Filmed in black and white on-location in Chicago, Go Fish features a number of non-standard narrative devices, most notably the Greek chorus, or "jury," of lesbians who comment on not only the plot, but also the political and social ramifications thereof.
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French Twist
Directed by
Josiane Balasko, 1995
http://movies.amctv.com/movie/134373/French-Twist/overview
Laurent and Loli are happily married with two beautiful children. Laurent is a successful businessman who runs a real estate agency in the south of France while Loli spends her days as a housewife. Laurent is also a philanderer who has a series of extramarital affairs while Loli remains blissfully unaware of his extracurricular activities. One day Laurent and Loli's harmonious lifestyle is disrupted when Marijo's camper breaks down outside their house. Laurent and Marijo have only one thing in common--they both like women. When Marijo begins to pursue Loli, however, a threatened Laurent fights to keep his marriage intact. The fragile triangle that develops proves both funny and moving. |
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The Color Purple
Directed by Steven Spielberg, 1985
http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0088939/
Based on the Pulitzer Prize-winning novel by Alice Walker, The Color Purple spans the years 1909 to 1949, relating the life of Celie (Whoopi Goldberg), a Southern black woman virtually sold into a life of servitude to her brutal husband, sharecropper Albert (Danny Glover). Celie pours out her innermost thoughts in letter form to her sister Nettie (Akousa Busia), but Albert has been hiding the letters Nettie writes back, allowing Celie to assume that Nettie is dead. Finally, Celie finds a champion in the don't-take-no-guff Sofia (Oprah Winfrey), the wife of Glover's son from a previous marriage. Alas, Sofia is "humbled" when she is beaten into submission by angry whites. Later, Celie is able to forge a strong friendship with Albert's mistress Shug (Margaret Avery). Emboldened by this, Celie begins rifling through her husband's belongings and finds Nettie's letters. Able at last to stand up to her husband, Celie leaves him to search for a new life on her own. A major box-office hit, The Color Purple was nominated for eleven Oscars.
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Manhattan
Directed by Woody Allen, 1979
http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0079522/
Allen stars as Isaac Davis, a TV comedy writer sick of the pap he is forced to... churn out and harboring dreams of being the great American novelist. His love life is in barbed-wire territory: he is tormented by his second ex-wife Jill (Meryl Streep), a lesbian who has written a tell-all book about their marriage, and he is dating teenager Tracy (Mariel Hemingway), to whom he refuses to commit, and keeps hinting that a breakup may be imminent.
Isaac's disillusioned (and married) best friend Yale (Michael Murphy) has begun an affair with the cerebral writer Mary Wilke (Diane Keaton). While Isaac makes a last minute, sink-or-swim decision to quit his job and devote all of his time to book writing, and neurotically moans about what the lack of a full time job will do to him ("My parents won't have as good of a seat in the synagogue," he moans. "They'll be far away from God... away from the action") Yale is crippled by his lack of resolve, as indicated by his inability to leave his wife Emily (Anne Byrne). Meanwhile, Isaac and Mary) begin to fall for one another. Tracy then tells Isaac the basic truth that none of his hung-up friends and past lovers fully realizes: "You have to have a little more faith in people."
Manhattan is both a seriocomic dissection of perpetually dissatisfied New Yorkers and an ode to the city itself, filmed in glorious black-and-white by ace cinematographer Gordon Willis, and set to a score of rhapsodic George Gershwin music.
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Bi the Way
Directed by Brittany Blockman & Josephine Decker, 2008
http://www.bithewaymovie.com/main16.html
The iron curtain between gay and straight is crumbling. THe Bible belt is being unbuckled. Recent studies suggest that bisexuality is drastically more widespread than we ever thought. And for young people, dating a girl one week and a guy the next is no big deal.
Journeying through the changing sexual landscape of America, the directors of Bi the Way investigate the latest scientific reports and social opions on bisexulaity, while following five members of the emerging "whatever generation" - teens and twenty-somethings who seem to be ushering in a whole new sexual revolution. |
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Frida
Directed by Julie Taymor, 2002
http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0120679/
"Frida" chronicles the life Frida Kahlo shared unflinchingly and openly with Diego Rivera, as the young couple took the art world by storm. From her complex and enduring relationship with her mentor and husband to her illicit and controversial affair with Leon Trotsky, to her provocative and romantic entanglements with women, Frida Kahlo lived a bold and uncompromising life as a political, artistic, and sexual revolutionary. |
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Chasing Amy
Directed by Kevin Smith, 1997
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Chasing_Amy
In 'Chasing Amy', life-long best friends Holden McNeil (BEN AFFLECK) and Banky Edwards (JASON LEE) are enjoying success as the creators of the cult hit comic book 'Bluntman and Chronic.' When they meet fellow comic book artist Alyssa Jones (JOEY LAUREN ADAMS), Holden's desire for the beautiful charmer is immediate. Alyssa, however, has set her romantic sights elsewhere and yet decides, nevertheless, to pursue a friendship with Holden. This presents Holden with a dilemma: Feeling the way he does, can he merely be friends with this woman? Banky, who knows Holden best, doesn't think so.
As the friendship deepens, so do Holden's affections for Alyssa. And cautiously, yet effortlessly, so do Alyssa's for him. With their relationship struggling to define itself, Banky grows more and more frustrated at the notion of losing his best friend to emotional adulthood.
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Imagine Me and You
Directed by Ol Parker, 2005
http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0421994/
A new bride finds she's tempted to leave her husband under circumstances she never anticipated in this romantic comedy-drama. Rachel (Piper Perabo) and Heck (Matthew Goode) are longtime sweethearts who have decided to take the plunge and get married, but on the day of their wedding, while Rachel is walking down the aisle, she finds herself struck by the beauty of Luce (Lena Headey), who has been hired to do the floral arrangements for the ceremony. While Rachel thinks little of this at first, she finds she can't get Luce out of her mind, and when Rachel invites Luce over to dinner in hopes of fixing her up with Coop (Darren Boyd), Heck's best friend and best man, she learns the lovely florist is a lesbian. When Rachel and Luce meet again while shopping, they strike up a friendship that deepens into something more, until Rachel declares her attraction to Luce -- and Luce reveals she feels the same way. Rachel has never had a relationship with a woman before, and while she's fallen deeply in love with Luce, she isn't at all sure of what to do next, and Heck soon realizes something has gone wrong in their marriage.
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Bound
1997
http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0115736/
Corky is a lesbian Ex convict who is working in a building as a plumber. Until she meets Violet, the sexy mistress of mafia gangster Caesar who both live next door. Both Corky and Violet have a love affair and Violet encourages Corky to help her steal 2 million dollars from Caesar who is holding the money is custody, and torturing and killing a man who stole the money from Ceaser's employer Mob boss Gino who will pick up the money himself, and set up Caesar to take the fall. Setting their plan in motion, the two lesbian lovers find their plan is about to go wrong, when Gino unexpectedly goes missing and Mickey, one of the gangsters is assigned to find him.
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Three of Hearts
Directed by Yurek Bogayevicz, 1993
http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0108334/
With her straight greasy hair, semi-paranoid outlook, and leather jacket she wears like a shield, Connie (Kelly Lynch) already seems a bit unhinged. Then her girlfriend, Ellen (Sherilyn Fenn), breaks up their relationship and Connie loses it. In her grief, she hits upon a bizarre plan: Why not hire male prostitute Joe (William Baldwin) to seduce Ellen, then break her heart? Wouldn't that make Ellen rush back into Connie's arms? Of course not. For one thing, Joe's life is complicated by his protective yet sinister pimp (Joe Pantoliano) and a thug who mistakenly believes Joe set him up for a prison sentence. And Joe and Ellen fall in love. Yet an odd, sibling-like friendship develops between Joe and Connie that steers them through the repercussions of Ellen's discovery of their deceit, the thug's attack on Joe, and Joe's desire to give up prostitution. By the story's end, they've lost Ellen, but they have one another, and have learned to step beyond the protective relationships they have lost.
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Score
Directed by Radley Metzger, 1976
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Score_(film)
Radley Metzger's erotic Mediterranean romp, adapted from an off-Broadway play, is a five-character drama of mind games and sex games. A swinging married couple with an ongoing rivalry sets their sights on a naive young couple who have moved into their darling little Mediterranean town (the village of Leisure, in the land of Play, deep within the Erogenous Zone, according to the narrator, though in reality shot in Zagreb, Yugoslavia). The newlyweds are having troubles of their own, making them easy marks for the hedonistic swingers, but Metzger flips the tale from craven exploitation to sexual healing. As the beautiful young couple succumbs to seduction (and not necessarily the couplings you would expect), their inhibitions are unlocked and their guilt overcome with pleasure.
Neither exploitative nor judgmental, Metzger's elegant soft-core erotica combines a playful cinematic style with a cool European sensibility, set against a handsome landscape of old-world architecture and chic modern settings. This exploration of bisexual seduction is his most explicit offering (sans his brief sojourn into the adult film industry), yet for all of its nudity, which is surprisingly balanced between male and female scenes, it remains a smart, witty, sweet little erotic fairy tale in which even selfish intentions lead to happy endings.
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Lion’s Den
Directed by Pablo Trapero, 2008
http://www.imdb.com/title/tt1022606/
According to statistics, seven percent of murders in Argentina committed by men
are termed “crimes of passion”. In the case of women, however, this number suddenly leaps to an incredible seventy-two percent. One of these murderesses is the beautiful Julia (an outstanding Martina Gusman), who differs considerably from her co-prisoners in appearance and social status. She wakes up in an apartment that is covered in blood, with the dead body of her lover by her side and another man (Rodrigo Santoro, familiar from the series Lost and Hector Babenco’s film Carandiru, among others) who is unconscious.
Julia claims that her partner was having a relationship with the man, but the remainder of events is shrouded in mystery. The director is more interested in life in the Argentine women’s prison, however, than in trying to find out what actually happened in the strange love triangle. We follow him in his observation of the condemned women in their most intimate moments, and thanks to outstanding performances and the superbly evoked atmosphere of the prison, we have the impression of having become a part of Julia’s world and experiencing her tale of loneliness, love and unflagging hope.
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Boys on the Side
Directed by Herbert Ross, 1995
http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0112571/
Jane is a night club singer, out of work. Robin is a quirky real estate agent looking for a ride-share to accompany her to California. Her advertisement is answered by Jane, who at first was uncertain about her. A stop in Pittsburgh picks up a third, Holly, escaping a violent and drug-dealing partner. Girls on the road, reaching understanding, respect, and care for each other. But this trio is different - Jane a lesbian, Robin suffering with AIDS, Holly running from her past, seeking one-night stands and a good man. |
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Y Tu Mama Tambien
Directed by Alfonso Cuaron, 2001
http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0245574/
Abandoned by their girlfriends for the summer, teenagers Tenoch and Julio meet the older Luisa at a wedding. Trying to be impressive, the friends tell Luisa they are headed on a road trip to a beautiful, secret beach called Boca del Cielo. Intrigued with their story and desperate to escape, Luisa asks if she can join them on their trip. Soon the three are headed out of Mexico City, making their way toward the fictional destination. Along the way, seduction, argument and the contrast of the trio against the harsh realities of the surrounding poverty ensue. |
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Shortbus
Directed by John Cameron Mitchell, 2006
http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0367027/plotsummary
Numerous New York City-dwellers come to the exclusive club Shortbus to work out problems in their sexual relationships. Rob and Sophia are a happily married couple, except for the fact that she has never experienced sexual climax. This irony follows her to work, because she is a couples counselor who frequently has to deal with the sexual issues other couples have. Two of her patients are Jamie and James, a gay couple who have been monogamous for five years and counting. James wants to bring other men in to the relationship, and his own history with depression may hint at an ulterior motive. Ceth (Pronounced like Seth) may be the perfect addition to their family, but Caleb, a voyeur from across the street, may have his own ideas about that. Sophia visits Severin, a dominatrix with secrets of her own to reveal.
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Kinsey
Directed by Bill Condon, 2004
http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0362269/plotsummary
Alfred Kinsey was an entomologist who taught at Indiana University and had a keen interest in an area of human behavior that had seen little scholarly research -- human sexuality. After introducing a course in "Marriage" at Indiana University which offered frank and factual information on sex to students, Kinsey began an exhaustive series of interviews with a wide variety of people from all walks of life in order to find out the truth about sex practices in America.
When he published Sexual Behavior and the Human Male in 1948, his findings were wildly controversial, indicating that most men had a wider variety of sexual experiences than most people imagined, including a number of practices commonly thought to be dangerous or perverted (including pre-marital sex, same-sex contacts, and masturbation). An even greater outcry greeted Kinsey's next volume, Sexual Behavior and the Human Female, which contradicted common notions than most women went into marriage sexually inexperienced.
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Vicky Cristina Barcelona
Directed by Woody Allen, 2008
http://vickycristina-movie.com/
Two young American women, Vicky (Rebecca Hall) and Cristina (Scarlett Johansson) come to Barcelona for a summer holiday. Vicky (Rebecca Hall) is sensible and engaged to be married; Cristina (Scarlett Johansson) is emotionally and sexually adventurous. In Barcelona, they're drawn into a series of unconventional romantic entanglements with Juan Antonio (Javier Bardem), a charismatic painter, who is still involved with his tempestuous ex-wife Maria Elena (Penelope Cruz). Set against the luscious Mediterranean sensuality of Barcelona, 'Vicky Cristina Barcelona' is Woody Allen's funny and open-minded celebration of love in all its configurations.
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Lost and Delirious
Directed by Lea Pool, 2001
http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0245238/
A hauntingly evoked tale of three adolescent girls' first loves, discovery of sexual passion, and search for identity, Lost and Delirious is the first work filmed in English by acclaimed Quebecois director Lea Pool (Emporte-moi). From a brilliant adaptation of Susan Swan's novel, The Wives of Bath, by Toronto screenwriter Judith Thompson, the film features a knockout cast with Piper Perabo (Coyote Ugly) as Paula, Jessica Paré (Stardom) as Tori, and Misha Barton (The Sixth Sense) as Mary, who goes by "Mouse." All in their teens or early twenties, the actors give powerful, improvisatory, emotionally sensitive performances. Set in a posh, private boarding school surrounded by luxuriant, green forest, Lost and Delirious moves swiftly from academic routine, homesickness, and girlish silliness to the darker regions of lovers' intrigue: Paula and Tori are discovered; Mouse becomes their confessor and accomplice and the unstoppable emotions of adolescence collide with the immovable conventions of society as she is torn between loyalty to her two friends. In Lost and Delirious, the theatricality of overwrought teenage emotion finds its counterpart in the artful use of Shakespearean drama, from poetic declaration of love, loss, and defiance, to symbols of falconry and fencing. This Gothic tale of love's blooming, its innocent ecstasy, and ultimate obsessions is a tour de force.
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My Summer of Love
Directed by Pawal Pawilkowski, 2004
http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0382189/
My Summer of Love is this summer's most intoxicating and intriguing romance. From Pawel Pawlikowski, the award-winning director of "Last Resort", comes a tale of obsession and deception, and the struggle for love and faith in a world where both seem impossible. The passionate, droll, and mysterious drama features striking performances from its two lead actresses, both of whom are movie newcomers. The film vibrantly charts the emotional and physical hothouse effects that bloom one summer for two young women (Natalie Press and Emily Blunt). Mona (played by Ms. Press), behind a spiky exterior, hides an untapped intelligence and a yearning for something beyond the emptiness of her daily life. Tamsin (Ms. Blunt) is well-educated, spoiled and cynical. As they are complete opposites, each is wary of the other's differences when they first meet, but this coolness soon melts into mutual fascination, amusement and attraction. Adding further volatility is Mona's older brother Phil (Paddy Considine), who has renounced his criminal past for religious fervor – which he tries to impose upon his sister. Mona, however, is experiencing her own rapture. "We must never be parted," Tamsin intones to Mona…but can Mona completely trust her? |
