The Bechdel Test Applied

A black and white comic strip featuring two female characters going to see a film

Two weeks ago I looked at The Bechdel Test. A set of standards which aim to determine whether works of fiction are gender biased. The three requirements are as follows: the work must feature at least two named female characters, who talk to each other about something besides a male character.

Let’s apply the Bechdel test to a few of the nominees for this year’s Oscars Best Film Award.

Firstly, American Hustle. Two of the main characters are women, Sydney Prosser or Edith (Amy Adams) and Rosalyn Rosenfeld (Jennifer Lawrence). Both are strong female characters although Jennifer Lawrence’s role is mostly as Irving Rosenfeld’s wife. They do talk to each other in a scene in the second half of the film, in a conflict where they argue over Irving. They also briefly mention their favourite nail polishes, so technically this does pass the test, but not with flying colours.

12 Years a Slave is another nominee, including a nomination for Best Supporting Actress for Lupita Nyong’o who plays Patsy in the film. There are a few female characters in the film, Anne Northup (Kelsey Scott), Mistress Epps (Sarah Paulson) is Edwin Epps’ (Michael fassbender) wife, and then Patsey (Lupita Nyong’o). Patsey and Mistress Epps feature in scenes together but only speak when Mistress Epps offers every slave some biscuits save Patsey “there’ll be none for you”.

There is also a scene in the film where Patsey has afternoon tea with Phebe (Deneen Tyler) but the audience does not witness any conversation between the two until Solomon turns up and then Solomon discusses Master Edwin Epps with Phebe and his affection for Patsey. So 12 Years a Slave, this year’s Oscar Best Film winner, does not pass the Bechdel test.

Of the nine Best Film nominees, four pass the test, American Hustle, Dallas Buyers Club, Nebraska and Philomena. The Wolf of Wall Street, Her, Captain Phillips and 12 Years a Slave do not feature two female characters who talk to each other about something other than a man. Gravity is exempt as it starts only two main characters, Ryan Stone – the female lead and Matt Kowalski. It’s interesting to note that all of the five nominated best directors were also men.

This reflects film on a larger scale too, for the last ten years, films that have failed the test have earned on average a higher gross.

The Bechdel Test

A black and white comic strip featuring two female characters going to see a film

A black and white comic strip featuring two female characters going to see a film

The Bechdel test aims determine whether works of fiction are gender biased. To pass the test, the work must feature at least two named female characters, who talk to each other about something besides a male character.

The concept is simple and you’re probably thinking, ‘that’s silly, I’m sure that most films pass that test’, which is what I thought when I was first introduced to the concept. Then I tried to think of any film I’d seen which would pass the test. I couldn’t.

The test originated from Alison Bechdel’s comic strip Dykes to Watch Out For, in a strip from 1985 called The Rule, a female character states that she will only watch a film if it can satisfy the three requirements. It is sometimes referred to as the ‘Mo Movie Test’ after the female character but that isn’t correct as the character ‘Mo’ doesn’t appear in the strips until two years after The Rule was published. Bechdel has also said that she cannot take credit for the rules as she stole the idea from Liz Wallace whose name appears in the strip.

Half of the population consists of women who surely want to be represented on the big screen. And it would be offensive to assume that men wouldn’t want to watch women in film talking to each other, as if they speak some kind of elusive language that men don’t understand. So why is it that so few films manage to pass the simple test?

It’s hard to define why, Jennifer Kesler a film student raises some interesting points in her article on females in film. The frequent argument is that people don’t want to see them. Kesler mentions an industry pro once telling her “The audience doesn’t want to listen to a bunch of women talking about whatever it is women talk about.” But can that really be accurate?

As Cate Blanchett highlighted in her Oscar acceptance speech, “female films with women at the centre are [not] niche experiences” and “Audiences want to see them and, in fact, they earn money. The world is round, people.” In fact two of 2013s highest grossing films were The Huger Games Catching Fire (5th highest grossing film) and Frozen (2nd highest grossing). Both of which pass the Bechdel test and more importantly, feature strong female characters. It is undeniable that people will pay, literally millions to see films where women feature prominently.

The Bechdel test simply looks at the cast of films and whether it provides valuable female characters. It is possible for a film to fail but still present a strong female character, Mako Mori in Pacific Rim is a good example. It is also possible for the test to pass and provide no strong female characters. But it is an important starting point, it helps to illuminate the lack of female characters in film, and hopefully as the film industry advances and grows, it will not be necessary.

Inside Film at the Baftas

Alfonso and Jonas Cuaron, director and writer for the blockbuster film, Gravity are pictured with 2 of their BAFTA awards.

Image via empireonline.com

This years Baftas ceremony is all but over and after an incredible year for British film there was certainly some deserved winners and surprises on the night.

If you didn’t join us for our liveblog of the 67th annual award ceremony, or maybe didn’t even watch the awards at all, never fear as the nominations and winners for each category are as follows (lengthy list imminent):

Edit: Just in case you can’t be bothered to read it all, here’s our podcast instead.

Best Adapted Screenplay
Philomena – Winner
12 Years A Slave
Behind The Candelabra
Captain Phillips
The Wolf Of Wall Street


Best Leading Actor
Bruce Dern, Nebraska
Christian Bale, American Hustle

Chiwetel Ejiofor, 12 Years a Slave – Winner
Tom Hanks, Captain Phillips
Leonardo DiCaprio, The Wolf of Wall Street


Best Animated Film
Despicable Me 2
Frozen – Winner
Monsters University


Best Leading Actress
Amy Adams, American Hustle
Emma Thompson, Saving Mr. Banks
Judi Dench, Philomena
Cate Blanchett, Blue Jasmine – Winner
Sandra BullockGravity


Best British Short Animation
Sleeping With The Fishes Winner
Everything I Can See From Here
I Am Tom Moody


Make-Up and Hair
Behind The Candelabra, Kate Biscoe, Marie Larkin
The Butler, Debra Denson, Candace Neal, Robert Stevenson, Matthew Mungle

The Great Gatsby, Maurizio Silvi, Kerry Warn
American Hustle, Evelyne Noraz, Lori McCoy-Bell, Kathrine Gordon – Winner
The Hobbit: The Desolation Of Smaug, Peter Swords King, Richard Taylor, Rick Findlater


Best British Short Film
Island Queen
Keeping Up With The Joneses
Orbit Ever After

Room 8 – Winner
Sea View


Best Original Music
Gravity,Steven Price – Winner
12 Years A Slave, Hans Zimmer
The Book Thief, John Williams
Captain Phillips,Henry Jackman
Saving Mr. Banks, Thomas Newman


Best Cinematography
12 Years A Slave
Captain Phillips
Gravity – Winner
Inside Llewyn Davis
Nebraska


Best Original Screenplay
Blue Jasmine
Gravity
Inside Llewyn Davis
American Hustle – Winner
Nebraska


Best Costume Design
American Hustle
The Great Gatsby – Winner
Behind The Candelabra
The Invisible Woman
Saving Mr. Banks


Outstanding British Contribution to Cinema
Peter Greenway


Best Director
Alfonso Cuarón, Gravity – Winner
Steve McQueen, 12 Years A Slave
David O. Russell, American Hustle
Paul Greengrass,Captain Phillips
Martin Scorsese, The Wolf Of Wall Street


Outstanding British Film
Mandela: Long Walk To Freedom|
Philomena

Rush
Saving Mr. Banks
Gravity – Winner
The Selfish Giant


Best Documentary
The Armstrong Lie
Blackfish

Tim’s Vermeer
We Steal Secrets: The Story Of Wikileaks
The Act Of Killing – Winner


Outstanding Debut by a British Writer, Director or Producer
Kieran Evans, Kelly + Victor – Winner
Colin Carberry, Glenn Patterson, Good Vibrations
Kelly Marcel, Saving Mr. Banks
Paul Wright, Polly Stokes, For Those in Peril
Scott Graham, Shell


EE Rising Star
Dane DeHaan
George MacKay
Lupita Nyong’o
Will Poulter – Winner
Léa Seydoux


Best Production Design
12 Years A Slave
American Hustle
Behind The Candelabra
The Great Gatsby – Winner
Gravity


Best Editing
12 Years A Slave
Captain Phillips
Gravity
The Wolf Of Wall Street
Rush – Winner


Best Sound
All Is Lost, Richard Hymns, Steve Boeddeker, Brandon Proctor, Micah Bloomberg, Gillian Arthur
Captain Phillips, Chris Burdon, Mark Taylor, Mike Prestwood Smith, Chris Munro, Oliver Tarney
Gravity, Glenn Freemantle, Skip Lievsay, Christopher Benstead, Niv Adiri, Chris Munro – Winner
Inside Llewyn Davis, Peter F. Kurland, Skip Lievsay, Greg Orloff, Paul Urmson
Rush, Danny Hambrook, Martin Steyer, Stefan Korte, Markus Stemler, Frank Kruse


Fellowship
Dame Helen Mirren


Best Film
12 Years A Slave – Winner
American Hustle
Captain Phillips
Gravity
Philomena


Best Special Visual Effects
The Hobbit: The Desolation Of Smaug, Joe Letteri, Eric Saindon, David Clayton, Eric Reynolds
Iron Man 3, Bryan Grill, Christopher Townsend, Guy Williams, Dan Sudick
Pacific Rim, Hal Hickel, John Knoll, Lindy De Quattro, Nigel Sumner
Gravity, Tim Webber, Chris Lawrence, David Shirk, Neil Corbould, Nikki Penny – Winner
Star Trek Into Darkness, Roger Guyett, Patrick Tubach, Ben Grossmann, Burt Dalton


Best Film not in the English Language
The Act Of Killing
Blue Is The Warmest Colour
The Great Beauty – Winner
Metro Manila
Wadjda


Best Supporting Actor
Bradley Cooper, American Hustle
Daniel Brühl, Rush
Matt Damon, Behind the Candelabra
Michael Fassbender, 12 Years a Slave
Barkhad Abdi, Captain Phillips – Winner


Best Supporting Actress
Julia Roberts, August: Osage County
Jennifer Lawrence, American Hustle – Winner
Lupita Nyong’o, 12 Years a Slave
Oprah Winfrey, The Butler
Sally Hawkins, Blue Jasmine

The British Academy Film Awards 2014

A young blonde woman places signs with showing BAFTA nominees in the red seats at the Royal Opera House

A young blonde woman places signs with showing BAFTA nominees in the red seats at the Royal Opera HouseOrganising the seating arrangements for this years ceremony. Image via Vogue.co.uk

This weekend we celebrate the 67th British Academy Film Awards. We mentioned the BAFTA’s when we took a short look at the upcoming film season in our post, Tis the season post back in December.

This year’s ceremony takes place at the Royal Opera House in London (as it has since 2008) on Sunday at 9pm. It will be broadcast in Britain on BBC One and BBC One HD and we will be liveblogging the event as it happens from 8pm. Make sure you check our liveblog and our Twitter and Facebook to keep up to date with the news, award winners and any blunders as they happen (Miss Lawrence, we’re looking at you).

The films nominated for Best Film are 12 Years a Slave, American Hustle, Captain Phillips, Gravity and Philomena. Gravity is the most nominated film, up for a total of 11, American Hustle and 12 Years a Slave are nominated for 10 awards each.

The nominees, performers and presenters will walk down 131 yards of red carpet. Performing on the night are Tinie Tempah and Laura Mvula, who will open the awards with a performance of Heroes. Stephen Fry will be hosting the event for the ninth time.

Up for Best Actor are Christian Bale for American Hustle, Bruce Dern for Nebraska, Chiwetel Ejiofor for 12 Years a SlaveTom Hanks for Captain Phillips and Leonardo DiCaprio for Wolf of Wall Street.  It’s a well-known face that Leonardo DiCaprio has never won an Oscar. He’s also never won a Bafta and has only been nominated twice previously for The Aviator and The Departed.

For Best Actress the nominations are Amy Adams for American Hustle, Sandra Bullock for Gravity, Cate Blanchett for Blue Jasmine, Emma Thompson for Saving Mr Banks and Judi Dench for Philomena. Judi Dench is the most BAFTA nominated actress in Film with 15 nominations and 6 wins.

Another highly nominated actor is Woody Allen who has accumulated 24 BAFTA nominations and an impressive 10 wins throughout his career. This year he is nominated for Original Screenplay for Blue Jasmine.

Since 1971 a BAFTA Academy Fellowship Award has been presented to one outstanding achiever. The lifetime award is the highest honour bestowed by the Academy. The first winner was Alfred Hitchcock, last year it was awarded to Michael Palin. This year it will be presented to Dame Helen Mirren.

Mirren has one four previous BAFTA awards since she began acting in the 1970’s. Three of these are for her role as Jane Tennison in the ITV drama Prime Suspect and one was awarded for her role as Elizabeth II in The Queen. Elizabeth II is not the only Queen she has portrayed, Mirren has played five other Queens including Elizabeth I in The Queen and The Snow Queen in The Snow Queen.

Remember to join us from 8pm for coverage of the evening.