movie update #1

I recently wrote about the Bechdel test and the car-free test. I thought I would post each movie I saw and results based on those two tests, but I've seen a number of movies since then and have yet to blog about it. But, here we go...

My Brother is an Only Child
This is a really great Italian film about two brothers' political and personal evolution in the 60s and 70s. As it was based in mostly small-town Italy, walking and transit were not shown in an unfavorable light. However, as the movie progressed and the years passed, the automobile gained greater significance both as an object and as part of one's life. The older brother celebrated his first full-time factory job by purchasing a brand new car. The younger brother was given a car by his mistress as a sign of gratitude. In addition, a key turning point in both the brothers' relationship and political beliefs involved the local fascist group planning to burn one of the brother's cars. Overall, I think this portrayal of the automobile was not to specifically signal its prominence over other modes, but to accurately show the integration of the automobile into Italian life.

As for the Bechdel test, it failed. But given the name of the film, why would anyone expect differently? The movie does have at least two women in it. Four to be precise, but none of the four ever speak to each other. (This may not be entirely accurate. I think the mom and the sister may say one or two sentences, but it is definitely not essential to the movie as I don't remember it.)

car-free women in movies

Recently (and by recently, I mean a long time ago, but I forgot to post anything), I read two really good pieces about film, and I think I’m going to start applying them to movies I watch.

The first is the Bechdel Test. There's even an online database of the Bechdel Test applied to movies. Basically, this test applies three questions to every movie:

1. Does the movie have at least two women in it?
2. Do the women talk to each other?
3. Do they talk about something besides a man?

Seems simple enough, but according to data collected in the database, 10% of movies don't even meet one of the above-listed criteria.

The second is based on this article:

“Greenberg is just the most recent film in which a character's non-automobility—whether for lack of a car or for lack of the ability to drive—is used for comic effect, whether as a metaphor for a deeper personality flaw or as a token of marginality and/or plain creepiness...Or perhaps it's the wider society that has trouble conceiving of life outside the omnipresent sphere of what sociologist John Urry calls 'automobility,' one tenet of which is 'the dominant culture that organizes and legitimates socialities across different genders, classes, ages and so on; that sustains major discourses of what constitutes the good life and what is necessary for an appropriate citizenship of mobility; and that provides potent literary and artistic images and symbols'...The list of prominent bicyclists in film history includes misfit teens (Napoleon Dynamite), eccentric Einstein-like scientists (the license-less Jeff Goldblum character in Independence Day, in which the bike is, admittedly, shown as a pretty decent way to escape Manhattan), vaguely countercultural types (Mark Wahlberg's character in I Heart Huckabees, or Carl Bernstein in All the President's Men) perpetual man-children (Pee-Wee's Big Adventure), and people who otherwise refuse to grow up or are out of touch with real life and the working world.”

Next time I watch a movie and can remember to do so, I'll post how that movie compares with the two tests above.