Feminist Tendencies
Feminism as a concept has gone in and out of vogue since the first suffragette demanded the right to vote, but throughout history there have always been remarkable women, prepared to claim their power in the name of a cause ('Ride to Freedom: The Rosa Parks Story', 'Veronica Guerin'), or just to rediscover their own self-worth ('Shirley Valentine', 'My Brilliant Career'). This collection does not only contain films about the political struggle of women to achieve equality ('Iron Jawed Angels'), if it did it would be a very short list because despite the fact that the rise of women in the workforce and in politics was one of the defining movements of the 20th century, very few films have been made on the subject - filmmaking being still a largely male-dominated pusuit. Now, as women are making films in greater numbers than ever, our own Niki Caro is a good example of someone ready and willing to tell a story about the oppression, and ultimate triumph of women in the 'post-feminist' 1980s ('North Country'). Perhaps women as an audience are now ready and willing to hear their own stories.
The Gentle Touch: Series 1 (1980)
7.1/10
Director: Various
Starring: Nigel Rathbone, William Marlowe, Jill Gascoine
The first ever UK cop series to star a female lead, 'The Gentle Touch' introduced audiences to a new sort of law and order, and a new sort of main cha... Read more
Tenko: Series 1 - Episodes 6 - 10 (1981)
8.8/10
Starring: Stephanie Beacham, Stephanie Cole, Ann Bell, Louise Jameson, Eiji Kusuhara, Burt...
In 1941 the terrors of war-torn Europe seem far away for the small community of ex-pat Brits living in Singapore. But their privileged lives are soon... Read more
Pussy Riot: A Punk Prayer (2013)
7/10
Director: Mike Lerner, Maxim Pozdorovkin
Starring: Nadezhda Tolokonnikova, Mariya Alyokhina, Ekaterina Samutsevich
Three young women face seven years in a Russian prison for a satirical performance in a Moscow cathedral. But who is really on trial in a case that ha... Read more
Heading South (2005)
6.4/10
Director: Laurent Cantet
Starring: Charlotte Rampling, Karen Young, Louise Portal, Menothy Cesar
Set in the 1970s, three women in their mid-life head to Haiti, as many women did, to soak up the sun and explore their sexual fantasies with willing y... Read more
The Source (2011)
7.3/10
Director: Radu Mihaileanu
Starring: Hiam Abbass, Leila Bekhti, Saleh Bakri, Hafsia Herzi, Biyouna , Sabrina Ouazani,...
A.k.a. "La source des femmes". Romanian-born filmmaker Radu Mihaileanu ("The Concert") directed and co-wrote this 'battle of the sexes' comedy drama s... Read more
G.I. Jane (1997)
5.9/10
Director: Ridley Scott
Starring: Demi Moore, Viggo Mortensen, Anne Bancroft
She's an officer and a gentlewoman, but can Navy lieutenant Demi Moore, the first woman candidate for the elite Navy SEALs unit, survive both the rigo... Read more
The Turning Point (1977)
6.9/10
Director: Herbert Ross
Starring: Shirley MacLaine, Anne Bancroft, Mikhail Baryshnikov, Leslie Browne, Tom Skerrit...
Shirley MacLaine and Anne Bancroft are estranged friends and dancers at the end of their careers, but they are brought back together by MacLaine's dau... Read more
Ocean's Eight (2018)
6.3/10
Director: Gary Ross
Starring: Cate Blanchett, Elliott Gould, Helena Bonham Carter, Sandra Bullock, Anne Hathaw...
Five years, eight months, 12 days and counting -- that's how long Debbie Ocean has been devising the biggest heist of her life. She knows what it's go... Read more
Sophie's Choice (1982)
7.7/10
Director: Alan J Pakula
Starring: Meryl Streep, Kevin Kline, Peter MacNicol
Meryl Streep deservedly received an Oscar for her depiction of a Polish Catholic mother who survives the death camp at Auschwitz, but not the memories... Read more
An Unmarried Woman (1978)
7.2/10
Director: Paul Mazursky
Starring: Alan Bates, Cliff Gorman, Jill Clayburgh, Michael Murphy
In an Oscar and Bafta-nominated performance, Jill Clayburgh plays a New York art gallery worker trying to cope with life after her husband walks out o... Read more