Last month we looked at Young Visionaries in the film world, so it’s only fair that we give filmmakers who continue (or continued) to make films after an already extensive career some deserved praise, as well as spotlighting late bloomers who made their directorial debuts later in life.

When I’ve been looking at gender studies about film previously, I have been struck by the differences between the age of male and female actors who have leading and speaking roles. The data for first-time directors doesn’t seem as reliable: one study that analysed 750 directors found that the average age is 32, while this Hollywood Reporter article cites that the average age to start directing is ‘around 40’. And then there’s the question of what should ‘count’ - many films are made but not all of them get a theatrical release.

Either way, I think age plays an interesting role in filmmaking. The wisdom that life experience brings provides directors with a broader lens with which to tell their stories. And extra years on the planet means more time spent observing, learning and living. Just look at how perceptive and grounded the films of the likes of Andrea Arnold and Ken Loach are!

A little sidetone as we are focusing mostly on directors here, but a respectable nod to James Ivory (one-half of the British filmmaking team Merchant/Ivory), who won his first Oscar for his adapted screenplay for 2017’s Call Me By Your Name. He also co-directed and narrated 2022 documentary memoir A Cooler Climate, which played the New York Film Festival (featured in the list below!).

I hope you enjoy this month’s selection…

🎞 October Selection 🎞

American Honey | Official Trailer | A24

1. American Honey (2016; Dir. Andrea Arnold)

   A teenage girl with nothing to lose joins a traveling magazine sales crew, and gets caught up in a whirlwind of hard partying, law bending and young love as she criss-crosses the Midwest with a band of misfits. Arnold was 45 years old when she directed her first feature film and 55 years old when she directed this one.
   

2. Million Dollar Baby (2004, Dir. Clint Eastwood)
   Frankie, an ill-tempered old coach, reluctantly agrees to train aspiring boxer Maggie. Impressed with her determination and talent, he helps her become the best and the two soon form a close bond. Eastwood’s career in film began in 1955 and he has over 60 years experience in the industry, directing his first film at 41 years old and this one at 74. His upcoming film Juror #2 should be released this year and he is currently 94!
   

3. Hannah Arendt (2012, Dir. Margarethe von Trotta)
   A look at the life of philosopher and political theorist Hannah Arendt, who reported for 'The New Yorker' on the trial of the Nazi leader Adolf Eichmann in Jerusalem. Von Trotta has been directing films since 1975 and for this one she was 70 years old.

🎬 The Long List: Optional Extras 🎬

• Killers of the Flower Moon - When oil is discovered in 1920s Oklahoma under Osage Nation land, the Osage people are murdered one by one - until the FBI steps in to unravel the mystery.

• Grizzly Man - A devastating and heart-rending take on grizzly bear activists Timothy Treadwell and Amie Huguenard, who were killed in October of 2003 while living among grizzly bears in Alaska.

• A Cooler Climate - Oscar-winning filmmaker James Ivory discovers boxes of films he made during a life-changing trip to Afghanistan in 1960 recounting his life as a traveler, outsider, and artist.

• I, Daniel Blake - After surviving a heart-attack, a 59-year-old carpenter must fight bureaucratic forces to receive Employment and Support Allowance.

• The Piano Teacher - A young man romantically pursues his masochistic piano teacher.

• Both Sides of the Blade - A love triangle story about a woman caught between two men, her long-time partner and his best friend, her former lover.

• Hotel Rwanda - Paul Rusesabagina, a hotel manager, houses over a thousand Tutsi refugees during their struggle against the Hutu militia in Rwanda, Africa.

• Faces, Places - Director Agnes Varda and photographer/muralist J.R. journey through rural France and form an unlikely friendship.

• The Post - A cover-up spanning four U.S. Presidents pushes the country's first female newspaper publisher and her editor to join an unprecedented battle between press and government.

• To Our Loves - An erratic young woman's family desperately tries to prevent her increasingly erotic ways.

🔜 Next Time 🔜

The theme for JANUARY will be U FILMS as a delayed way to mark International Children’s Day on 20 November. For readers in other territories, the ‘U’ stands for ‘Universal' and under the BBFC’s classification, it lets us know that films with this rating are suitable for all. Normally, it’s a good marker that a film can be watched by anyone, including children! Feel free to give me your thoughts about this post or the next one in the comments or on Insta! I’d love to know what you’ve been watching.

Like some of the other writers on Substack whose publications I follow, I took a break over August, so this month’s club post is a blend of two months under the title of ‘Young Visionaries’. August 12th is International Youth Day, which you can read about on the UN Website, but in summary it aims to ‘bring youth issues to the attention of the international community and celebrate the potential of youth as partners in today’s global society’.

Then tomorrow, September 2nd (honestly, how did that happen!?), people in the UK return to school, so the theme also felt pertinent for this time of year when young people get to start over and experience a daunting yet seminal time in their life. They may not think of it like that, but whether you had a good time at school or not, there is no doubting how much your school and college years shape you as a person.

Among the many challenges facing young people is how prevalent youth-related issues are in media, and particularly how well represented and how realistically young people are portrayed. There may be youthful characters being played on our screens but how well do they represent real life for young people today? It is vital young people are consulted about this and involved in creative processes - not just to ‘get it right’ - but because it risks alienating huge audience demographics if all they have to consume are stories about life as a ‘youth’ from unfounded points of view.

And that brings us seamlessly to the theme and its links with cinema: young visionaries of film. For this edition of Film & TV Lunch Club, we are thinking about directors who were considerably and impressively young when they made their mark in the film world. Everyone has to cut their teeth at some point but what a gift to be able to share the feeling and experience of youth through art!

The selection of films below focuses on the age of directors exclusively, but as an aside, during the research I did for this post I discovered that Marsai Martin made history in 2019 as Hollywood's youngest executive producer ever of a studio film, Little.

Before we get into the selection and longlist, check out the YDA (Young Director Award) website and Into Film website for two related resources. Feel free to suggest more in the comments if you have recommendations to share.

Finally, good luck to everyone starting a fresh academic year tomorrow - you’ve got this 💪

🎞 August/September Selection 🎞

Citizen Kane (1941) Official Trailer; Dir. Orson Welles

1. Citizen Kane (1941; Dir. Orson Welles)

   Following the death of publishing tycoon Charles Foster Kane, reporters scramble to uncover the meaning of his final utterance: 'Rosebud.' Welles was 25 when this film premiered - one that is widely regarded as one of the best of all time.
   Stream on BFI Player.

2. Jeanne Dielman, 23, quai du commerce, 1080 Bruxelles (1975, Dir. Chantal Akerman)
   A lonely widowed housewife does her daily chores, takes care of her apartment where she lives with her teenage son, and turns the occasional trick to make ends meet. However, something happens that changes her safe routine. Akerman was 24 at the time of the film’s release.
   Stream on BFI Player.

3. The Apple (1998, Dir. Samira Makhmalbaf).
   After twelve years of imprisonment by their own parents, two sisters are finally released by social workers to face the outside world for the first time. One of the first films of the Iranian New Wave, this was Makhmalbaf’s debut, made when she was just seventeen.

🎬 The Long List: Optional Extras 🎬

• Fruitvale Station (Dir. Ryan Coogler) - The story of Oscar Grant III, a 22-year-old Bay Area resident, who crosses paths with friends, enemies, family, and strangers on the last day of 2008.

• Mommy (Dir. Xavier Dolan) - A widowed single mother, raising her violent son alone, finds new hope when a mysterious neighbor inserts herself into their household.

• Fireworks (short; Dir. Kenneth Anger) - A dissatisfied dreamer awakes, goes out in the night seeking a 'light' and is drawn through the needle's eye. A dream of a dream, he returns to bed less empty than before.

• Straight out of Brooklyn (Dir. Matty Rich) - A young man living in poverty makes a plan to rob a drug dealer and change the life of his family.

• Donny Darko (Dir. Richard Kelly) - After narrowly escaping a bizarre accident, a troubled teenager is plagued by visions of a man in a large rabbit suit who manipulates him to commit a series of crimes.

• Boyz N the Hood (Dir. John Singleton) - Follows the lives of three young males living in the Crenshaw ghetto of Los Angeles, dissecting questions of race, relationships, violence, and future prospects.

• The Evil Dead (Dir. Sam Raimi) - Five friends travel to a cabin in the woods, where they unknowingly release flesh-possessing demons.

• Clerks (Dir. Kevin Smith) - A day in the lives of two convenience clerks named Dante and Randal as they annoy customers, discuss movies, and play hockey on the store roof.

• Harlan County USA (Dir. Baraba Kopple) - A heartbreaking record of the thirteen-month struggle between a community fighting to survive and a corporation dedicated to the bottom line.

• Fast Times At Ridgemont High (Dir. Amy Heckerling) - A group of Southern California high school students are enjoying their most important subjects: sex, drugs and rock n' roll.

🔜 Next Month 🔜

The theme for OCTOBER will be RESPECT YOUR ELDERS meaning that we will be flipping this post on its head and looking at films directed by people who continue (or continued) to make films after an already extensive career, or directors who directed their debut post-40. Feel free to give me your thoughts about this post or the next one in the comments or on Insta! I’d love to know what you’ve been watching.

I live in a household which is pretty unified on most fronts, but when it comes to sports I just cannot get on board with big football tournaments, mainly because it feels like I end up shifting my life around for the schedule. And this time around (for the Euros for anyone outside of Europe), I’m told the games have been pretty lacklustre which doesn’t convince me that any of the upheaval has been worth it.

However, when it comes to the Olympics - summer or winter - we are in agreement that the games brighten up our lives while they’re happening.

I love the celebration of internationalism, the breadth of sports in the spotlight, and the general uplift it seems to provide for people. And in terms of sports, I am so grateful to the Japanese Olympic Committee for adding skateboarding and surfing to the program. And this year there will be breakdancing for the first time! I am so excited to see how that works!

I am in awe of the athletes and never fail to feel inspired by the actual games, but what about how this feeling and experience has been captured on film? In the run up to the 2024 Olympic Games (which starts on 26 July, will feature 32 sports and approximately 10,500 athletes) the aim of this month’s club list is to get you in the spirit, highlight some olympic history and prep you for an thrilling time ahead.

To borrow Paris 2024’s motto: Ouvrons grand les Jeux. I hope you enjoy the games and this month’s picks…

🎞 July Selection 🎞

The Boys in the Boat Official Trailer | Amazon MGM Studios

1. The Boys in the Boat (2023; Dir. George Clooney)

   A 1930s-set story centered on the University of Washington's rowing team, from their Depression-era beginnings.
   Stream on Amazon Prime.
   

2. The Crash Reel (2013; Dir. Lucy Walker)

   Fifteen years of verite footage show the epic rivalry between half-pipe legends Shaun White and Kevin Pearce, childhood friends who become number one and two in the world leading up to the Vancouver Winter Olympics, pushing one another to ever more dangerous tricks, until Kevin crashes on a Park City half-pipe, barely surviving.
   Rent from 99p or buy on Prime or Apple TV.
   

3. Icarus (2017; Dir. Brian Fogel)

   When Bryan sets out to uncover the truth about doping in sports, a chance meeting with a Russian scientist transforms his story from a personal experiment into a geopolitical thriller. Won an Academy Award for Best Documentary Feature.

   Stream on Netflix.

🎬 The Long List: Optional Extras 🎬

Other notable films suggested for the theme:

• Cool Runnings - When a Jamaican sprinter is disqualified from the Olympic Games, he enlists the help of a dishonored coach to start the first Jamaican Bobsled Team.

• Blades of Glory - In 2002, two rival Olympic ice skaters were stripped of their gold medals and permanently banned from men's single competition. Presently, however, they've found a loophole that will allow them to qualify as a pairs team.

• Chariots of Fire - Two British track athletes, one a determined Jew and the other a devout Christian, are driven to win in the 1924 Olympics as they wrestle with issues of pride and conscience.

• Miracle - The true story of Herb Brooks, the player-turned-coach who led the 1980 U.S. Olympic hockey team to victory over the seemingly invincible Soviet squad.

• I, Tonya - Competitive ice skater Tonya Harding rises amongst the ranks at the U.S. Figure Skating Championships, but her future in the activity is thrown into doubt when her ex-husband intervenes.

• Foxcatcher - U.S. Olympic wrestling champions and brothers Mark Schultz and Dave Schultz join "Team Foxcatcher", led by eccentric multi-millionaire John du Pont, as they train for the 1988 Olympic Games in Seoul, South Korea, but John's self-destructive behavior threatens to consume them all.

• Race - Jesse Owens' quest to become the greatest track and field athlete in history thrusts him onto the world stage of the 1936 Olympics, where he faces off against Adolf Hitler's vision of Aryan supremacy.

• The Cutting Edge - A temperamental figure skater and an arrogant former hockey player attempt to win the Olympic Gold Medal as a figure skating pairs team.

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• Downhill Racer - Quietly cocky Robert Redford joins U.S. ski team as downhill racer and clashes with the team's coach, played by Gene Hackman. Lots of good skiing action leading to an exciting climax.

• The Weight of Gold - A look at the mental health challenges Olympic athletes often face.

• Visions of Eight - Eight film artists from different countries are given carte blanche to make a collection of short documentaries on the 1972 Munich Summer Olympics, offering unexpected, original and often humorous perspectives.

• International Velvet - Velvet's orphaned niece Sarah follows her dream of Olympic glory with her horse Arizona Pie.

• Munich - After the Black September capture and massacre of Israeli athletes at the 1972 Olympics, five men are chosen to eliminate the people responsible for that fateful day.

• Fists of Freedom: The Story of the '68 Summer Games - Documentary leading up to, during and after the 1968 Summer Olympic Games in Mexico City. Features interviews with athletes, including John Carlos, Tommie Smith and George Foreman, activist Dr. Harry Edwards, journalists and archival footage of the Games and the fallout after the raised fisted gloves by Carlos and Smith.

• Freedom’s Fury - A documentary on the 1956 Olympic semifinal water polo match between Hungary and Russia. Held in Australia, the match occurred as Russian forces were in Budapest, stomping out a popular revolt.

• Olympia Part One and Two - documentaries of the 1936 Olympics at Berlin.

• Tokyo Olympiad - Kon Ichikawa examines the beauty and rich drama on display at the 1964 Summer Games in Tokyo, creating a record of observations that range from the expansive to the intimate.

• White Rock - Documentary about the Winter Olympics in Innsbruck 1976.

• Without Limits - The life of renowned runner Steve Prefontaine and his relationship with legendary coach Bill Bowerman.

• 16 Days of Glory - The definitive photographic record of the 1984 Los Angeles Olympics, told "from the inside" through the lives of the participants, the words of David Perry, and the singing voice of Placido Domingo. From the opening to closing ceremonies, this unique style of storytelling shows a side of the Olympic Games not seen by television audiences.

🔜 Next Month 🔜

We are skipping August (summer break and all) but the theme for SEPTEMBER will be YOUNG VISIONARIES meaning that we will be looking at films directed by people under 30. It’s International Youth Day on 12 August and since we have already done a whole theme on ‘Youth’ itself, this one will focus on films made by young filmmakers. Feel free to give me your thoughts about this post or the next one in the comments or on Insta! I’d love to know what you’ve been watching.

Happy Pride Month! However you identify, I hope you live proudly and celebrate the month in a way that makes you feel safe, accepted and loved.

It’s a bit of a tenuous link, and if I’m being honest it wasn’t intentional, but I love that this month’s theme of Camp Out kind of ties into Pride and the LGBTQ+ community. If any of this month’s camping-themed films cross into queer cinema territory, it will just be a welcome coincidence - National Camping Month and Pride Month might just be the crossover we didn’t know we needed! I wonder if Priscilla (the bus from The Adventures of Priscilla, Queen of the Desert) is close enough to a camper van to consider? Answers on a postcard, please, and if you have any Campy Camp Out recommendations, please send them my way.

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If you did fancy some Pride themed films, you can check out the Club Vault post from June 2020:

When I was first thinking about what might make it onto this month’s list, the films that came to mind were The Blair Witch Project, Nomadland and Wild - all very different films, as far as the camping element is concerned. Is camping a lifestyle, a type of holiday or a necessary evil?

Films like Wild and Into The Wild are all about testing one’s physical and mental stamina, and it forces the viewer to consider how long they would last in the wilderness. Other films use camping as a way to explore untouched landscapes just beyond civilisation, to adventure into the wild and spend time in nature as a remedy to all the nonsense of modern life. Leave No Trace and Captain Fantastic are two excellent films that explore this wonderfully, and the latter just happens to be one of my favourites, ever.

There is something special about ‘setting up camp’ - a temporary home and mini community with minimal access to gadgets and luxury, and (in an ideal fictional world) with the added comfort that you get to sleep next to your mates, swim in creeks, toast marshmallows, and sing by the fire...

That said, it’s not all innocent fun, and isolating yourself in the middle of nowhere without any resources also lends itself very well to terror and mishap so it’s no wonder the woods are often a setting of choice for horror. The wholesomeness had to stop somewhere. I hope you enjoy this month’s picks…

🎞 June Selection 🎞

1. Captain Fantastic (2016; Dir. Matt Ross)

   In the forests of the Pacific Northwest, a father devoted to raising his six kids with a rigorous physical and intellectual education is forced to leave his paradise and enter the world, challenging his idea of what it means to be a parent.
   Stream on the Sundance Now Prime channel or rent/buy through Apple, Amazon, Sky and other online stores.

2. Third Star (2010; Dir. Hattie Dalton)

   James and his three closest lifelong friends go on an ill-advised trip to the stunning coastal area of Barafundle Bay in West Wales. What follows is a touching and comical adventure dealing with friendship, heroism and love.
   Rent or buy on Apple TV.

3. Happiness for Beginners (2023; Dir. Vicky Wight)

   Helen signs up for a wilderness survival course, a year after getting divorced. She discovers through this experience that sometimes, you have to get really lost in order to find yourself.

   Stream on Netflix.

🎬 The Long List: Optional Extras 🎬

Other notable films suggested for the theme:

• Stand By Me - A writer recounts a childhood journey with his friends to find the body of a missing boy.

• Brokeback Mountain - Ennis and Jack are two shepherds who develop a sexual and emotional relationship. Their relationship becomes complicated when both of them get married to their respective girlfriends.

• The Blair Witch Project - Three film students vanish after traveling into a Maryland forest to film a documentary on the local Blair Witch legend, leaving only their footage behind.

• Nomadland - A woman in her sixties, after losing everything in the Great Recession, embarks on a journey through the American West, living as a van-dwelling modern-day nomad.

• Wild - A chronicle of one woman's 1,100-mile solo hike undertaken as a way to recover from a recent personal tragedy.

• Into The Wild - After graduating from Emory University, top student and athlete Christopher McCandless abandons his possessions, gives his savings to charity and hitchhikes to Alaska to live in the wilderness.

• The Great Outdoors - A Chicago man and his family go camping with his obnoxious brother-in-law.

• Moonrise Kingdom - Two 12-year-olds, who live on an island, fall in love with each other and elope into the wilderness. While people set out on a search mission, a violent storm approaching them catches their attention.

• Meatballs - Wacky hijinks of counselors and campers at a less-than-average summer camp.

• Deliverance - Intent on seeing the Cahulawassee River before it's dammed and turned into a lake, outdoor fanatic Lewis Medlock takes his friends on a canoeing trip they'll never forget into the dangerous American back-country.

• Where the Wild Things Are - Yearning for escape and adventure, a young boy runs away from home and sails to an island filled with creatures that take him in as their king.

• Race For Your Life, Charlie Brown - The Peanuts gang goes to summer camp, and they participate in a river-raft race against some cheating bullies.

• Without a Paddle - After their friend dies, three men decide to fulfill their childhood dream by going on a camping expedition for the lost D. B. Cooper bounty, with calamitous results.

• Cub/Welp - Over-imaginative 12 year-old Sam heads off to the woods to summer scout camp with his pack convinced he will encounter a monster...and he does.

• Carry On Camping - Farcical misadventures by guests in an English holiday centre.

• Grizzly Man - A devastating and heart-rending take on grizzly bear activists Timothy Treadwell and Amie Huguenard, who were killed in October of 2003 while living among grizzly bears in Alaska.

• Hunt for the Wilderpeople - A national manhunt is ordered for a rebellious kid and his foster uncle who go missing in the wild New Zealand bush.

• Leave No Trace - A father and his seventeen-year-old daughter are living an ideal existence in a vast urban park in Portland, Oregon when a small mistake derails their lives forever.

  ---

🔜 Next Month 🔜

The theme for JULY will be LET THE GAMES BEGIN since the Summer Olympic Games (the Limpy Gs) start next month and will be hosted just across the Channel in Paris! Feel free to give me your thoughts about this post or the next one in the comments or on Insta! I’d love to know what you’ve been watching.

I feel I need to preface this post by declaring my stance on film as a medium: I absolutely think that film itself is art. However, we are looking at art in film this month.

The theme was inspired by the 200th anniversary of the National Gallery in London, which opened its doors to the public on 10 May 1824. If you are one of the lucky people who got tickets to the ‘Big Birthday Weekend Late and Light Show’ I am really jealous! Check out the NG200 events on the official site for more info about how they are marking the occasion: www.nationalgallery.org.uk.

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We live in a country that is so rich is culture, yet sometimes I can’t help but feel that the arts generally is overlooked and undervalued. And this is backed up by recent local funding cuts which has directly impacted arts venues across the country and will be hugely damaging to cities, communities and the people in them. So as we celebrate art within film, I hope this month’s shortlist and longlist is a reminder of how wonderful it is, how enriching it can be, and of the various ways it can better our lives.

Filmmakers have long looked to art for inspiration, and there are many examples of films that reference paintings, pay homage to masterpieces, not to mention the films that look at the lives of the artists themselves - there are at least eight feature films about Van Gogh alone. So in many ways we are spoilt for choice this month!

You may be thinking that Céline Sciamma’s Portrait of a Lady on Fire would have been a perfect pick this month (and you would be 100% correct in your thinking), but it was in the September 2023 selection so is too recent to choose again. I have still included it in the longlist though and encourage anyone who hasn’t seen it, to watch it as soon as possible - it is undeniably a true work of art!

Here are this month’s picks…

🎞 May Selection 🎞

Showing Up Official Trailer | Dir. Kelly Reichardt | A24

• Showing Up (2022; Dir. Kelly Reichardt)

  A sculptor preparing to open a new show tries to work amidst the daily dramas of family and friends.

  Rent or buy from Apple, Amazon, Sky and other online stores.

• Final Portrait (2017; Dir. Stanley Tucci)

  The story of Swiss painter and sculptor Alberto Giacometti.

  Rent from £2.49 on Rakuten and other online stores.

• Frida (2024; Dir. Carla Gutierrez)

  A raw and magical journey into the life of iconic artist Frida Kahlo, told through her own words from diaries, letters, essays, and interviews. Vividly brought to life with lyrical animation inspired by her unforgettable artwork.

  Stream on Amazon Prime.

🎬 The Long List: Optional Extras 🎬

Other notable films suggested for the theme:

• Skyfall - James Bond's loyalty to M is tested when her past comes back to haunt her. When MI6 comes under attack, 007 must track down and destroy the threat, no matter how personal the cost. (Features J.M.W. Turner’s The Fighting Temeraire)

• Scream - A year after the murder of her mother, a teenage girl is terrorized by a masked killer who targets her and her friends by using scary movies as part of a deadly game. (Inspired by Edvard Munch’s The Scream)

• Pennies from Heaven - During the Great Depression, a sheet-music salesman seeks to escape his dreary life through popular music and a love affair with an innocent schoolteacher. (Resemblance to Edward Hopper’s 1942 painting Nighthawks)

• Pierrot Le Fou - Pierrot escapes his boring society and travels from Paris to the Mediterranean Sea with Marianne, a girl chased by hit-men from Algeria. They lead an unorthodox life, always on the run. (Features Picasso’s Portrait de Sylvette and Jacqueline aux fleurs).

• Call Me By Your Name - In 1980s Italy, romance blossoms between a seventeen-year-old student and the older man hired as his father's research assistant. (Features Eduardo Arroyo’s Roland Garros 1981 French Open poster and more).

• Dreams - A collection of tales based upon eight of director Akira Kurosawa's recurring dreams. (Reference to Wheatfield with Crows by Vincent Van Gogh).

• The Dreamers - A young American studying in Paris in 1968 strikes up a friendship with a French brother and sister. Set against the background of the '68 Paris student riots.

• Personal Shopper - A personal shopper in Paris refuses to leave the city until she makes contact with her twin brother who previously died there. Her life becomes more complicated when a mysterious person contacts her via text message.

• Salvador Dalí - The reunion of two art geniuses: the Pop Art master Andy Warhol directs the master of Surrealism Salvador Dalí in this short film where the Spanish artist pays a visit to The Factory where he gets the chance to meet rock group The Velvet Underground.

• Portrait of a Lady on Fire - On an isolated island in Brittany at the end of the eighteenth century, a female painter is obliged to paint a wedding portrait of a young woman.

• The Square - A prestigious Stockholm museum's chief art curator finds himself in times of both professional and personal crisis as he attempts to set up a controversial new exhibit.

• Mr Turner - An exploration of the last quarter century of the great, if eccentric, British painter J.M.W. Turner's life.

• Loving Vincent - In a story depicted in oil painted animation, a young man comes to the last hometown of painter Vincent van Gogh to deliver the troubled artist's final letter and ends up investigating his final days there.

• Big Eyes - A drama about the awakening of painter Margaret Keane, her phenomenal success in the 1950s, and the subsequent legal difficulties she had with her husband, who claimed credit for her works in the 1960s.

• Little Women - Jo March reflects back and forth on her life, telling the beloved story of the March sisters - four young women, each determined to live life on her own terms.

• The Art of Getting By - George, a lonely and fatalistic teen who has made it all the way to his senior year without ever having done a real day of work, is befriended by Sally, a popular but complicated girl who recognizes in him a kindred spirit.

• Basquiat - The brief life of Jean Michel Basquiat, a world renowned New York street artist struggling with fame, drugs and his identity.

• Exit Through the Gift Shop - Following the style of some of the world's most prolific street artists, an amateur filmmaker makes a foray into the art world.

🔜 Next Month 🔜

The theme for JUNE will be CAMP OUT since it’s National Camping Month! Feel free to give me your thoughts about this post or the next one in the comments or on Insta! I’d love to know what you’ve been watching.

Hello, Spring! The inspo for this month’s theme comes from a short stint of research on ‘special days’ which ended with me reading that the last week of April is National Princess Week. As a prompt, this one has some obvious big hitters (the Cinderellas, Jasmines, and Belles of the world) but I also want to draw attention to some lesser celebrated princesses as well as those who have held a prominent place in cinematic history.

As well as being a definitive way to mark one’s ranking of nobility, the word ‘princess’ is LOADED with gender role ideals so I also want to tackle that and ensure that some of our princesses are atypical, subversive and resistant to the royal order. In fact, the archetypal princess that may come to mind when we think of a Disney princess can also be viewed as a reflective tool to see how attitudes towards women have changed since the 1930s (Snow White was released in 1937), or at least to see how Hollywood has perceived and dealt with societal shifts through the decades.

If they are ‘products of our time’, where does that leave us in 2024?

Thankfully there has been some evolution! There are still blind spots (and in some cases some serious repairing to be done), but slowly princesses are becoming more representative of our world. Tiana in Princess and the Frog is notable for being Disney's first black princess and Gurinder Chadha is set to introduce an Indian Princess to the Disney franchise in a new musical soon, but there is still an over-reliance on heterosexual romance and storytelling/directing by white men in films about princesses so some pivoting at the writing and production stage is still needed.

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This is by no means a measured study of princesses (though plenty do exist) but upon reading around the subject for this post, it did strike me that when men are in a role as a prince in a literal sense they are typically positioned as the hero and are often shown to be ambitious (being prepped as successor to the throne, learning the ropes, training for greatness, etc.) whereas the Princess has a far more passive role to play within the narrative. This aligns with Vladimir Propp’s Narrative Theory which sets out a framework for 7 core character types (and teachers or students of GCSE Media Studies will certainly recognise these!), whereby the ‘Princess’ archetype refers to the sought after prize that the hero seeks - this does come with a caveat though, in that it is just an archetype and the character type doesn’t have to correlate with a royal title, but it does provide us with a clear cut idea of the archetypes we’re still dealing with!

So what we’re really looking for if we want to instil some power, is the transition from princesses going from the object to the subject. I believe that starts with some agency and ownership over their respective stories, and a narrative that doesn’t solely progress in pursuit of a suitor. And though there are clear negatives about the ‘passive princess’, I don’t think we should be so hasty to try to rid characters of a certain type of femininity altogether - there can be strength in softness and patience as well as in rebellion and brazen fearlessness, so finding a way to show the plurality, complexity and nuance of what makes a princess is key. A complete role reversal would just displace all the badly thought out characteristics elsewhere and that wouldn’t be helpful for anyone so a bit of balance and sense is necessary here!

It seemed fictional princesses and queens used to fit into one of two camps: beautiful damsels (Aurora), or grotesque and wicked fiends (Ursula), with very little room for manoeuvre in between. But in recent years, we have seen some films challenging these outdated notions and writers are getting creative in the ways that stereotypes can be subverted. For example, in 2012’s Brave, Princess Merida is a skilled and courageous archer who rejects tradition and has to overcome a wicked curse; in 2018’s Black Panther, Shuri is a princess of Wakanda who engineers gadgets and leverages technology; and in this year’s Damsel, Millie Bobbie Brown plays a princess who is forced to escape the lair of a dragon she is fed to after initially thinking she had her fairytale ending.

Fantasy and sci-fi films have also given us some memorable and important princesses. From the Star Wars saga, Princess Leia revolutionised the idea of the princess as leader, played by the hugely missed and inspirational Carrie Fisher; Wonder Woman aka Princess Diana of Themyscira is a superhero and co-founder of the Justice League; and Princess Irulan, most recently portrayed on the big screen by Florence Pugh in the epic Dune: Part 2, will return with an even bigger role if Denis Villeneuve adapts Dune Messiah and Children of Dune too.

It was surprisingly difficult (though I know I shouldn’t be shocked at this point) at how hard it was to find a film for this month’s selection that was directed by a woman! Instead, I hope you will find variety in the longlist in terms of the decades and genres covered. I am aware that the list could be more diverse in terms of the films’ countries of origin but have tried to include more than just Hollywood titles where possible - if you have any further suggestions about what could be on the list, please comment on the post.

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Here are this month’s picks:

🎞 April Selection 🎞

PRINCESS MONONOKE | Official Trailer | Dir. Hayao Miyazaki

• The Princess Bride (1987; Dir. Rob Reiner)

  A bedridden boy's grandfather reads him the story of a farmboy-turned-pirate who encounters numerous obstacles, enemies and allies in his quest to be reunited with his true love.

  Stream on ITV X.

• Princess Mononoke (1997; Dir. Hayao Miyazaki)

  On a journey to find the cure for a Tatarigami's curse, Ashitaka finds himself in the middle of a war between the forest gods and Tatara, a mining colony. In this quest he also meets San, the Mononoke Hime.

  Stream on Netflix.

• Roman Holiday (1953; Dir. William Wyler)

  A bored and sheltered princess escapes her guardians and falls in love with an American newsman in Rome.

  Stream on Paramount+.

🎬 The Long List: Optional Extras 🎬

Other notable films suggested for the theme:

• Damsel (2024) - A dutiful damsel agrees to marry a handsome prince, only to find the royal family has recruited her as a sacrifice to repay an ancient debt.

• The Princess Bride (1987) - A bedridden boy's grandfather reads him the story of a farmboy-turned-pirate who encounters numerous obstacles, enemies and allies in his quest to be reunited with his true love.

• Spencer (2021) - Diana Spencer, struggling with mental-health problems during her Christmas holidays with the Royal Family at their Sandringham estate in Norfolk, England, decides to end her decade-long marriage to Prince Charles.

• Snow White and the Huntsman (2012) - In a twist to the fairy tale, the Huntsman ordered to take Snow White into the woods to be killed winds up becoming her protector and mentor in a quest to vanquish the Evil Queen. Kristen Stewart’s second entry as the lead in this list!

• The Princess Diaries (2001) - Mia Thermopolis has just found out that she is the heir apparent to the throne of Genovia. With her friends Lilly and Michael Moscovitz in tow, she tries to navigate through the rest of her sixteenth year.

• Elizabeth (1998) - The early years of the reign of Elizabeth I of England and her difficult task of learning what is necessary to be a monarch.

• Princess Undercover (2005) - A crown princess works incognito for the embassy of her country in Berlin where she fells in love with a gardener who does not know who she is. As the affair blows up two lovers and one kingdom have to make the right decision.

• The Young Victoria (2009) - A dramatization of the turbulent first years of Queen Victoria's rule, and her enduring romance with Prince Albert.

• Jodhaa Akbar (2008) - A sixteenth century love story about a marriage of alliance that gave birth to true love between a great Mughal emperor, Akbar, and a Rajput princess, Jodha.

• Enchanted (2007) - A young maiden in a land called Andalasia, who is prepared to be wed, is sent away to New York City by an evil Queen, where she falls in love with a lawyer.

• Anastasia (1997) - The last surviving child of the Russian Royal Family joins two con men to reunite with her grandmother, the Dowager Empress, while the undead Rasputin seeks her death.

• Strange Magic (2015) - With a battle sparked over a mysterious potion, the tough fairy princess Marianne crosses paths with the sinister Bog King.  As an adventure unfolds, their fanciful forest world will never be the same.

• Suriyothai (2001) - During the 16th century, as Thailand contends with both a civil war and Burmese invasion, a beautiful princess rises up to help protect the glory of the Kingdom of Ayothaya. Based on the life of Queen Suriyothai.

• Chasing Liberty (2004) - Anna wants to be like other girls her age (18): date a guy etc. but she's the US president's daughter and always guarded. In Prague he breaks his promise of only 2 agents following her to a concert and she runs away with Ben to see Europe.

• Death of a Princess (1980) - A journalist investigates a newspaper story of the execution of an Arab princess.

• The Scarlet Empress (1934) - A German noblewoman enters into a loveless marriage with the dim-witted, unstable heir to the Russian throne, then plots to oust him from power.

🔜 Next Month 🔜

The theme for May will be ART IN FILM. On 10 May 1824 the National Gallery in London opened its doors to the public for the first time so to mark 200 years since it opened we’ll be watching, adoring and admiring art in the movies. Feel free to give me your thoughts about this post or the next one in the comments or on Insta!

This month’s theme was a no brainer. I have always marked International Women’s Day with Miss En Scene, and have previously brought together people from the film community to celebrate women in film in a way that aligns with the year’s ‘official’ theme in a range of ways and formats - sometimes throughout the day, sometimes for the entire month of March. In previous years, online events have focused on how we can #ChoosetoChallengeCinema (2021 - video post embedded below), #BreaktheBiaswithFilm (2022) and #EmbraceEquityinFilm (2023).

This year the focus is all about inclusion, a vital element in working towards equality. To quote the IWD website:

When we inspire others to understand and value women's inclusion, we forge a better world.

And when women themselves are inspired to be included, there's a sense of belonging, relevance, and empowerment.

Collectively, let's forge a more inclusive world for women.

In the film industry, like many sectors, women are a minority. The Celluloid Ceiling paper from the Center for the Study of Women in Television and Film analyses the employment of women in behind-the-scenes roles for the top grossing films (in the USA). In the 2023 (the year where Greta Gerwig’s Barbie was the highest grossing film worldwide) report, the key findings were as follows:

• women accounted for 22% of all directors, writers, producers, executive producers, editors, and cinematographers working on the 250 top grossing films (a 2% decline from the previous year!)

• by role, women made up 16% of directors, 17% of writers, 26% of producers, 24% of executive producers, 21% of editors, and 7% of cinematographers working on the 250 top grossing films.

• 83% of the 250 top grossing films last year had no women directors and 94% had no women cinematographers.

Women are still dramatically underrepresented in behind-the-scenes roles, and this is why the IWD theme of Inspiring Inclusion is all the more vital. The selection and long list for this month are films chosen because they celebrate and champion women’s achievements and/or raise awareness about discrimination. Collectively we can all #InspireInclusion, and film, oftentimes referred to an empathy machine (thanks Roger Ebert), is one of the most powerful ways to education and inspire. I regularly wonder what the impact of an inclusive film world would be for the wider world. Hollywood (and global film markets) wield a lot of power and influence over people so I think the effects would be far-reaching and incredibly positive for many other elements of life and culture.

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Besides which, women make some incredibly entertaining and important films and capture a far more authentic experience of the female experience than a man ever could, so it’s crucial that this perspective is out there and being accessed and absorbed by wide audiences. And that’s not to say that every film written or directed by a woman should be an exploration of female trauma or a story based around gender struggles; sometimes just viewing life - and all the trouble, wonder and beauty that it brings - through the lens of a woman is enough.

I hope that as a result of reading this blog post, you might be inspired to seek out some films directed, written and shot by women! Here are this month’s picks:

🎞 March Selection 🎞

Women Talking; Dir. Sarah Polley | Official Trailer | MGM

• Women Talking (2022; Dir. Sarah Polley)

  Do nothing, stay and fight, or leave. In 2010, the women of an isolated religious community grapple with reconciling a brutal reality with their faith. Triple-F Rated.

  Stream on Amazon Prime (UK).

• Wadjda (2012; Dir. Haifaa Al-Mansour)

  An enterprising Saudi girl signs on for her school's Koran recitation competition as a way to raise the remaining funds she needs in order to buy the green bicycle that has captured her interest. Triple-F Rated and the first feature length film made by a female Saudi director.

  Stream on Mubi.

• How to Have Sex (2023; Dir. Molly Manning Walker)

  Three British teenage girls go on a rites-of-passage holiday - drinking, clubbing and hooking up, in what should be the best summer of their lives. Triple-F Rated.

  Stream on Mubi.

🎬 The Long List: Optional Extras 🎬

Other notable films suggested for the theme:

• The Wonders - A family of beekeepers living in the Tuscan countryside finds their household disrupted by the simultaneous arrival of a silently troubled teenage boy and a reality TV show intent on showcasing the family.

• You Hurt My Feelings - A novelist's longstanding marriage is suddenly upended when she overhears her husband giving his honest reaction to her latest book.

• Revoir Paris - Three months after surviving a terrorist attack in a bistro, Mia is still traumatized and unable to recall the events of that night. In an effort to move forward, she investigates her memories and retraces her steps.

• Bottoms - Two unpopular queer high-school students start a fight club to have sex before graduation.

• Fair Play - An unexpected promotion at a cutthroat hedge fund pushes a young couple's relationship to the brink, threatening to unravel far more than their recent engagement.

• Joy Ride - Follows four Asian American friends as they bond and discover the truth of what it means to know and love who you are, while they travel through China in search of one of their birth mothers.

• Beach Rats - A Brooklyn teenager spends his days experimenting with drugs and looking online for older men to meet.

• Never Rarely Sometimes Always - A pair of teenage girls in rural Pennsylvania travel to New York City to seek out medical help after an unintended pregnancy. Article on this here:

• Past Lives - Nora and Hae Sung, two deeply connected childhood friends, are wrested apart after Nora's family emigrates from South Korea. Twenty years later, they are reunited for one fateful week as they confront notions of love and destiny.

• Are You There God? It’s Me, Margaret. - When her family moves from the city to the suburbs, 11-year-old Margaret navigates new friends, feelings, and the beginning of adolescence.

• Polite Society - Ria Khan believes she must save her older sister Lena from her impending marriage. After enlisting her friends' help, she attempts to pull off the most ambitious of all wedding heists in the name of independence and sisterhood.

• Causeway - A US soldier suffers a traumatic brain injury while fighting in Afghanistan and struggles to adjust to life back home.

• She Said - Jodi Kantor and Megan Twohey's quest to break the Harvey Weinstein scandal.

• The Assistant - A searing look at a day in the life of an assistant to a powerful executive. As Jane follows her daily routine, she grows increasingly aware of the insidious abuse that threatens every aspect of her position.

• Babyteeth - Milla, a seriously ill teenager, falls in love with a drug dealer, Moses, her parents' worst nightmare.

• Miss Juneteenth - A former beauty queen and single mom prepares her rebellious teenage daughter for the "Miss Juneteenth" pageant.

• She Dies Tomorrow - A woman becomes strangely convinced she will die the next day. Her friend initially disbelieves her before becoming paranoid herself that she too will die the next day.

• She’s Beautiful When She’s Angry - A documentary that resurrects the buried history of the outrageous, often brilliant women who founded the modern women's movement from 1966 to 1971.

• Equity - Senior investment banker Naomi Bishop is threatened by a financial scandal and must untangle a web of corruption.

• I Blame Society - A struggling filmmaker realizes that the skill set to make a movie is the same to commit the perfect murder.

• Hidden Figures - The story of a team of female African-American mathematicians who served a vital role in NASA during the early years of the U.S. space program.

• The Queen of Hearts (La reine des pommes) - Adele's attempt to recover from a devastating breakup leads to surprisingly hilarious results as she bounces from one lover to the next, but can't escape the vision of her ex. France. Official Selection - Locarno Int'l FF.

• Writing With Fire - In a cluttered news landscape dominated by men, emerges India's only newspaper run by Dalit women. Chief Reporter Meera and her journalists break traditions, redefining what it means to be powerful.

• Orlando - After Queen Elizabeth I commands him not to grow old, a young nobleman struggles with love and his place in the world.

• The Art of Loving - Michalina Wislocka, the most famous and recognized sexologist of communist Poland, fights for the right to publish her book, which will change the sex life of Polish people forever.

If you are looking for International Women’s Day content on social media, look for #IWD2024, #InspireInclusion and #InspireInclusioninFilm on 8th March.

🔜 Next Month 🔜

The theme for APRIL will be POWER OF THE PRINCESS. The last week of April is, apparently, National Princess Week and created by Julie Andrews no less, so we will be looking at films that feature princesses, their roles within the cinematic canon and how far the idea of a princess has developed (or not…). Feel free to give me your thoughts about this post or the next one in the comments or on Insta!

Sources:

International Women’s Day. (2024). Theme for International Women’s Day 2024 is #InspireInclusion. [online] Available at: https://www.internationalwomensday.com/theme.

Lauzen, M. (n.d.). The Celluloid Ceiling: Employment of Behind-the-Scenes Women on Top Grossing U.S. Films; 26 th Annual Edition. [online] Available at: https://womenintvfilm.sdsu.edu/wp-content/uploads/2024/01/2023-Celluloid-Ceiling-Report.pdf.

Are you ready for a chunky slice of film history? As mentioned at the end of the January club post, It Happened One Night celebrates 90 years on 27th February this year and was the first film to win ‘The Big Five’ at The Oscars: Best Picture, Best Director, Best Actor (or Actor in a Leading Role), Best Actress (or Actress in a Leading Role), and Best Screenplay (original or adapted). This, along with the fact that this year’s Oscar nominations were just announced, is the inspiration for February’s watchlist - as well as other films that have won, been nominated for or come close to these five awards.

This multi-award accolade is no easy feat! In fact, it’s only ever been done by three films:

• It Happened One Night (1934)

• One Flew Over The Cuckoos Nest (1975)

• Silence of the Lambs (1991)

…and these are the films that were nominated for all five and missed out on the Big Five by a single award:

• Gone with the Wind (1939)

• Mrs. Miniver (1942)

• Annie Hall (1977)

• American Beauty (1999)

This year, Oppenheimer and Poor Things have dominated in terms of the number of Oscar nominations received, but neither film has a shot at The Big Five because there are nominations missing in the acting roles - Cillian Murphy got the acting nomination for Oppenheimer but there was no female counterpart to his character that even came close to a leading part - the roles of the women in the film were fragmented and tokenistic at best. Emma Stone was rightfully nominated for the acting award for her performance in Poor Things, while the other acting nom went to Mark Ruffalo for Best Supporting Actor, who played one of her many suitors in the film. If everything was right with the world we’d see the monstrously snubbed Barbie with all of the Big Five nominations, but that’s an entirely. different blog post…

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In terms of nominations, the closest a recent film has come to winning The Big Five is La La Land (2016). Damien Chazelle picked up Best Director, Emma Stone won Best Actress, but they fell short of the other three categories (though they did win six in total, out of a nominated 14!). But even more recent than that, Everything Everywhere All at Once (2022) won four of the four ‘Big Five’ awards it was nominated for at the 2023 Academy Awards, and seven in total (also meaning that it holds the record with six above-the-line awards):

• Best Motion Picture of the Year

• Best Achievement in Directing (Daniel Kwan & Daniel Scheinert)

• Best Original Screenplay (Daniel Kwan & Daniel Scheinert)

• Best Performance by an Actress in a Leading Role (Michelle Yeoh)

• Best Performance by an Actress in a Supporting Role (Jamie Lee Curtis)

• Best Performance by an Actor in a Supporting Role (Ke Huy Quan)

• Best Achievement in Film Editing (Paul Rogers)

You may or may not have noticed that for all of the films listed here, not one of them is directed by a woman. In fact, when I was looking through the stats, none of the 43 films in a list of the films nominated in all five of the categories were directed by a woman - not one in the history of the Academy Awards. To further my point with a slightly better known fact, only eight (8!) women have ever been nominated for the Best Director Oscar. And this year will be the 96th Academy Awards.

So although film history is intwined with accolades and critical reception, try to remember that it’s also all very arbitrary and part of an imbalanced and inequitable system.

With that in mind, here are this month’s picks:

🎞 February Selection 🎞

Kramer vs. Kramer Trailer | Dir. Robert Benton

• It Happened One Night (1934; Dir. Frank Capra)

  The first film to win ‘The Big Five’ at The Oscars: A renegade reporter trailing a young runaway heiress for a big story joins her on a bus heading from Florida to New York, and they end up stuck with each other when the bus leaves them behind at one of the stops.

  Rent or buy on Apple TV, Amazon or the Sky Store.

• Seven Beauties (1975; Dir. Lina Wertmüller)

  The first woman nominated for Best Director: The defense of honor, a strong value in Neapolitan society, and its effects on the life of everyman Pasquale Frafuso.

  Stream on Kanopy or purchase physical media.

• Kramer vs. Kramer (1979; Dir. Robert Benton)

  Stars Meryl Streep, who is the most nominated performer in the acting categories, with 21 nominations and 3 wins: After his wife leaves him, a work-obsessed Manhattan advertising executive is forced to learn long-neglected parenting skills, but a heated custody battle over the couple's young son deepens the wounds left by the separation.

  Stream on Prime or rent with all usual online stores.

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  🎬 The Long List: Optional Extras 🎬

  Other notable films suggested for the theme (as mentioned above plus all other 8 films directed by a woman with a Best Director nomination):

• One Flew Over The Cuckoos Nest - In the Fall of 1963, a Korean War veteran and criminal pleads insanity and is admitted to a mental institution, where he rallies up the scared patients against the tyrannical nurse.

• Silence of the Lambs - A young F.B.I. cadet must receive the help of an incarcerated and manipulative cannibal killer to help catch another serial killer, a madman who skins his victims.

• Gone with the Wind - A sheltered and manipulative Southern belle and a roguish profiteer face off in a turbulent romance as the society around them crumbles with the end of slavery and is rebuilt during the Civil War and Reconstruction periods.

• Mrs. Miniver - A British family struggles to survive the first months of World War II.

• Annie Hall - Alvy Singer, a divorced Jewish comedian, reflects on his relationship with ex-lover Annie Hall, an aspiring nightclub singer, which ended abruptly just like his previous marriages.

• American Beauty - A sexually frustrated suburban father has a mid-life crisis after becoming infatuated with his daughter's best friend.

• Oppenheimer - The story of American scientist J. Robert Oppenheimer and his role in the development of the atomic bomb.

• Poor Things - The incredible tale about the fantastical evolution of Bella Baxter, a young woman brought back to life by the brilliant and unorthodox scientist Dr. Godwin Baxter.

• La La Land - While navigating their careers in Los Angeles, a pianist and an actress fall in love while attempting to reconcile their aspirations for the future.

• Everything Everywhere All at Once - A middle-aged Chinese immigrant is swept up into an insane adventure in which she alone can save existence by exploring other universes and connecting with the lives she could have led.

• The Piano - In the mid-19th century a mute woman is sent to New Zealand along with her young daughter and prized piano for an arranged marriage to a farmer, but is soon lusted after by a farm worker.

• Lost In Translation - A faded movie star and a neglected young woman form an unlikely bond after crossing paths in Tokyo.

• The Hurt Locker - During the Iraq War, a Sergeant recently assigned to an army bomb squad is put at odds with his squad mates due to his maverick way of handling his work.

• Lady Bird - In 2002, an artistically inclined 17-year-old girl comes of age in Sacramento, California.

• Promising Young Woman - A young woman, traumatized by a tragic event in her past, seeks out vengeance against those who crossed her path.

• Nomadland - A woman in her sixties, after losing everything in the Great Recession, embarks on a journey through the American West, living as a van-dwelling modern-day nomad.

• The Power of the Dog - Charismatic rancher Phil Burbank inspires fear and awe in those around him. When his brother brings home a new wife and her son, Phil torments them until he finds himself exposed to the possibility of love.

• Anatomy of a Fall - A woman is suspected of her husband's murder, and their blind son faces a moral dilemma as the main witness.

🔜 Next Month 🔜

The theme for MARCH will be INSPIRING INCLUSION. To celebrate International Women’s Day, we will be sharing films that coincide with this year’s official IWD theme. Feel free to give me your thoughts about this post or the next one in the comments or on Insta!

We’re half way through January, we’re past Blue Monday and awards season is in full swing - things are looking up! If you’re like me and use January as a month to decompress after Christmas and to recoup both your body and bank balance after a period of over-indulgence, perhaps this month’s list of films will align with your current state of being. Living on a shoestring isn’t easy… but it’s made much more enjoyable when you’ve got a load of great movies and TV to watch to pass the chilly evenings.

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Although there is a lot more to be said for a film’s production than its budget, some of the figures between budget and box office are truly astounding. Rocky (1976) for example - often cited in must-watch film lists and as one of the best boxing movies ever made - had an estimated budget of $960,000 and its worldwide gross was $117 million. Likewise, the first film in Satyajit Ray’s Apu Trilogy, Pather Panchali (1955), was produced on a shoestring budget of an estimated $3000 and is now regarded as one of the greatest films of all time. As a genre, horror in particular seems to lend itself well to low budget and big profits, with Saw, The Blair Witch Project and Get Out being a few well-known and highly profitable titles. One of the most impressive examples is Paranormal Activity, which had an estimated budget of $15,000 and grossed $193 million - just going to show that you don’t necessarily need the big bucks to make a hit.

When looking at lists of profitable low-budget films, the vast majority (if not all) are directed by men. So why might this be? Although not based on the most recent data, a 2016 Hollywood Reporter article suggests that distribution is a factor:

On average, low-budget films directed by women were released on only a third as many screens that male-directed movies under $25 million received, a ratio of 242 to 646. And this distribution gap perpetuates the chronic problem facing women in film, especially when it comes to the fact that they are routinely given 25 percent smaller production budgets than their male counterparts.

And this Sight and Sound article states that actually, as budgets rise, fewer women are hired as directors.

The lack of female filmmakers cannot be attributed to a lack of drive, but to the fact that they are being overlooked by the industry once they are working within it. This is further validated by Directors UK statistics regarding the number of female directors at each stage of a career, from shorts and low-budget films to mid-range movies and studio blockbusters. The report’s statistics on the disappearance of women are stark: while 16.1 per cent of directors of films budgeted at less than £150,000 were female, women accounted for just 3.3 per cent of films with a budget of £30 million.

Taking both of these things into account, it seems that women aren’t often given the opportunity to direct mid-budget (£1-10 million) films, and even less so for big budget (£30 million and up) films, and when they have directed low-budget films, the chances of them being a box office success is hampered because the distribution is scant. So where does that leave us, besides angry and outraged? Well, the positive here it that there are plenty of incredible feature films directed by women with low to modest budgets, and even if they didn’t make millions of pounds/dollars upon theatrical release (for a multitude of reasons) they are still films well worth seeing, and that’s what makes up this month’s picks:

🎞 January Selection 🎞

THE RIDER | Official Trailer | Altitude Films | Dir. Chloe Zhao

1. The Rider (2017; Dir. Chloe Zhao; estimated budget of $80,000)

   After suffering a near fatal head injury, a young cowboy undertakes a search for new identity and what it means to be a man in the heartland of America. Rent or buy on Apple TV, Amazon, Youtube or Google Play.

2. Shiva Baby (2020; Dir. Emma Seligman; estimated budget of $200,000)

   At a Jewish funeral service with her parents, a college student runs into her sugar daddy and ex girlfriend. Stream on Mubi.
   

3. Aftersun (2022; Dir. Charlotte Wells; budget unknown - the film accessed £350,000 through Screen Scotland as well as funding through BBC Films and the BFI)
   Sophie reflects on the shared joy and private melancholy of a holiday she took with her father twenty years earlier. Memories real and imagined fill the gaps between as she tries to reconcile the father she knew with the man she didn't... Rent or buy on Apple TV, Amazon, Youtube or Google Play.

🎬 The Long List: Optional Extras 🎬

Other notable films suggested for the theme (all figures below are estimates): 

• Middle of Nowhere - Ruby goes on a journey of self-discovery when she drops out of medical school in order to focus on her incarcerated husband's well-being. Budget: $200,000.

• Paranormal Activity - After moving into a suburban home, a couple becomes increasingly disturbed by a nightly demonic presence. Budget: $15,000; gross worldwide: $193 million.

• Napoleon Dynamite - A listless and alienated teenager decides to help his new friend win the class presidency in their small western high school, while he must deal with his bizarre family life back home. Budget: £400,000; gross worldwide: $46 million.

• Blair Witch Project - Three film students vanish after traveling into a Maryland forest to film a documentary on the local Blair Witch legend, leaving only their footage behind. Budget: £200,000; gross worldwide: $248 million.

• Slacker - A day in the life of Austin, Texas as the camera roams from place to place and provides a brief look at the overeducated, the social misfits, the outcasts and the oddballs. Budget: $23,000; box office gross worldwide: $1.2 million.

• Eraserhead - Henry Spencer tries to survive his industrial environment, his angry girlfriend, and the unbearable screams of his newly born mutant child. Budget: $10,000.

• Catfish - Young filmmakers document their colleague's budding online friendship with a young woman and her family which leads to an unexpected series of discoveries. Budget: $30,000; gross worldwide: $3.5 million.

• Rocky - A small-time Philadelphia boxer gets a supremely rare chance to fight the world heavyweight champion in a bout in which he strives to go the distance for his self-respect. Budget: $960,000; gross worldwide: $117 million.

• Saw - Two strangers awaken in a room with no recollection of how they got there, and soon discover they're pawns in a deadly game perpetrated by a notorious serial killer. Budget: $1.2 million; worldwide gross: $103 million.

• Moonlight - A young African-American man grapples with his identity and sexuality while experiencing the everyday struggles of childhood, adolescence, and burgeoning adulthood. Budget: $4 million; gross worldwide: $65 million.

• Lost in Translation - A faded movie star and a neglected young woman form an unlikely bond after crossing paths in Tokyo. Budget: $4 million; gross worldwide: $187.8 million.

• Another Earth - On the night of the discovery of a duplicate Earth in the Solar system, an ambitious young student and an accomplished composer cross paths in a tragic accident. Budget: $100,000; gross worldwide: $1.9 million.

🔜 Next Month 🔜

The theme for FEBRUARY will be THE BIG FIVE. It Happened One Night celebrates 90 years on 27th February and was the first film to win ‘The Big Five’ at The Oscars: Best Picture, Best Director, Best Actor, Best Actress, and Best Adapted Screenplay. So we’ll be looking at this and the other films that have won and been nominated for these five awards. Feel free to give me your thoughts about this post or the next one in the comments or on Insta!

December is here and I can say, hand on heart, that I’ve only watched one Christmas film ahead of today. I was peer-pressured this week with a lot of “Oh, go on!” type remarks into watching Click and Collect, a 53 minute British odd-couple buddy comedy with Stephen Merchant and Asim Chaudhry, who are neighbours that go in search of a toy unicorn in time for Christmas morning. Since watching it a couple of years ago, it has just become a festive staple in our house. It’s harmless, silly and heartwarming so I fully recommend it for a quick and easy watch at the start of the season.

For this month’s theme, we are focusing on how Christmas is depicted around the world. There are plenty of festive films that we all know and love from the UK and USA, but I wanted to use the club to highlight some from outside of the usual Christmas canon.

Happy holidays to anyone reading this - I hope you have a very merry or restful time, depending on what it is you need as the year draws to a close! Enjoy 🎄

Here is the selection and long list for December:

🎞 December Selection 🎞

Rare Exports: A Christmas Tale Trailer | Dir. Jalmari Helander

1. Rare Exports: A Christmas Tale (2010; Dir. Jalmari Helander; Finland)
   In the depths of the Korvatunturi mountains, 486 meters deep, lies the closest ever guarded secret of Christmas. The time has come to dig it up.

   Stream on Freevee or buy on Apple TV.

2. Joyeux Noel (2005; Dir. Christian Carion; France/Germany)
   In December 1914, an unofficial Christmas truce on the Western Front allows soldiers from opposing sides of the First World War to gain insight into each other's way of life.
   Rent or buy on Apple TV, Amazon, YouTube and other online retailers.

3. Christmas Carole (1965; Dir. Agnes Varda; France)

   Varda’s loose take on Dickens. Short film - an unfinished project.

   Stream on Now TV.

🎬 The Long List: Optional Extras 🎬

Other notable films suggested for the theme: 

• 8 Women / 8 femmes - France - One murdered man, eight women, each seeming to be eager than the others to know the truth. Gimme, gimme, gimme some clues to make up my mind. And eventually enter the truth.

• Rare Exports: A Christmas Tale - Finland - In the depths of the Korvatunturi mountains, 486 meters deep, lies the closest ever guarded secret of Christmas. The time has come to dig it up. This Christmas everyone will believe in Santa Claus.

• Home for Christmas - Norway - When the constant comments on her single status and society's expectations of the perfect family Christmas finally get to 30-year-old Johanne, she starts a 24-day hunt for a partner to bring home for Christmas (Netflix series).

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• Felicidades - Argentina - Shows how several characters spend Christmas Eve in Buenos Aires, and how their lives intersect.

• Over Christmas - Germany - Bastian returns home for the holidays to learn that his brother is dating his ex, and if that wasn't enough, his parents are also keeping a big secret (Netflix mini-series).

• Will It Snow for Christmas? - France - A woman keeps a happy home for her seven children despite the tyranny of her mostly absent husband.

• Troublemakers / Botte di Natale - Italy - Two brothers who hate each other are going to spend Christmas with their mother. She tries to get them together.

• Three Days of Christmas - Spain - Four sisters celebrate Christmas in their family home at 3 different times in their lives: teen-hood, adulthood and elderly age (mini-series).

• Just Another Christmas / Tudo Bem No Natal Que Vem - Brazil - Stuck in a time loop where it's forever Christmas, a family man who hates the holiday starts to learn valuable lessons about what's important in life.

• The Taste of Christmas / El sabor de la Navidad - Mexico - Three separate groups navigate the emotionally fraught season of Christmas.

• Tokyo Godfathers / Tôkyô goddofâzâzu - Japan - On Christmas Eve, three homeless people living on the streets of Tokyo discover a newborn baby among the trash and set out to find its parents.

• Listy do M. - Poland - A romantic comedy set on Christmas Eve in Warsaw and centered around a series of characters.

• Vacanze di Natale - Italy - Christmas holidays on the snow of Cortina D'Ampezzo. Mario, a guy from Rome who has little money, falls in love with American Samantha, the girlfriend of hypochondriac Roberto.

• The Day of the Beast / El día de la bestia - Spain/Italy - Bent on committing as many sins as possible to avert the birth of the beast, a Catholic priest teams up with a Black Metal aficionado and an Italian connoisseur of the occult. Now, he must become an unrelenting sinner.

• The Christmas Dream / Le rêve de Noël - France - a 1900 French short (4 minutes) silent Christmas film directed by Georges Méliès.

• Santa Claus Is a Stinker / Le père Noël est une ordure - France - Two neurotics, working for a suicide hotline on the night of Christmas Eve, get caught up in a catastrophe when a pregnant woman, her abusive boyfriend, and a transvestite visit their office.

• How the Toys Saved Christmas / La Freccia Azzurra - Italy - A group of toys take matters into their own hands when their Christmas delivery is in jeopardy.

• Mirai no omoide: Last Christmas - Japan - Based on the 'not quite Sci-Fi, not quite a Romance' manga by the Fujiko F. Fujio. Yuko dreams of being a best selling children's author, but as an adult she has made little progress.

• Merry Christmas - Ecuador - In this documentary short, Francisco and his sister Damaris live in a small house in the mountain. The kids look to create their own christmas after the death of their uncle, the one that used to be the soul of the party.

• Save Christmas - Italy - Grumpy Dad dislikes Christmas while mum and kids strive to save Santa from animated villain's captivity through solving 8 digital riddles.

• Christmas in August - South Korea - Hahn Suk-Kyu suffers from a fatal disease. He meets Shim Eun-Ha and falls in love with her. Will their love story have a tragic ending?

🔜 Next Month 🔜

The theme for January will be MOVIES ON A SHOESTRING. Inspired by the fact that nobody has any money to do anything fun in January, this theme will showcase some of the most successful films made on a low budget (relative to genre, year and by usual Hollywood standards). Send me any recommendations via the comments or on Insta!

The clocks have gone back, the days are shorter, the colours of the trees are turning and November is here in all its crisp and cosiness - the perfect conditions for film marathons and nights in.

This month’s titles are based around the theme ‘As Cold As Ice’ to commemorate 10 years of Frozen - Disney’s 53rd animated film. Sometimes when we use the phrase cultural phenomenon, we don’t actually mean it. But in the case of Frozen, it has earned this label because of the way it has changed trends and behaviours beyond the screen.

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Dr Sarah Godfrey, Associate Professor at the University of East Anglia, was commissioned to conduct a study on the film (which you can read in full here: Lessons from Arendelle: The Cultural Phenomenon of Disney’s Frozen) and said: “Frozen is a global phenomenon which pervaded popular culture in a way we can’t ignore, having a massive impact on everything from the names we call our children, to inspiring multiple viral trends such as Elsa hair tutorials, celebrity lip synch battles to the popularity of the sing-along concept on YouTube and TikTok. It was the first time many young girls saw an act of sisterly love given more prominence over a romantic one. Elsa and Anna have been crucial in creating spaces for new female characters, not just within the Disney canon but in cinema and media culture more broadly.”

Before we get into this month’s list, here are some facts about Jennifer Lee and Chris Buck’s animated adventure that you might not have known before:

• Frozen’s co-director Jennifer Lee broke lots of records and boundaries with this film. She was the first woman to direct a Disney animated feature film, as well as the first female director behind a feature film that earned more than $1 billion in gross revenue at the box office.

• It is loosely based on the 1844 Hans Christian Andersen tale, ‘The Snow Queen’. However, the original ending of Frozen changed during production so there aren’t actually many similarities remaining at all besides the idea that a good person needs to be saved from having a frozen heart.

• The film inspired a tourism boom in Norway (increasing by 40 per cent) as a result of the country (or specifically Bergen) being the real-life inspiration for Arendelle, the fictional village in Frozen.

• New research by Disney found that the film resonates with one in two children. In a survey of 3000 parents by Fly Research across the UK, France, Germany, Spain and Italy in August 2023, 43% of parents felt the characters had a positive impact on the representation of gender roles in animated films, and 33% credited this for boosting their sons’ and daughters’ confidence. Parents agreed that the movie’s themes positively affected their child, with the top outcomes being kindness (44%), courageousness (33%), acceptance (30%) and teamwork (29%).

• About Elsa: she is the only Disney princess that is not a teenager, as she is 21 years old, and is also the first Disney princess to be crowned Queen in the film.

The 10th anniversary celebrations for Frozen include a movie re-release, a new podcast series of a standalone adventure set after Frozen 2, fan-favourite content on Disney+, updates to the hit musical, and a range of new products, toys, and costumes.

Here is the selection and long list for November:

🎞 November Selection 🎞

Disney's Frozen Official Trailer | Walt Disney Animation Studios

1. Frozen (2013; Dir. Chris Buck & Jennifer Lee)
   When the newly crowned Queen Elsa accidentally uses her power to turn things into ice to curse her home in infinite winter, her sister Anna teams up with a mountain man, his playful reindeer, and a snowman to change the weather condition.

   Stream on Disney Plus.

2. Fargo (1996; Dir. Joel and Ethan Coen)
   Minnesota car salesman Jerry Lundegaard's inept crime falls apart due to his and his henchmen's bungling and the persistent police work of the quite pregnant Marge Gunderson.
   Stream on Freevee.

3. Slalom (2020; Dir. Charlène Favier) - Under the guidance of a strict ex champion, a promising 15 year old girl trains as a professional skiing star.Will she be able to endure the physical and emotional pressures?
   Stream on Mubi or Curzon.

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🎬 The Long List: Optional Extras 🎬

Other notable films suggested for the theme: 

• Wind River - A wildlife officer, who is haunted by a tragedy that happened because of him, teams up with an FBI agent in solving a murder of a young woman on a Wyoming Native American reservation and hopes to get redemption from his past regrets.

• Where'd You Go, Bernadette - A loving mom becomes compelled to reconnect with her creative passions after years of sacrificing herself for her family. Her leap of faith takes her on an epic adventure that jump-starts her life and leads to her triumphant rediscovery.

• The Thing - A research team in Antarctica is hunted by a shape-shifting alien that assumes the appearance of its victims.

• The Hateful Eight - In the dead of a Wyoming winter, a bounty hunter and his prisoner find shelter in a cabin currently inhabited by a collection of nefarious characters.

• The Shining - A family heads to an isolated hotel for the winter where a sinister presence influences the father into violence, while his psychic son sees horrific forebodings from both past and future.

• Molly’s Game - The true story of Molly Bloom, an Olympic-class skier who ran the world's most exclusive high-stakes poker game and became an FBI target.

• Snowpiercer - In a future where a failed climate change experiment has killed all life except for the survivors who boarded the Snowpiercer (a train that travels around the globe), a new class system emerges.

• Winter’s Bone - An unflinching Ozark Mountain girl hacks through dangerous social terrain as she hunts down her drug-dealing father while trying to keep her family intact.

• The Chronicles of Narnia: The Lion, the Witch and the Wardrobe - Four kids travel through a wardrobe to the land of Narnia and learn of their destiny to free it with the guidance of a mystical lion.

• Ice Age - The story revolves around sub-zero heroes: a woolly mammoth, a saber-toothed tiger, a sloth and a prehistoric combination of a squirrel and rat, known as Scrat.

• Dr Zhivago - The life of a Russian physician and poet who, although married to another, falls in love with a political activist's wife and experiences hardship during World War I and then the October Revolution.

• The Mountain Between Us - Stranded after a tragic plane crash, two strangers must forge a connection to survive the extreme elements of a remote snow-covered mountain. When they realize help is not coming, they embark on a perilous journey across the wilderness.

• The Revenant - A frontiersman on a fur trading expedition in the 1820s fights for survival after being mauled by a bear and left for dead by members of his own hunting team.

• In Bruges - Guilt-stricken after a job gone wrong, hitman Ray and his partner await orders from their ruthless boss in Bruges, Belgium, the last place in the world Ray wants to be.

• Long Way North - In 1882, a young Russian aristocrat goes on an epic adventure to find out what happened to her grandfather and save her family's reputation.

Coming out in cinemas soon…

• Anatomy of a Fall - A woman is suspected of her husband's murder, and their blind son faces a moral dilemma as the sole witness.

🔜 Next Month 🔜

The theme for December will be CHRISTMAS AROUND THE WORLD. I haven’t got any films in mind for this one yet so any suggestions would be gratefully received via the comments or on Insta.

It sure doesn’t feel like Spooky Season. The world just had its hottest September on record and the UK has been experiencing a strangely warm October as well. Climate scientists are clearly at a loss for how else they can make people (leaders) pay attention to the effects of the El Niño event, because they are using language like '“absolutely gobsmackingly bananas” to describe it. Anyway, here we are, under three weeks from Halloween, and people still haven’t transitioned to wearing boots, beanies and hoodies yet. When the chill finally comes, let it be known that I am ready for it.

The theme for this month’s Film & TV Lunch Club is Spooky Girls, so it’s a chance to celebrate the goths, the freaks, the ghouls and the important contribution of women within the horror genre.

While I appreciate the craft and creativity that goes into making good horror, the genre is not my specialism by a long mile. I once messaged a friend to admit that I was a wimp and that they would have to watch a film first so they could tell me when I needed to hide, and they responded with something that I always think about: “horror is the genre that most makes you feel alive!”

So whenever I’m hiding behind a pillow, hoping for the final jumpscare to be over so that I can stop shallow breathing and un-tense my shoulders, I try to think about that and appreciate my alive-ness. In fact, I just started re-watching A Girl Walks Home Alone at Night (one of this month’s picks) and I already appreciate the fact that I don’t live in a place as ominous-sounding as ‘Bad City’.

With that in mind, I am breaking out of my comfort zone and will watch some new horror this month! I know how interrelated horror and feminism can be so I also offer some consolatory further reading: Women Make Horror: Filmmaking, Feminism, Genre edited by Alison Peirse, and fully recommend following Kim’s Cinema Escape on Instagram, who is much more knowledgeable than me about the genre.

Here’s the October selection and long list… just in time for the weekend. Enjoy:

🎞 October Selection 🎞

Official Trailer: Prevenge | Dir. Alice Lowe

1. Raw (2016; Dir. Julia Ducournau)
   A young woman, studying to be a vet, develops a craving for human flesh.

   Rent or buy on Apple TV, Youtube or Google Play .

2. Prevenge (2016; Dir. Alice Lowe)
   Widow Ruth is seven months pregnant when, believing herself to be guided by her unborn baby, she embarks on a homicidal rampage, dispatching anyone who stands in her way.

   Stream on BFI Player or Amazon Prime.

3. A Girl Walks Home Alone at Night (2014; Dir. Ana Lily Amirpour) - In the Iranian ghost-town Bad City, a place that reeks of death and loneliness, the townspeople are unaware they are being stalked by a lonesome vampire.
   Stream on StudioCanal Presents.

🎬 The Long List: Optional Extras 🎬

Other notable films suggested for the theme: 

• Fresh - After quitting dating apps, a woman meets the supposedly perfect man and accepts his invitation to a romantic weekend getaway, only to find that her new paramour has been hiding some unusual appetites.

• Black Swan - Nina is a talented but unstable ballerina on the verge of stardom. Pushed to the breaking point by her artistic director and a seductive rival, Nina's grip on reality slips, plunging her into a waking nightmare.

• Jennifer’s Body - A newly-possessed high-school cheerleader turns into a succubus who specializes in killing her male classmates. Can her best friend put an end to the horror?

• Suspiria - A darkness swirls at the center of a world-renowned dance company, one that will engulf the artistic director, an ambitious young dancer, and a grieving psychotherapist. Some will succumb to the nightmare. Others will finally wake up.

• Carrie - Carrie White, a shy, friendless teenage girl who is sheltered by her domineering, religious mother, unleashes her telekinetic powers after being humiliated by her classmates at her senior prom.

• The Love Witch - A modern-day witch uses spells and magic to get men to fall in love with her, with deadly consequences.

• The Babadook - A single mother and her child fall into a deep well of paranoia when an eerie children's book titled "Mister Babadook" manifests in their home.

• La Llorona - An aging paranoid war criminal, protected by his faithful wife, faces death while being haunted by the ghosts of his past.

• Ginger Snaps - Two death-obsessed sisters, outcasts in their suburban neighborhood, must deal with the tragic consequences when one of them is bitten by a deadly werewolf.

• Hocus Pocus - A teenage boy named Max and his little sister move to Salem, where he struggles to fit in before awakening a trio of diabolical witches that were executed in the 17th century.

• Twilight - When Bella Swan moves to a small town in the Pacific Northwest, she falls in love with Edward Cullen, a mysterious classmate who reveals himself to be a 108-year-old vampire.

• Titane - Following a series of unexplained crimes, a father is reunited with the son who has been missing for 10 years.

• Near Dark - A small-town farmer's son reluctantly joins a traveling group of vampires after he is bitten by a beautiful drifter.

• Pet Sematary - After tragedy strikes, a grieving father discovers an ancient burial ground behind his home with the power to raise the dead.

• Halloween - Fifteen years after murdering his sister on Halloween night 1963, Michael Myers escapes from a mental hospital and returns to the small town of Haddonfield, Illinois to kill again.

• Black Christmas - During their Christmas break, a group of sorority girls are stalked by a stranger.

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🔜 Next Month 🔜

The theme for NOVEMBER will be AS COLD AS ICE. Not because I’m obsessed with the weather, but because it will be 10 years since the release of Disney’s Frozen! We’ll be rewatching Jennifer Lee and Chris Buck’s animated adventure, and dropping in some films which are equally as chilly. Please add your recommendations for this in the comments or on Insta!

As mentioned in August’s Club Vault post, 26 September is European Day of Languages, the inspiration for this month’s theme. It’s easy to forget that beyond English speaking films there is a whole other world of cinema to explore, and those that can’t quite get past the one-inch barrier are missing out (so says Bong Joon Ho).

I will be in Paris on the date above (and yes, I will be trying my best to put my Duolingo lessons into practice) so maybe that’s why French films dominate the list slightly (or maybe it’s just because I love them), but I also couldn’t believe that POALOF hadn’t been part of a selection yet and this feels like the right time to include it. That said, I would always encourage anyone to seek the entire filmography of Céline Sciamma.

Here’s the September selection and long list - they are all films directed by women, just to narrow it down a little further:

🎞 September Selection 🎞

Official Trailer: Portrait of a Lady on Fire | Neon | Dir. Céline Sciamma

1. Portrait of a Lady on Fire (2019; Dir. Céline Sciamma) - French
   On an isolated island in Brittany at the end of the eighteenth century, a female painter is obliged to paint a wedding portrait of a young woman.

   Currently streaming on Netflix.

2. Daisies (1966; Dir. Vera Chytilová) - Czech
   After realizing that all world is spoiled, Marie and Marie are committed to be spoiled themselves. They rip off older men, feast in lavish meals and do all kinds of mischief. But what is all this leading to?

   Currently streaming on BFI Player.

3. System Crasher (2019; Dir. Nora Fingscheidt) - German

   9-year-old Benni is a toss-up between institutions that cannot tackle her outbursts. She wants to move in with her mother, but she can not handle her wild daughter. After Micha is hired Benni slowly opens up and attaches herself to him.
   Rent or buy from Apple, Google or Amazon.

🎬 The Long List: Optional Extras 🎬

Other notable films suggested for the theme: 

• Varda by Agnès - Agnès Varda, photographer, installation artist and pioneer of the Nouvelle Vague, is an institution of French cinema. Taking a seat on a theatre stage, she uses photos and film excerpts to provide an insight into her unorthodox oeuvre.

• Piggy - An overweight teen is bullied by a clique of cool girls poolside while holidaying in her village. The long walk home will change the rest of her life.

• Palazzo di giustizia - While a trial involving murder, manslaughter and armed robbery is being conducted inside the courtroom, the two daughters of the accused are sentenced to wait outside in the hallway.

• Corsage - A fictional account of one year in the life of Empress Elisabeth Of Austria. On Christmas Eve 1877, Elisabeth, once idolized for her beauty, turns 40 and is officially deemed an old woman; she starts trying to maintain her public image.

• Mustang - When five orphan girls are seen innocently playing with boys on a beach, their scandalized conservative guardians confine them while forced marriages are arranged.

• Titane - Following a series of unexplained crimes, a father is reunited with the son who has been missing for 10 years.

• Saint Omer - Follows Rama, a novelist who attends the trial of Laurence Coly at the Saint-Omer Criminal Court to use her story to write a modern-day adaptation of the ancient myth of Medea, but things don't go as expected.

• The Quiet Girl - Rural Ireland 1981. A quiet, neglected girl is sent away from her dysfunctional family to live with foster parents for the summer. She blossoms in their care, but in this house where there are meant to be no secrets, she discovers one.

• Summer 1993 - After her mother's death, six-year-old Frida is sent to her uncle's family to live with them in the countryside. But Frida finds it hard to forget her mother and adapt to her new life.

• Open Hearts - A Dogme film about an engaged couple that is torn apart after the man is paralyzed in an accident, and the woman falls in love with the husband of the woman who caused the accident.

🔜 Next Month 🔜

The theme for October will be SPOOKY GIRLS so expect a Halloween list with a twist. Please drop your recommendations for this in the comments or on Insta!

Apparently National Sisters Day happens on the first Sunday of August, which was the inspiration behind this month’s theme. Though I don’t have a ‘real’ sister, some of my closest friends have often been like a sister to me and when I think about it, I feel like I have been, or am, part of a handful of sisterhoods. They’re not the sort of thing that you can brand as such (“Would you like to join our sisterhood?” just sounds contrived - perhaps that’s what they try to do with sororities in the US), but in my experience they grow organically as the lives of girls and women converge, and we console each other on the basis that we are together in periods of change, collective interest, upheaval or celebration.

Of course, sisterhood in its classic iteration through a blood bond brings with it the wonderful and frightening unfiltered versions of people as they behave with a knowing that no matter what, their sister will be there for them. We see this played out brilliantly in 10 Things I Hate About You, with grumpy older sister Kat still protective of her sibling Bianca even though she fundamentally disagrees with her choices. Then there’s Katniss Everdeen, who exemplifies the ultimate sisterly sacrifice as she volunteers as tribute in her sister’s place in The Hunger Games - the entire catalyst for the film series. Interestingly, Anna and Elsa from Frozen weren’t originally sisters, but the writing team decided that having a family link made the story more dynamic. It’s almost unimaginable to think of them as non-sisters now.

One of my favourite depictions of sisterhood in film is Skate Kitchen. Actually, it’s one of my favourite ever films and I haven’t added it here because it was in the July 2020 selection. But the friends that the main character meets are part of a sisterhood almost out of necessity because they exist in such a male-dominated space that there is a need to form something more in order to thrive.

Knowing that someone has got your back is a consistent thread in the films featuring sisters - whether related or not - and these intense, important relationships form in contexts ranging from sports teams, cults, foster homes and manor houses. It’s a reliance on people and a belief in something more than the individual because the connections in a sisterhood go beyond transactional. Sisters and sisterhood can hold the potential to become transformational and completely change how girls and women perceive theirselves and the world. That life-affirming sense of belonging, in whatever form it takes, must be cherished!

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I could write about this all day so let’s dive in to the August selection and long list:

🎞 August Selection 🎞

Official Trailer: A League of Their Own (1992) | Sony Pictures

1. A League of Their Own (1992; Dir. Penny Marshall)
   Two sisters join the first female professional baseball league and struggle to help it succeed amid their own growing rivalry. Currently streaming on ITV X (UK). You can also rent or buy from on Apple TV, Amazon, Google or YouTube.

2. The Wonders (Le meraviglie) (2014; Dir. Alice Rohrwacher)
   A family of beekeepers living in the Tuscan countryside finds their household disrupted by the simultaneous arrival of a silently troubled teenage boy and a reality TV show intent on showcasing the family. Stream on Mubi or buy/rent in the usual places.

3. The Stroll (2023; Dir. Zackary Drucker and Kristen Lovell)

   The history of New York's Meatpacking District told from the point of view of transgender sex workers who lived and worked there - an exploration of a sisterhood alongside activism in the community. Stream on Now TV.

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🎬 The Long List: Optional Extras 🎬

Other notable films/TV shows suggested for the theme: 

• Sister Sister - Tia Landry and Tamera Campbell are twins separated at birth who learn of each other's existence and come together as teenagers.

• Full House - A widowed sportscaster raises his three daughters with assistance from his rock and roll brother-in-law and madcap best friend.

• Two of a Kind - A show about a single father who has his hands full raising twin sisters Mary-Kate and Ashley.

• Gilmore Girls - A dramedy centering around the relationship between a thirtysomething single mother and her teen daughter living in Stars Hollow, Connecticut. No, not sisters, but their relationship often feels sisterly.

• Pride and Prejudice (mini-series) - While the arrival of wealthy gentlemen sends her marriage-minded mother into a frenzy, willful and opinionated Elizabeth Bennet matches wits with haughty Mr. Darcy.

• 10 Things I Hate About You - A high-school boy, Cameron, cannot date Bianca until her anti-social older sister, Kat, has a boyfriend. So, Cameron pays a mysterious boy, Patrick, to charm Kat (Bianca’s sister!).

• Little Women - Jo March reflects back and forth on her life, telling the beloved story of the March sisters - four young women, each determined to live life on her own terms.

• Sisterhood of the Travelling Pants - Four best girlfriends hatch a plan to stay connected with one another as their lives start off in different directions: they pass around a pair of secondhand jeans that fits each of their bodies perfectly.

• Hocus Pocus 1 & 2 - A teenage boy named Max and his little sister move to Salem, where he struggles to fit in before awakening a trio of diabolical witches that were executed in the 17th century. The Sanderson Sisters accidentally return to Salem in Hocus Pocus 2.

• The Hunger Games - Katniss Everdeen voluntarily takes her younger sister's place in the Hunger Games: a televised competition in which two teenagers from each of the twelve Districts of Panem are chosen at random to fight to the death.

• Frozen - When the newly crowned Queen Elsa accidentally uses her power to turn things into ice to curse her home in infinite winter, her sister Anna teams up with a mountain man, his playful reindeer, and a snowman to change the weather condition.

• Hanging Up - A trio of sisters bond over their ambivalence toward the approaching death of their curmudgeonly father, to whom none of them was particularly close.

• Kelly and Her Sisters - An affecting record of the day-to-day life of a family living in a condemned house on a run-down estate in Birmingham.

• White Christmas - A successful song-and-dance team become romantically involved with a sister act and team up to save the failing Vermont inn of their former commanding general.

• Meet Me In St Louis - Young love and childish fears highlight a year in the life of a turn-of-the-century family.

• La Mif (The Fam) - A group of teenage girls have been placed in a residential care home with social workers. This forced "family" experience creates unexpected tensions and intimacies. An incident triggers a chain of over-reactions.

• Sisters - Two sisters decide to throw one last house party before their parents sell their family home.

• The Virgin Suicides - A group of male friends become obsessed with five mysterious sisters who are sheltered by their strict, religious parents in suburban Detroit in the mid 1970s.

• Whatever Happened to Baby Jane? (1962) - A former child star torments her paraplegic sister in their decaying Hollywood mansion.

• Mustang - When five orphan girls are seen innocently playing with boys on a beach, their scandalized conservative guardians confine them while forced marriages are arranged.

• Sister Act - When a nightclub singer is forced to take refuge from the mob in a convent, she ends up turning the convent choir into a soulful chorus complete with a Motown repertoire, until the sudden celebrity of the choir jeopardizes her identity.

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🔜 Next Month 🔜

The theme for September will be FOR THE LOVE OF LANGUAGE (as it will be the European Day of Languages on 26 September) - so lots of films celebrating European languages with non-English titles aplenty. Please drop your recommendations for this in the comments or on Insta!

Barbie | Teaser Trailer | Warner Bros Pictures

I know the discourse has often steered into a competition about whether people will go to see Barbie or Oppenheimer (why has everything got to be so polarised? Many people will likely see both and enjoy them both - people can be more complex than ‘this or that’), but this friendly rivalry will likely result in better box office takings for both films. Plus, how incredible is it having two non-franchise films being the centre of the summer cinema calendar for a change?!

After talking about it extensively in multiple WhatsApp groups and after looking through this Twitter thread compiling some of the marketing for the film (why wouldn’t I want my two bedroom terrace house to smell like the Barbie Dreamhouse?), I am giddy at the thought of going to see Barbie when it’s released on 21 July. And, for the record, I will probably double-bill it with Nolan’s biopic because otherwise I’ll get film FOMO.

Back to Barbie: to mark this iconic and magenta-infused occasion, this month’s theme is ‘Think Pink’. We’re honouring the film that contributed to a worldwide shortage of pink paint by engulfing ourselves in a selection of rose, watermelon, bubblegum and fuchsia hues captured by filmmakers to date. Some of them are drenched in pink, while others use pink sparingly, and some have a notably pink scene, prop or element - Natalie Portman’s wig in Closer, for example!

Below you will find the selection of titles to watch for the theme, as well as a long list which you can use as a watchlist. Each film on the short list has a method for watching but please note that these are correct as of today (for UK viewers) and are subject to change.

🎞 July Selection 🎞

The Grand Budapest Hotel Trailer | Dir. Wes Anderson

1. Marie Antoinette (2006; Dir. Sofia Coppola)
   The retelling of France's iconic but ill-fated queen, Marie Antoinette. From her betrothal and marriage to Louis XVI at 14 to her reign as queen at 19 and to the end of her reign as queen, and ultimately the fall of Versailles. Stream on Lionsgate+ or rent from on Apple TV, Amazon, Google or YouTube.

2. The Grand Budapest Hotel (2014; Dir. Wes Anderson)
   A writer encounters the owner of an aging high-class hotel, who tells him of his early years serving as a lobby boy in the hotel's glorious years under an exceptional concierge. Stream on Disney +.

3. Legally Blonde (2001, Dir. Robert Luketic)
   Elle Woods, a fashionable sorority queen, is dumped by her boyfriend. She decides to follow him to law school. While she is there, she figures out that there is more to her than just looks. Stream on the MGM Amazon channel or rent from Amazon and other online retailers.

🎬 The Long List: Optional Extras 🎬

Other notable films/TV shows suggested for the theme:

• Grease - Good girl Sandy Olsson and greaser Danny Zuko fell in love over the summer. When they unexpectedly discover they're now in the same high school, will they be able to rekindle their romance? Look out for the Pink Ladies!

• Mean Girls - “On Wednesdays we wear pink.”

• Suspiria - A darkness swirls at the center of a world-renowned dance company, one that will engulf the artistic director, an ambitious young dancer, and a grieving psychotherapist. Some will succumb to the nightmare. Others will finally wake up.

• Spring Breakers - Four college girls hold up a restaurant in order to fund their spring break vacation. While partying, drinking, and taking drugs, they are arrested, only to be bailed out by a drug and arms dealer.

• Pretty in Pink - A poor girl must choose between the affections of dating her childhood sweetheart or a rich but sensitive playboy.

• Barbarella - Barbarella, an astronaut from the 41st century, sets out to find and stop the evil scientist Durand Durand, whose Positronic Ray threatens to bring evil back into the galaxy.

• But I’m a Cheerleader - A naive teenager is sent to rehab camp when her straitlaced parents and friends suspect her of being a lesbian.

• The Pink Panther - Bumbling Inspector Clouseau must solve the murder of a famous soccer coach and find out who stole the infamous Pink Panther diamond.

• Pink Floyd: The Wall - A confined but troubled rock star descends into madness in the midst of his physical and social isolation from everyone.

• Atomic Blonde - An undercover MI6 agent is sent to Berlin during the Cold War to investigate the murder of a fellow agent and recover a missing list of double agents.

• Last Night in Soho - An aspiring fashion designer is mysteriously able to enter the 1960s, where she encounters a dazzling wannabe singer. But the glamour is not all it appears to be and the dreams of the past start to crack and splinter into something darker.

• The Love Witch - A modern-day witch uses spells and magic to get men to fall in love with her, with deadly consequences.

• The Neon Demon - An aspiring model, Jesse, is new to Los Angeles. However, her beauty and youth, which generate intense fascination and jealousy within the fashion industry, may prove themselves sinister.

• A Cinderella Story - Routinely exploited by her wicked stepmother, the downtrodden Samantha Montgomery is excited about the prospect of meeting her Internet beau at the school's Halloween dance.

• Singin’ in the Rain - A silent film star falls for a chorus girl just as he and his delusionally jealous screen partner are trying to make the difficult transition to talking pictures in 1920s Hollywood.

• Closer - The relationships of two couples become complicated and deceitful when the man from one couple meets the woman of the other.

• Burlesque - A small-town girl ventures to Los Angeles and finds her place in a neo-burlesque club run by a former dancer.

• Drive - A mysterious Hollywood action film stuntman gets in trouble with gangsters when he tries to help his neighbor's husband rob a pawn shop while serving as his getaway driver.

• The Umbrellas of Cherbourg - A young woman separated from her lover by war faces a life-altering decision.

• Mishima: A Life in Four Chapters - A fictionalized account in four chapters of the life of celebrated Japanese writer Yukio Mishima.

• Valley of the Dolls - Film version of Jacqueline Susann's best-selling novel chronicling the rise and fall of three young women in show business.

• Barbie in the Nutcracker - Barbie shows that if you are kind, clever and brave, anything is possible in this tale of Clara and her amazing Nutcracker , who set off on an adventure to find the Sugarplum Princess.

If you watch along this month, please comment with your thoughts on the selection! Similarly, if you have any other suggestions for the longlist, feel free to share your recommendations.

🔜 Next Month 🔜

The theme for August will be SISTERS so if you have any recommendations for this one ahead of time, just drop me a message or comment!

It’s summer in the UK and we are experiencing a bout of sunny weather with the ‘hottest day of the year’ occurring over the bank holiday weekend just gone. Of course, moderate warmth can be glorious, but the more the country (and world) heats up, the more we are reminded of how the climate is becoming more unstable, and how extreme the impact of this could be - indeed, it already is for people around the world.

The relationship between people and planet has never been so critical, so to mark World Environment Day on 5th June, this month’s theme is ‘Climate Emergency’. We’re watching films which help us to visualise the drastic effects of climate change in a way that is much more immersive than an article or story rolling around on on the 24 hour news cycle. Not only can films document the existing, known experiences in our human history, but they can foresee and predict versions of the future - the plausiblity of them dependent on how we act now.

Below you will find the selection of titles to watch for the theme, as well as a long list which you can use as a watchlist - each film, documentary or television show on the short list has a method for watching but please note that these are correct as of today (for UK viewers) and are subject to change.

🎞 June Selection 🎞

How To Blow Up A Pipeline | Official Trailer | Dir. Daniel Goldhaber

1. How to Blow Up a Pipeline (2021; Dir. Daniel Goldhaber)
   Crime/drama/thriller: A crew of environmental activists plot a daring plan to disrupt an oil pipeline. Buy now on Apple TV, Amazon, Google or YouTube.

2. Frozen Planet II (2022; Narrated by David Attenborough)
   Documentary mini-series: Following life in the frozen regions of the planet, including polar bears, Siberian tigers, snow monkeys, and penguins. Stream on BBC iPlayer.

3. Honeyland (2019, Dir. Tamara Kotevska and Ljubomir Stefanov)
   Documentary: The last female bee-hunter in Europe must save the bees and return the natural balance in Honeyland, when a family of nomadic beekeepers invade her land and threaten her livelihood. Stream on Now TV or rent from Amazon and other online retailers.

🎬 The Long List: Optional Extras 🎬

Other notable films/TV shows suggested for the theme:

• Interstellar - When Earth becomes uninhabitable in the future, a farmer and ex-NASA pilot, Joseph Cooper, is tasked to pilot a spacecraft, along with a team of researchers, to find a new planet for humans.

• Down to Earth with Zac Efron - In this travel show, actor Zac Efron journeys around the world with wellness expert Darin Olien in search of healthy, sustainable ways to live.

• Leave No Trace - A father and his thirteen-year-old daughter are living an ideal existence in a vast urban park in Portland, Oregon when a small mistake derails their lives forever.

• First Reformed - A minister of a small congregation in upstate New York grapples with mounting despair brought on by tragedy, worldly concerns and a tormented past.

• Biggest Little Farm - Documentarian John Chester and his wife Molly work to develop a sustainable farm on 200 acres outside of Los Angeles.

• Embrace of the Serpent - The story of the relationship between Karamakate, an Amazonian shaman and last survivor of his people, and two scientists who work together over the course of forty years to search the Amazon for a sacred healing plant.

• Okja - A young girl risks everything to prevent a powerful, multinational company from kidnapping her best friend - a fascinating beast named Okja.

• WALL-E - In the distant future, a small waste-collecting robot inadvertently embarks on a space journey that will ultimately decide the fate of mankind.

• Chinatown - A private detective hired to expose an adulterer in 1930s Los Angeles finds himself caught up in a web of deceit, corruption, and murder.

• A Flash of Green (1984) - Local reporter gets involved with corrupt county commissioner.

• The Island President - After bringing democracy to his country, President Mohamed Nasheed of the Maldives, the lowest-lying country in the world, takes up the fight to keep his homeland from disappearing under the sea.

• Local Hero (1983) - An American oil company has plans for a new refinery and sends someone to Scotland to buy up an entire village, but things don't go as expected.

• Silent Running - In a future where all flora is extinct on Earth, an astronaut is given orders to destroy the last of Earth's botany, kept in a greenhouse aboard a spacecraft.

• Don’t Look Up - Two low-level astronomers must go on a giant media tour to warn humankind of an approaching comet that will destroy planet Earth.

• Dark Waters - A corporate defense attorney takes on an environmental lawsuit against a chemical company that exposes a lengthy history of pollution.

• Woman at War (2018) - Halla becomes a determined environmental activist, but this threatens a long-held hope of hers.

• Rebellion/Beyond the Emergency - A group of ordinary people stop playing by the rules, embracing civil disobedience and sounding the alarm for climate breakdown. They are rebellious and they are flawed revealing the human drama at the heart of social change.

• Kiss The Ground - A revolutionary group of activists, scientists, farmers, and politicians band together in a global movement of "Regenerative Agriculture" that could balance our climate, replenish our vast water supplies, and feed the world.

• I Am Greta - The documentary follows Greta Thunberg, a teenage climate activist from Sweden, on her international crusade to get people to listen to scientists about the world's environmental problems.

• Bring Your Own Brigade - An investigation into our landscape's hidden fire stories and on-the-ground experiences of firefighters and residents struggling through deadly fires.

• 2040 - Practical solutions to environmental concerns are addressed with the hope that the filmmaker's daughter, 21 years old in the year 2040, will face a hopeful future.

• Waterworld - In a future where the polar ice-caps have melted and Earth is almost entirely submerged, a mutated mariner fights starvation and outlaw "smokers," and reluctantly helps a woman and a young girl try to find dry land.

• Demain/Tomorrow - The world's climate is changing. Instead of showing the worst that can happen, this documentary focuses on the people suggesting solutions and their actions.

If you watch along this month, please comment with your thoughts on the selection! Similarly, if you have any other suggestions for the longlist, feel free to share your recommendations.

🔜 Next Month 🔜

The theme for July will be THINK PINK as a nod to Greta Gerwig’s Barbie which will be released on the 21st July in the UK.

March is host to International Women's Day on the 8th and is also when we celebrate Women's History Month. The 'Femme Fatale' theme for Film and TV Lunch Club month is a reflection of this fact - a great reason to celebrate women in film! The shortlist of titles is what we will discuss when we meet virtually at the end of the month, but the longlist is also well worth a peruse for a look at the development of female characters - 'dangerous women' - in cinema and television since the 1950s.

Having read the synopsis for Emerald Fennell's 'Promising Young Woman', I am sure we would have been discussing that had the release schedule not been interrupted by Covid. Oh well - at least it is something to look forward to once it gets digital distribution in the UK!

🎞 March Selection 🎞

1. Angel Face (1953; Dir: Otto Preminger) Crime, Drama, Film-Noir: Ambulance driver Frank Jessup is ensnared in the schemes of the sensuous but dangerous Diane Tremayne. Stream on BBC iPlayer.

2. Léon: The Professional (1994; Luc Besson) Action, Crime, Drama: Mathilda, a 12-year-old girl, is reluctantly taken in by Léon, a professional assassin, after her family is murdered. An unusual relationship forms as she becomes his protégée and learns the assassin's trade.(Rent)

3. Three Billboards Outside Ebbing, Missouri (2017; Martin McDonagh) Comedy, Crime, Drama: A mother personally challenges the local authorities to solve her daughter's murder when they fail to catch the culprit. (Rent)

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🎬 The Long List: Optional Extras 🎬

Other notable films/TV shows suggested for the theme - watch if you can or at a later date:

• Salt (on Netflix) - A CIA agent goes on the run after a defector accuses her of being a Russian spy.

• Gone Girl (Prime) - With his wife's disappearance having become the focus of an intense media circus, a man sees the spotlight turned on him when it's suspected that he may not be innocent.

• I Care A Lot (Prime) - A crooked legal guardian who drains the savings of her elderly wards meets her match when a woman she tries to swindle turns out to be more than she first appears.

• Under the Skin - A mysterious young woman seduces lonely men in the evening hours in Scotland. However, events lead her to begin a process of self-discovery.

• Prevenge (Prime) - Widow Ruth is seven months pregnant when, believing herself to be guided by her unborn baby, she embarks on a homicidal rampage, dispatching anyone who stands in her way.

• Natural Born Killers (Prime) - Two victims of traumatized childhoods become lovers and psychopathic serial murderers irresponsibly glorified by the mass media.

• The Girl with the Dragon Tattoo (Prime) - Journalist Mikael Blomkvist is aided in his search for a woman who has been missing for forty years by Lisbeth Salander, a young computer hacker.

• The Girl in the Spider's Web (Netflix) - Young computer hacker Lisbeth Salander and journalist Mikael Blomkvist find themselves caught in a web of spies, cybercriminals and corrupt government officials.

• Basic Instinct - A violent police detective investigates a brutal murder that might involve a manipulative and seductive novelist.

• The Babysitter (Netflix)- The events of one evening take an unexpected turn for the worst for a young boy trying to spy on his babysitter.

• Fatal Attraction - A married man's one-night stand comes back to haunt him when that lover begins to stalk him and his family.

• Birds of Prey - After splitting with the Joker, Harley Quinn joins superheroes Black Canary, Huntress and Renee Montoya to save a young girl from an evil crime lord.

• Red Sparrow - Ballerina Dominika Egorova is recruited to 'Sparrow School,' a Russian intelligence service where she is forced to use her body as a weapon. Her first mission, targeting a C.I.A. agent, threatens to unravel the security of both nations.

• Double Indemnity - An insurance representative lets himself be talked by a seductive housewife into a murder/insurance fraud scheme that arouses the suspicion of an insurance investigator.

• Bonnie & Clyde - Based on the true story of Clyde Barrow, a charismatic convicted armed robber who sweeps Bonnie Parker off her feet, and the two embark on one one of most infamous bank-robbing sprees in history.

• Chinatown - A private detective hired to expose an adulterer finds himself caught up in a web of deceit, corruption, and murder.

• China Moon - Detective Kyle Bodine falls for Rachel Munro who is trapped in a violent marriage. After shooting her husband, Kyle reluctantly agrees to help hide the body, but Kyle's partner is showing an unusual flair for finding clues.

• The Last Seduction - A devious sexpot steals her husband's drug money and hides out in a small town where she meets the perfect dupe for her next scheme.

• To Die For - A beautiful but naïve aspiring television personality films a documentary on teenagers with a darker ulterior motive.

• The Long Kiss Goodnight - Samantha Caine lives in a small town with her daughter. Eight years ago she emerged, two months pregnant, from a nearby river with no memory of her past or who she is. However, she's getting closer to finding out about her past.

• Vertigo - A former police detective juggles wrestling with his personal demons and becoming obsessed with a hauntingly beautiful woman.

• Killing Eve (Pilot or Series 2 episode 3) - After a series of events, the lives of a security operative and an assassin become inextricably linked.

• The Dark Knight Rises - Eight years after the Joker's reign of anarchy, Batman, with the help of the enigmatic Catwoman, is forced from his exile to save Gotham City from the brutal guerrilla terrorist Bane.

• Kill Bill - After awakening from a four-year coma, a former assassin wreaks vengeance on the team of assassins who betrayed her.

• Switchblade Romance - Best friends Marie and Alexia decide to spend a quiet weekend at Alexia's parents' secluded farmhouse. But on the night of their arrival, the girls' idyllic getaway turns into an endless night of horror.

• Inside - Four months after the death of her husband, a woman on the brink of motherhood is tormented in her home by a strange woman who wants her unborn baby.

• You're Next - When the Davison family comes under attack during their wedding anniversary getaway, the gang of mysterious killers soon learns that one of the victims harbors a secret talent for fighting back.

• Halloween (2018) - Laurie Strode confronts her long-time foe Michael Myers, the masked figure who has haunted her since she narrowly escaped his killing spree on Halloween night four decades ago.

• Monster - Based on the life of Aileen Wuornos, a Daytona Beach prostitute who became a serial killer.

• Alien - After a space merchant vessel receives an unknown transmission as a distress call, one of the crew is attacked by a mysterious life form and they soon realize that its life cycle has merely begun.

• Maria (on Netflix) - A Filipino female assassin quits and fakes her death. Her old boss finds out after she's gotten a family. He tries to kill them. She responds.

• Gilda - A small-time gambler hired to work in a Buenos Aires casino discovers his employer's new wife is his former lover.

• The Lady from Shanghai – Fascinated by gorgeous Mrs. Bannister, seaman Michael O'Hara joins a bizarre yachting cruise, and ends up mired in a complex murder plot.

• The Big Sleep - Private detective Philip Marlowe is hired by a wealthy family. Before the complex case is over, he's seen murder, blackmail, and what might be love.

• The Postman Always Rings Twice - The sensuous wife of a lunch wagon proprietor and a rootless drifter begin a sordidly steamy affair and conspire to murder her Greek husband.

• In a Lonely Place - A potentially violent screenwriter is a murder suspect until his lovely neighbor clears him. However, she soon starts to have her doubts.

• Double Indemnity - An insurance representative lets himself be talked by a seductive housewife into a murder/insurance fraud scheme that arouses the suspicion of an insurance investigator.

• Mildred Pierce - A hard-working mother inches towards disaster as she divorces her husband and starts a successful restaurant business to support her spoiled daughter.

• Rebecca - A self-conscious woman juggles adjusting to her new role as an aristocrat's wife and avoiding being intimidated by his first wife's spectral presence (1940).

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🔜 Next Month 🔜

The theme for April will be ALL THAT JAZZ to coincide with International Jazz Day on April 30th.

The members of my #filmandtvlunchclub put forward and have been voting on titles which they think fits the theme this month: 'Love is Love'. Below you will find the selection that got the most votes in our poll, as well as a long list of other titles which you can use as a watchlist - each film, documentary or television show has a method for watching in brackets but please note that these are correct as of today and are subject to change.

🎞 February Selection 🎞

The Lobster | Official Trailer HD | A24

1. The Lobster (2015; Dir: Yorgos Lanthimos) Comedy/drama/romance: In a dystopian near future, single people, according to the laws of The City, are taken to The Hotel, where they are obliged to find a romantic partner in forty-five days or are transformed into beasts and sent off into The Woods. Rent from Rakuten, Amazon, Youtube or BFI Player.

2. Time (2020; Dir: Garrett Bradley) - F-Rated Documentary: Fox Rich fights for the release of her husband, Rob, who is serving a 60-year sentence in prison. Stream on Amazon Prime.

3. Submarine (2010; Dir: Richard Ayoade) Comedy/drama/romance: 15-year-old Oliver Tate has two objectives: To lose his virginity before his next birthday, and to extinguish the flame between his mother and an ex-lover who has resurfaced in her life. Rent from all the places listed above.

Bonus Short: If Anything Happens, I Love You (2020; Dir. Michael Govier, Will McCormack) - Animation/short/drama: This illustrated short film takes us on an extraordinary emotional journey of two parents struggling to overcome the hurt left by a tragic event that leaves their family changed forever.

🎬 The Long List: Optional Extras 🎬

Other notable films/TV shows suggested for the theme by club members:

• Love, Simon (Rent or watch on Channel 4 on 14th February) - Simon Spier keeps a huge secret from his family, his friends and all of his classmates: he's gay. When that secret is threatened, Simon must face everyone and come to terms with his identity.

• Appropriate Behaviour (Prime) – Shirin is struggling to become an ideal Persian daughter, politically correct bisexual and hip young Brooklynite but fails miserably in her attempt at all identities. Being without a cliché to hold onto can be a lonely experience.

• Someone Great (Netflix) - After a devastating break up on the eve of her cross-country move, Jenny enjoys one last NYC adventure with her two best pals. Someone Great is a romantic comedy about love, loss, growth and the everlasting bond of female friendship.

• Time and Again (BBC iPlayer) - Welsh acting legend Dame Siân Phillips stars alongside Brigit Forsyth in this award-winning drama written and directed by Cardiff-based film-maker Rachel Dax.

• 10 Things I Hate About You (Disney Plus) - A pretty, popular teenager can't go out on a date until her ill-tempered older sister does.

• About Time (Prime and Netflix) - At the age of 21, Tim discovers he can travel in time and change what happens and has happened in his own life. His decision to make his world a better place by getting a girlfriend turns out not to be as easy as you might think.

• Definitely Maybe (Netflix) - A political consultant tries to explain his impending divorce and past relationships to his 11-year-old daughter.

• Under the Eiffel Tower (Netflix) - Stuart is a having a mid-life crisis. Desperate for something more in life, he tags along on his best friend's family vacation to Paris - then proposes to his friend's 26-year-old daughter, Rosalind, while standing under the Eiffel Tower.

• Frances Ha (Prime) - A New York woman (who doesn't really have an apartment) apprentices for a dance company (though she's not really a dancer) and throws herself headlong into her dreams, even as the possibility of realizing them dwindles.

• Notting Hill (Netflix) - The life of a simple bookshop owner changes when he meets the most famous film star in the world.

• Manchester by the Sea (Prime) - A depressed uncle is asked to take care of his teenage nephew after the boy's father dies.

• P.S. I Love You (Netflix) - A young widow discovers that her late husband has left her 10 messages intended to help ease her pain and start a new life.

• Black Mirror: Hang the DJ (Season 4 - Netflix) and Be Right Back (Season 2 -Netflix) –Two episodes from Charlie Brooker’s anthology series.

• Lost in Translation (Prime) - A faded movie star and a neglected young woman form an unlikely bond after crossing paths in Tokyo.

• Beautiful Boy (Prime) - Chronicles the heartbreaking and inspiring experience of survival, relapse and recovery in a family coping with addiction over many years.

• Squid and the Whale (Prime) - Follows two young boys dealing with their parents' divorce in Brooklyn in the 1980s.

• The Handmaiden (Netflix) - A woman is hired as a handmaiden to a Japanese heiress, but secretly she is involved in a plot to defraud her.

• The Notebook (Netflix) - A poor yet passionate young man falls in love with a rich young woman, giving her a sense of freedom, but they are soon separated because of their social differences.

• My Octopus Teacher (Netflix) - A filmmaker forges an unusual friendship with an octopus living in a South African kelp forest, learning as the animal shares the mysteries of her world.

• What If (Netflix) - Wallace, who is burned out from a string of failed relationships, forms an instant bond with Chantry, who lives with her longtime boyfriend. Together, they puzzle out what it means if your best friend is also the love of your life.

• Holding The Man (Netflix) - Tim and John fell in love while teenagers at their all-boys high school. John was captain of the rugby team, Tim an aspiring actor playing a minor part in Romeo and Juliet.

• Call Me By Your Name (Rent) - In 1980s Italy, romance blossoms between a seventeen-year-old student and the older man hired as his father's research assistant.

• Rafiki (Rent on BFI Player) - "Good Kenyan girls become good Kenyan wives," but Kena and Ziki long for something more. When love blossoms between them, the two girls will be forced to choose between happiness and safety.

• Portrait of a Lady on Fire (Mubi) - On an isolated island in Brittany at the end of the eighteenth century, a female painter is obliged to paint a wedding portrait of a young woman.

• Blue Is The Warmest Colour (Rent) - Adèle's life is changed when she meets Emma, a young woman with blue hair, who will allow her to discover desire and to assert herself as a woman and as an adult. In front of others, Adèle grows, seeks herself, loses herself, and ultimately finds herself through love and loss.

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🔜 Next Month 🔜

The theme for March will be FEMME FETALE to coincide with International Women's Day on March 8th. In the meantime, register for Miss En Scene's #ChooseToChallengeCinema event here!

This month we've got three feature films all voted for by regular members on the theme of AUSTRALIA. They are all available on Netflix or Prime and two of them are F-Rated, which is brilliant! The theme is inspired by Australia Day (26th January) so if you'd like to read about Australia Day, the official website is here.

🎞 January Selection 🎞

Babyteeth - Official Trailer I IFC Films | Dir. Shannon Murphy

1. Babyteeth (2019; Dir: Shannon Murphy) - F-Rated
Comedy/Drama/Music: Milla, a seriously ill teenager, falls in love with a drug dealer, Moses, her parents worst nightmare. Watch on Netflix.

2. Romper Stomper (1992; Dir: Geoffrey Wright)
Crime/Drama: A group of skinheads become alarmed at the way their neighbourhood is changing. Available on Prime.

3. The Nightingale (2018; Dir: Jennifer Kent) - F-Rated Adventure/Drama/Thriller: Set in 1825, Clare, a young Irish convict woman, chases a British officer through the rugged Tasmanian wilderness, bent on revenge for a terrible act of violence he committed against her family. On the way she enlists the services of an Aboriginal tracker named Billy, who is also marked by trauma from his own violence-filled past. Available on Netflix.

🎬 The Long List: Optional Extras 🎬

Other notable films/TV shows suggested for the theme:

• Crocodile Dundee - An American reporter goes to the Australian outback to meet an eccentric crocodile poacher and invites him to New York City. On Netflix.

• True History of the Kelly Gang - Based on Peter Carey's novel. The story of Australian bushranger Ned Kelly and his gang as they flee from authorities during the 1870s.

• Holding the Man - Tim and John fell in love while teenagers at their all-boys high school. John was captain of the rugby team, Tim an aspiring actor playing a minor part in Romeo and Juliet.

• Somersault - A young girl flees her hometown and arrives in the Australian Alps, where new experiences help her learn the differences between sex and love.

• Chopper - Chopper tells the intense story of Mark "Chopper" Read, a legendary criminal who wrote his autobiography while serving a jail sentence in prison. His book, "From the Inside", upon which the film is based, was a best-seller.

• The Inbetweeners 2 - Jay, Neil, Simon, and Will reunite in Australia for a holiday.

• Two Hands - A 19 year old finds himself in debt to a local gangster when some gang loot disappears and sets him on the run from thugs. Meanwhile two street kids start a shopping spree when they find the missing money.

• The Castle - A working-class family from Melbourne, Australia fights city hall after being told they must vacate their beloved family home to allow for infrastructural expansion.

• Muriel’s Wedding - A young social outcast in Australia steals money from her parents to finance a vacation where she hopes to find happiness, and perhaps love.

• Rabbit-Proof Fence - In 1931, three half-white, half-Aboriginal girls escape after being plucked from their houses to be trained as domestic staff, and set off on a journey across the Outback.

• Moulin Rouge! - A poet falls for a beautiful courtesan whom a jealous duke covets.

• Wolf Creek - Three backpackers stranded in the Australian outback are plunged inside a hellish nightmare of insufferable torture by a sadistic psychopathic local.

• Gallipoli - Two Australian sprinters face the brutal realities of war when they are sent to fight in the Gallipoli campaign in Turkey during World War I.

• Picnic at Hanging Rock - During a rural summer picnic, a few students and a teacher from an Australian girls' school vanish without a trace. Their absence frustrates and haunts the people left behind.

• The Dish - A remote Australian community, populated by quirky characters, plays a key role in the first Apollo moon landing.

• Snowtown - Based on true events, 16 year-old Jamie falls in with his mother's new boyfriend and his crowd of self-appointed neighborhood watchmen, a relationship that leads to a spree of torture and murder.

• Candy - A poet falls in love with an art student who gravitates to his bohemian lifestyle - and his love of heroin. Hooked as much on one another as they are on the drug, their relationship alternates between states of oblivion, self-destruction, and despair.

• Australia - Set in northern Australia before World War II, an English aristocrat who inherits a sprawling ranch reluctantly pacts with a stock-man in order to protect her new property from a takeover plot. As the pair drive 2,000 head of cattle over unforgiving landscape, they experience the bombing of Darwin, Australia, by Japanese forces firsthand.

• Ned Kelly - An innocent man becomes one of the most wanted criminals the world has ever known.

• The Man From Snowy River - In 1880s Australia, after young Jim Craig's father dies, Jim takes a job at the Harrison cattle ranch, where he is forced to become a man.

• Wake In Fright - After a bad gambling bet, a schoolteacher is marooned in a town full of crazy, drunk, violent men who threaten to make him just as crazy, drunk, and violent.

• In Like Flynn - The adventurous life of young Errol Flynn in Australia before he became a famous Hollywood actor.

• Spear - Djali, a young Aboriginal man journeys through his community to understand what it means to be a man with ancient traditions in a modern world.

• Parkway Drive: The DVD - Documentary about the Australian metalcore group, Parkway Drive. It is centered on the formation and beginnings of the band, their record label signings and how they managed to continuously tour from country to country with little time in between.

• The Infinite Man - A man's attempts to construct the ultimate romantic weekend backfire when his quest for perfection traps his lover in an infinite loop.

• Acute Misfortune - The Film adaptation of Erik Jensen's award-winning biography of Adam Cullen is the story of the biographer and his subject, as it descends into a dependent and abusive relationship.

• Sweet Country - Australian western set on the Northern Territory frontier in the 1920s, where justice itself is put on trial when an aged Aboriginal farmhand shoots a white man in self-defense and goes on the run as a posse gathers to hunt him down.

• Casting JonBenet - In the months following the unsolved murder of 6-year-old beauty queen JonBenet Ramsey, responses were elicited from her Colorado hometown community, creating a work of art from the collective memories and mythologies the crime inspired.

• Mad Max: Fury Road - In a post-apocalyptic wasteland, a woman rebels against a tyrannical ruler in search for her homeland with the aid of a group of female prisoners, a psychotic worshiper, and a drifter named Max.

• Mad Max - In a self-destructing world, a vengeful Australian policeman sets out to stop a violent motorcycle gang.

• The Babadook - A single mother and her child fall into a deep well of paranoia when an eerie children's book titled "Mister Babadook" manifests in their home.

• Strictly Ballroom - A maverick dancer risks his career by performing an unusual routine and sets out to succeed with a new partner.

• Shine - Pianist David Helfgott, driven by his father and teachers, has a breakdown. Years later he returns to the piano, to popular if not critical acclaim.

• Adventures of Priscilla, Queen of the Desert - Two drag performers and a transgender woman travel across the desert to perform their unique style of cabaret.

• Mary and Max - A tale of friendship between two unlikely pen pals: Mary, a lonely, eight-year-old girl living in the suburbs of Melbourne, and Max, a forty-four-year old, severely obese man living in New York.

• Dead Calm - After a tragedy, John Ingram and his wife Rae are spending some time isolated at sea, when they come across a stranger who has abandoned a sinking ship.

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🔜 Next Month 🔜

The theme for February will be LOVE IS LOVE as an open/alternative take on Valentine's Day.

Any questions, let me know and feel free to share this link with anyone who might be interested in joining in!

There is a quicker turnaround than usual this month because I’m on leave for the last week of the month so the virtual meet up will be on Thursday 20th August. If you would like to join us, please email me via the Contact form or get in touch via Instagram. If not, feel free to just use this for watchlist inspiration!

🎞August Selection🎞

The Edge of Seventeen | Official UK Trailer | eOne UK

1. The Edge of Seventeen  (2016; Dir: Kelly Fremon Craig) - Triple F Rated

Comedy: High-school life gets even more unbearable for Nadine when her best friend, Krista, starts dating her older brother. Available on Netflix.  

2. I May Destroy You (2020; Creator: Michaela Coel)  TV Drama:  The question of sexual consent in contemporary life and how, in the new landscape of dating and relationships, we make the distinction between liberation and exploitation. All episodes are on BBC iPlayer. We will discuss episode 1, but feel free to continue watching if you enjoy the pilot! 

3.  Inside Out (2015; Dir: Pete Docter, Ronnie Del Carmen)

Animation, Adventure, Comedy: After young Riley is uprooted from her Midwest life and moved to San Francisco, her emotions - Joy, Fear, Anger, Disgust and Sadness - conflict on how best to navigate a new city, house, and school. Stream on Disney Plus. 

🎬 The Long List: Optional Extras 🎬

Other notable films/TV shows suggested for the theme:

• Election - A high school teacher's personal life becomes complicated as he works with students during the school elections, particularly with an obsessive overachiever determined to become student body president. 

• Quadrophenia - Jimmy loathes his job and parents. He seeks solace with his mod clique, scooter riding and drugs, only to be disappointed. 

• Blinded by the Light - In England in 1987, a teenager from an Asian family learns to live his life, understand his family and find his own voice through the music of American rock star Bruce Springsteen.

• Heathers - In order to get out of the snobby clique that is destroying her good-girl reputation, an intelligent teen teams up with a dark sociopath in a plot to kill the cool kids. 

• Kids - A day in the life of a group of teens as they travel around New York City skating, drinking, smoking and deflowering virgins. 

• Kidulthood - A day in the life of a group of troubled 15-year-olds growing up in west London. 

• American Honey - A teenage girl with nothing to lose joins a travelling magazine sales crew, and gets caught up in a whirlwind of hard partying, law bending and young love as she crisscrosses the Midwest with a band of misfits. 

• Thirteen - A thirteen-year-old girl's relationship with her mother is put to the test as she discovers drugs, sex, and petty crime in the company of her cool but troubled best friend. 

• School of Rock - After being kicked out of his rock band, Dewey Finn becomes a substitute teacher of an uptight elementary private school, only to try and turn his class into a rock band. 

• Christiane F. - A teen girl in 1970's Berlin becomes addicted to heroin. Everything in her life slowly begins to distort and disappear as she befriends a small crew of junkies and falls in love with a drug-abusing male prostitute. 

• Easy A - A clean-cut high school student relies on the school's rumour mill to advance her social and financial standing. 

• Euphoria - A look at life for a group of high school students as they grapple with issues of drugs, sex and violence. 

• Chicuarotes - A group of teenagers in Mexico City set out to enrich their lives. 

• Raw - A young woman, studying to be a vet, develops a craving for human flesh. 

• Jeune femme - In her early thirties, broke, and in the wake of a humbling breakup, a spirited, yet rudderless young woman finds herself struggling to get by in the bustling Parisian metropolis; however, if she can make it there, she'll make it anywhere. 

• Youth in Revolt - While his trailer trash parents teeter on the edge of divorce, Nick Twisp sets his sights on dream girl Sheeni Saunders, hoping that she'll be the one to take away his virginity. 

• Juno - Faced with an unplanned pregnancy, an offbeat young woman makes an unusual decision regarding her unborn child. 

• The Wolfpack - Confined in an apartment from a New York housing project, the six Angulo brothers learned everything they know about the world through watching films and spend their time reenacting their favourite movies with intricate homemade costumes. 

• 10 things I hate about you - A pretty, popular teenager can't go out on a date until her ill-tempered older sister does. 

• The Last Tree - After a happy childhood in the countryside, a teenager moves to London, where he must navigate an unfamiliar environment on his road to adulthood. 

• A Brighter Summer Day - Based on a true story, primarily on a conflict between two youth gangs, a 14-year-old boy's girlfriend conflicts with the head of one gang for an unclear reason, until finally the conflict comes to a violent climax. 

• Booksmart - On the eve of their high school graduation, two academic superstars and best friends realize they should have worked less and played more. Determined not to fall short of their peers, the girls try to cram four years of fun into one night. 

• Skins - The story of a group of British teens who are trying to grow up and find love and happiness despite questionable parenting and teachers who more want to be friends (and lovers) rather than authority figures. 

• American Pie - Four teenage boys enter a pact to lose their virginity by prom night.

• I Shot My Parents - The story of American teenager Nathon Brooks who at the age of 14 shot his mother and father while they slept. Incredibly they both survived and are trying to come to terms with what their son did.

🔜 Next Month 🔜

The theme for September will be MARITIME to mark World Maritime Day 2020 on Thursday 24th September so please put your [pirate] hats on, and bring your suggestions to the [captain's] table for our August meeting (or via email if you can’t make it). I'm confident we can create a list of titles for this theme that we can SINK our teeth into. I'll stop now...

Any questions, let me know and feel free to share this with anyone who might be interested in taking part or along.

#filmandtvlunchclub #youth #august #imaydestroyyou #edgeofseventeen #insideout