Email here for additions & corrections.

Ishtar
(May, 1987)
The Seven-Per-Cent Solution (OOP)
(Ross, 1976)
The Devils
(Russell, 1974)
The Pirates of Penzance
(Papp/Leach, 1983)
The Fortune
(Nichols, 1975)
-30-
(Webb, 1959)
Betrayal
(Jones, 1983)
Play It As It Lays
(Perry, 1972)
The Outfit
(Flynn, 1973)
Alex in Wonderland
(Mazursky, 1969)
The Legend of Lylah Clare
(Aldrich, 1968)
In The Cool of the Day
(Stevens, 1963)
That Cold Day in the Park
(Altman, 1969)
Thumb Trippin'
(Masters, 1972)
Midas Run
(Kjellin, 1969)
At Long Last Love
(Bogdanovich, 1973)
Brewster McCloud
(Altman, 1972)
Outcast of the Islands
(Reed, 1951)

Reader Submissions
1930's-1950's
The Moon's Our Home
(Seiter, 1936)
Sh! The Octopus
(McGann, 1937)
The Mating Season
(Leisen, 1951)
Bad for Each Other
(Rapper, 1953)
The Phenix City Story
(Karlson, 1955)
Run of the Arrow
(Fuller, 1956)
House of Secrets
(Green, 1956)
Saint Joan
(Preminger, 1957)
Macabre
(Castle, 1958)
The Fiend Who Walked the West
(G. Douglas, 1958
Five Gates to Hell
(Clavell, 1959)
1960's
Key Witness
(Karlson, 1960)
Summer and Smoke
(Glenville, 1961)
The Chapman Report
(Cukor,1962)
Bachelor Flat
(Tashlin, 1962) [on Hulu]
The L Shaped Room
(Forbes, 1963)
The Chalk Garden
(Neame, 1964)
A Thousand Clowns
(Coe, 1965)
You're a Big Boy Now
(Coppola, 1966)
The Whisperers
(Forbes, 1967)
Dark of the Sun
(Cardiff, 1968)
Skidoo
(Preminger, 1968)
Last Summer
(Perry, 1969)
The Comic
(C. Reiner, 1969)
1970-1974
The Revolutionary
(Williams, 1970)
The Landlord
(Ashby, 1970)
Diary of a Mad Housewife
(Perry, 1970)
Tropic of Cancer
(Strick, 1970)
I Never Sang for My Father
(Cates, 1970)
Sometimes a Great Notion
(Newman, 1971)
Marriage of a Young Stockbroker
(Turman, 1971)
The Music Lovers
(Russell, 1971)
Drive, He Said
(Nicholson, 1971)
The Steagle
(Sylbert, 1971)
The Last Movie
(Hopper, 1971)
Made For Each Other
(Bean, 1971)
The Day the Clown Cried
(Lewis, 1972)
Hickey & Boggs (OOP)
(Culp, 1972)
The Carey Treatment
(Edwards, 1972)
Pete 'n' Tillie
(Ritt, 1972)
Slither
(Zieff, 1973)
Man on a Swing
(Perry, 1974)
Open Season
(Collinson, 1974)
The Tamarind Seed
(Edwards, 1974)
Law and Disorder
(Passer, 1974)
Homebodies
(Yust, 1974)
Stardust
(Apted, 1974)
Celine and Julie Go Boating
(Rivette, 1974)
1975-1979
Rafferty and the Gold Dust Twins
(Richards, 1975
At Long Last Love
(Bogdanovich, 1975)
Hearts of the West
(Zieff, 1975)
Welcome to L.A.
(Rudolph, 1976)
W.C. Fields and Me
(Hiller, 1976)
Citizens Band
(Demme, 1977)
Twilight's Last Gleaming
(Aldrich, 1977)
Looking for Mr. Goodbar
(Brooks, 1977)
Girlfriends
(Weill, 1978)
Movie Movie
(Donen, 1978)
The Medusa Touch
(Gold, 1978)
American Hot Wax
(Mutrux, 1978)
Hot Stuff
(DeLuise, 1979)
Scavenger Hunt
(Schultz , 1979)
Players
(Harvey, 1979)
Rich Kids
(Young, 1979)
Nightwing
(Hiller, 1979)
Screams of a Winter's Night
(Wilson, 1979
When You Comin' Back Red Ryder?
(Katselas, 1979
1980's
Resurrection
(Petrie, 1980)
The Awakening
(Newell, 1980)
Simon
(Brickman, 1980)
God's Angry Man
(Herzog, 1980)
Fast-Walking
(Harris, 1982)
Twice Upon a Time
(Korty & Swenson, 1983)
Trouble in Mind
(Rudolph, 1985)
When the Wind Blows
(Murikami, 1986)
Housekeeping
(Forsyth, 1987)
The Glass Menagerie
(Newman, 1987)
Patty Hearst
(Schrader, 1988)
Drowning by Numbers
(Greenaway, 1988)
Haunted Summer
(Passer, 1988)
The Decline of Western Civilization Part II: The Metal Years
(Spheeris, 1988)
1990's
Old Times
(Curtis, 1991)
Prospero's Books
(Greenaway, 1991)
City of Hope
(Sayles, 1991)
The Baby of Macon
(Greenaway, 1993)
King of the Hill
(Soderbergh, 1993)
Dadetown
(Hexter, 1995)
SubUrbia
(Linklater, 1997)

Upcoming

January 8

Bitch Slap

Waiting for Armageddon

Wonderful World

Youth in Revolt

January 15

January 22

Drool

Extraordinary Measures

The Girl on the Train

Exercise

email this story
read comments (16)
post a comment

"If I were to select a topic now [for my next film] I think it would focus on a woman's story. I have two daughters. My films have been 'guy stories' and I think maybe its time to change course." -- Slumdog Millonaire director Danny Boyle recently speaking to Variety editor/columnist Peter Bart.

Imagine a woman director saying she thinks it's time to do a guy's story because she has two sons, her films have all been primarily about or made for women and maybe it's time change course. Imagine it, I'm saying, because it'll never happen. No, take it back -- Kimberly Peirce shot her brother's story with Stop Loss. I stand corrected.

But generally women directors don't feel they have the freedom or the options to flip it over and explore the other side. It's too much of a lopsided deal as it is with over 93% of the films out there being directed by guys. They feel they have no choice but to guard and work their turf. I don't blame them. I'd probably do the same.

Here It Is<< previous | next >>Sin Nombre

Posted by Jeffrey Wells on February 13, 2009 at 11:28 AM

comment #1

MindlessObamaton says ...

Most pointless post of the day? Kinda weak, Wells, especially after your praise of The Rourke interview, which is one of the best Charlie's ever done.

Posted by MindlessObamaton at February 13, 2009 11:56 AM

comment #2

BurmaShave says ...

Has THE HURT LOCKER finally slipped your mind? The closest thing Kathryn Bigelow has made to a 'woman's story' is BLUE STEEL.

Posted by BurmaShave at February 13, 2009 12:04 PM

comment #3

Gordie Lachance says ...

Mindless, your post would have the distinction of most pointless.

Good for Boyle, but if any director needed to change course less than him, I don't know who it could be.

When was the last time a director made films as radically different in tone as 28 Days Later, Millions and Sunshine?

Posted by Gordie Lachance at February 13, 2009 12:05 PM

comment #4

CitizenKanedforChewingGum says ...

Took the words right outta my mouth, Burma.

Hey -- what about Stop-Loss??! Maybe not a great film (I liked it), but didn't Peirce say she was inspired to do it because of her brother's involvement in the Iraq war?

Isn't this the same basic, weak argument as the "women directors have no visual sense?" As many said in that thread, the female directing contingent proportionally is so much smaller than the male's, it's almost futile to make direct comparisons or draw useful conclusions.

Posted by CitizenKanedforChewingGum at February 13, 2009 12:29 PM

comment #5

CitizenKanedforChewingGum says ...

Wow, I actually caused Wells to edit his main story.

Holding my head up high as I'm off to walk down the aisles of my local grocery store...

Posted by CitizenKanedforChewingGum at February 13, 2009 1:12 PM

comment #6

CitizenKanedforChewingGum says ...

Also, Mary Harron adapted the male-dominated American Psycho.

But you could easily argue that the film is mainly a satire on masculinity, so her portrayal of extreme male behavior is actually a rebuttal, which would ultimately make it (I guess?) a feminist film.

If that's the case, she certainly doesn't take the obvious route to get there (however, she would try a more traditional technique years later with her Bettie Page biopic...sorta).

Posted by CitizenKanedforChewingGum at February 13, 2009 1:22 PM

comment #7

DeafBrownTrashPunk says ...

This is NOT a pointless post, Wells, and thanks for bringing this issue up.

It's so frustrating for female screenwriters and female directors, period. I have the most amount of respect and admiration for them in this cutthroat male-dominated industry.

Posted by DeafBrownTrashPunk at February 13, 2009 1:35 PM

comment #8

Joshua Mooney says ...

I'm not sure I agree with your thesis, but it's an interesting one. Seems to me it has at least as much to do with the ratio of male/female directors in general. Kelly Reichardt's "Old Joy" was a dick-flick I really enjoyed, and I always felt "Strange Days" was perversely male.

Posted by Joshua Mooney at February 13, 2009 1:36 PM

comment #9

nemo says ...

Every movie Kathryn Bigelow has made has been a guy movie, including Blue Steel starring Jamie Lee Curtis.

Posted by nemo at February 13, 2009 1:51 PM

comment #10

George Prager says ...

THE LOVELESS is serious OWNAGE.

Posted by George Prager at February 13, 2009 2:17 PM

comment #11

George Prager says ...

American Psycho is chick lit. I have seen many women reading it on the subway. Never a man.

Posted by George Prager at February 13, 2009 3:33 PM

comment #12

CitizenKanedforChewingGum says ...

If you were checking them out, George, they were probably trannies.

Posted by CitizenKanedforChewingGum at February 13, 2009 5:01 PM

comment #13

Krazy Eyes says ...

Mr. Wroe's Virgins is pretty much a women's story. I'm surprised that hasn't come out now that Boyle's become such a name director.

I caught it a number of years ago when it aired on Sundance Channel and although it was slightly edited (Minnie Driver reported insisted on having her nude scenes cut out because she was big and fat) it was still a fantastic film -- one of Boyle's best.

Posted by Krazy Eyes at February 13, 2009 6:22 PM

comment #14

MovieBob says ...

I've spent most of the year so-far wishing that "Punisher Warzone" had been a hit, not so much for the movie-proper (near-perfect as what it is, but nothing earth-shattering) but rather for the "Wait... THIS was directed by a WOMAN??" reaction and commentary. Might even have opened studios etc. up to the idea of female action directors as some kind of potential 'hot new thing.'

Posted by MovieBob at February 14, 2009 2:12 AM

comment #15

George Prager says ...

Must have been a really short bunch of trannies! Actually trannies read "Memoirs of a Geisha" as do strippers.

Posted by George Prager at February 14, 2009 5:48 AM

comment #16

jinnlost5 says ...

This article gives the light in which we can observe the reality. this is very nice one and gives indepth information. thanks for this nice article shjux soonizer readysetwrite computertodays itgeek mjfprod dalepattersonassocs carussin

Posted by jinnlost5 at January 27, 2010 7:17 AM