Feminist Films
by srannej | created - 25 Oct 2018 | updated - 10 Dec 2019 | PublicA list for those that are feministic-ally inclined, and find themselves often frustrated with movie going experiences. I consider these films 'feminist' for a range of reasons but mostly because they are made by woman and they feature a female protagonist.
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1. Jeanne Dielman, 23, quai du commerce, 1080 Bruxelles (1975)
Not Rated | 202 min | Drama
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.
Director: Chantal Akerman | Stars: Delphine Seyrig, Jan Decorte, Henri Storck, Jacques Doniol-Valcroze
Votes: 13,872 | Gross: $0.02M
2. Adam's Rib (1949)
Not Rated | 101 min | Comedy, Romance
Domestic and professional tensions mount when a husband and wife work as opposing lawyers in a case involving a woman who shot her husband.
Director: George Cukor | Stars: Spencer Tracy, Katharine Hepburn, Judy Holliday, Tom Ewell
Votes: 22,908
3. A Woman Under the Influence (1974)
R | 155 min | Drama, Romance
Although wife and mother Mabel is loved by her husband Nick, her mental illness places a strain on the marriage.
Director: John Cassavetes | Stars: Gena Rowlands, Peter Falk, Fred Draper, Lady Rowlands
Votes: 28,681 | Gross: $13.34M
4. Opening Night (II) (2016)
Not Rated | 90 min | Comedy, Musical
A failed Broadway singer who now works as a production manager must save opening night on his new production by wrangling his eccentric cast and crew.
Director: Isaac Rentz | Stars: Lauren Lapkus, Anne Heche, Alona Tal, Topher Grace
Votes: 2,880
5. The Women (1939)
Not Rated | 133 min | Comedy, Drama
A study of the lives and romantic entanglements of various interconnected women.
Director: George Cukor | Stars: Norma Shearer, Joan Crawford, Rosalind Russell, Mary Boland
Votes: 14,895 | Gross: $2.27M
6. 20th Century Women (2016)
R | 119 min | Comedy, Drama
The story of a teenage boy, his mother, and two other women who help raise him among the love and freedom of Southern California of 1979.
Director: Mike Mills | Stars: Annette Bening, Elle Fanning, Greta Gerwig, Billy Crudup
Votes: 49,357 | Gross: $5.66M
7. The Headless Woman (2008)
Unrated | 87 min | Drama, Mystery, Thriller
After hitting something with her car, a bourgeois Argentine woman's life slowly descends into paranoia and isolation, as she fears she may have killed someone.
Director: Lucrecia Martel | Stars: María Onetto, Claudia Cantero, César Bordón, Daniel Genoud
Votes: 5,726 | Gross: $0.10M
8. The Philadelphia Story (1940)
Not Rated | 112 min | Comedy, Romance
When a rich woman's ex-husband and a tabloid-type reporter turn up just before her planned remarriage, she begins to learn the truth about herself.
Director: George Cukor | Stars: Cary Grant, Katharine Hepburn, James Stewart, Ruth Hussey
Votes: 73,815
9. Kumiko, The Treasure Hunter (2014)
Not Rated | 105 min | Drama
A jaded Japanese woman discovers a hidden copy of Fargo (1996) on VHS, believing it to be a treasure map indicating the location of a large case of money.
Director: David Zellner | Stars: Rinko Kikuchi, Nobuyuki Katsube, Kanako Higashi, Ichi Ômiya
Votes: 12,415 | Gross: $0.62M
10. The Passion of Joan of Arc (1928)
Passed | 114 min | Biography, Drama, History
In 1431, Jeanne d'Arc is placed on trial on charges of heresy. The ecclesiastical jurists attempt to force Jeanne to recant her claims of holy visions.
Director: Carl Theodor Dreyer | Stars: Maria Falconetti, Eugene Silvain, André Berley, Maurice Schutz
Votes: 60,621 | Gross: $0.02M
11. Daughters of the Dust (1991)
TV-PG | 113 min | Drama, History, Romance
A languid, impressionistic story of three generations of Gullah women living on the South Carolina Sea Islands in 1902.
Director: Julie Dash | Stars: Cora Lee Day, Alva Rogers, Barbarao, Trula Hoosier
Votes: 3,281 | Gross: $1.64M
12. Between the Lines (1977)
R | 101 min | Comedy, Drama, Romance
The lives and tribulations of a staff of an independent newspaper in Boston who're struggling financially. Unbeknownst to them, they are about to be taken over by a big publisher; an idea they despise.
Director: Joan Micklin Silver | Stars: John Heard, Lindsay Crouse, Jeff Goldblum, Jill Eikenberry
Votes: 1,360
13. Girlfriends (1978)
PG | 88 min | Comedy, Drama
A photographer and her girlfriend are roommates. She is stuck with small-change shooting jobs and dreams of success. When her roommate decides to get married and leave, she feels hurt and has to learn how to deal with living alone.
Director: Claudia Weill | Stars: Melanie Mayron, Eli Wallach, Adam Cohen, Anita Skinner
Votes: 3,083
14. Marianne & Juliane (1981)
106 min | Drama
Two sisters both fight for women's rights. Juliane is a journalist and Marianne a terrorist. When Marianne is jailed, Juliane feels obligated to help her despite their differing views on how to live.
Director: Margarethe von Trotta | Stars: Jutta Lampe, Barbara Sukowa, Rüdiger Vogler, Doris Schade
Votes: 2,619
15. A Question of Silence (1982)
R | 92 min | Drama
When three women with no previous acquaintance kill a male shopkeeper in the middle of the day, the female psychiatrist assigned to the case sets out to understand why.
Director: Marleen Gorris | Stars: Edda Barends, Nelly Frijda, Henriëtte Tol, Cox Habbema
Votes: 1,141
16. A Woman in Flames (1983)
Not Rated | 106 min | Drama
Eva, an upper-class housewife, frustratingly leaves her arrogant husband and decides to enter the call girl business. She lets Yvonne, a prostitute, teach her the basics and both set out ... See full summary »
Director: Robert van Ackeren | Stars: Gudrun Landgrebe, Mathieu Carrière, Hanns Zischler, Gabriele Lafari
Votes: 639
17. The Gold Diggers (1983)
89 min | Drama, Music
An avant-garde exploration of a woman's life.
Director: Sally Potter | Stars: Julie Christie, Colette Laffont, Hilary Westlake, David Gale
Votes: 370
18. Vagabond (1985)
Not Rated | 105 min | Drama
A young woman's body is found frozen in a ditch. Through flashbacks and interviews, we see the events that led to her inevitable death.
Director: Agnès Varda | Stars: Sandrine Bonnaire, Macha Méril, Stéphane Freiss, Setti Ramdane
Votes: 13,638
19. Strangers in Good Company (1990)
PG | 101 min | Adventure, Drama
A busload of women become stranded in an isolated part of the Canadian countryside. As they await rescue, they reflect on their lives.
Director: Cynthia Scott | Stars: Alice Diabo, Constance Garneau, Beth Webber, Catherine Roche
Votes: 1,299 | Gross: $1.00M
20. The Watermelon Woman (1996)
Unrated | 90 min | Comedy, Drama, Romance
A young black lesbian filmmaker probes into the life of The Watermelon Woman, a 1930s black actress who played 'mammy' archetypes.
Director: Cheryl Dunye | Stars: Cheryl Dunye, Guinevere Turner, Valarie Walker, Lisa Marie Bronson
Votes: 3,510
21. The Day I Became a Woman (2000)
74 min | Comedy, Drama
A film comprised of three interconnected vignettes that depict women at three stages of life in Iran. The first part centers on a young girl on her ninth birthday who is told that she can ... See full summary »
Director: Marzieh Makhmalbaf | Stars: Fatemeh Cherag Akhar, Hassan Nebhan, Shahr Banou Sisizadeh, Ameneh Passand
Votes: 1,991 | Gross: $0.34M
22. Mildred Pierce (1945)
Approved | 111 min | Crime, Drama, Film-Noir
A hard-working mother inches towards disaster as she divorces her husband and starts a successful restaurant business to support her spoiled daughter.
Director: Michael Curtiz | Stars: Joan Crawford, Jack Carson, Zachary Scott, Eve Arden
Votes: 28,636
23. The Little Foxes (1941)
Approved | 116 min | Drama, Romance
The ruthless, moneyed Hubbard clan lives in, and poisons, their part of the Deep South at the turn of the twentieth century.
Director: William Wyler | Stars: Bette Davis, Herbert Marshall, Teresa Wright, Richard Carlson
Votes: 13,104
24. The African Queen (1951)
PG | 105 min | Adventure, Drama, Romance
In WWI East Africa, a gin-swilling Canadian riverboat captain is persuaded by a strait-laced English missionary to undertake a trip up a treacherous river and use his boat to attack a German gunship.
Director: John Huston | Stars: Humphrey Bogart, Katharine Hepburn, Robert Morley, Peter Bull
Votes: 84,276 | Gross: $0.54M
25. I'm No Angel (1933)
Passed | 87 min | Comedy, Music, Romance
Circus performer Tira seeks a better life pursuing the company of wealthy New York men with improbable comic complications along the way.
Director: Wesley Ruggles | Stars: Mae West, Cary Grant, Gregory Ratoff, Edward Arnold
Votes: 3,980 | Gross: $6.21M
26. His Girl Friday (1940)
Passed | 92 min | Comedy, Drama, Romance
A newspaper editor uses every trick in the book to keep his ace reporter ex-wife from remarrying.
Director: Howard Hawks | Stars: Cary Grant, Rosalind Russell, Ralph Bellamy, Gene Lockhart
Votes: 63,125 | Gross: $0.30M
27. Queen Christina (1933)
Approved | 99 min | Biography, Drama, Romance
Queen Christina of Sweden is a popular monarch who is loyal to her country. However, when she falls in love with a Spanish envoy, she must choose between the throne and the man she loves.
Director: Rouben Mamoulian | Stars: Greta Garbo, John Gilbert, Ian Keith, Lewis Stone
Votes: 8,609 | Gross: $0.77M
28. The Smiling Madame Beudet (1923)
26 min | Short, Drama
An unhappily married woman devises a scheme to get rid of her husband.
Director: Germaine Dulac | Stars: Germaine Dermoz, Madeleine Guitty, Jean d'Yd, Yvette Grisier
Votes: 2,944
29. The Thin Man (1934)
TV-PG | 91 min | Comedy, Crime, Mystery
Former detective Nick Charles and his wealthy wife Nora investigate a murder case, mostly for the fun of it.
Director: W.S. Van Dyke | Stars: William Powell, Myrna Loy, Maureen O'Sullivan, Nat Pendleton
Votes: 32,524
30. All About Eve (1950)
Passed | 138 min | Drama
A seemingly timid but secretly ruthless ingénue insinuates herself into the lives of an aging Broadway star and her circle of theater friends.
Director: Joseph L. Mankiewicz | Stars: Bette Davis, Anne Baxter, George Sanders, Celeste Holm
Votes: 138,701 | Gross: $0.01M
31. One Sings, the Other Doesn't (1977)
Not Rated | 120 min | Drama, History
The lives of Pomme, an aspiring singer, and Suzanne, a struggling mother, as they search for their own identity in 1970s France.
Director: Agnès Varda | Stars: Thérèse Liotard, Valérie Mairesse, Robert Dadiès, Mona Mairesse
Votes: 2,531 | Gross: $0.02M
32. Riddles of the Sphinx (1977)
92 min | Drama
In this avant-garde classic, protagonist Louise deals with a change in her lifestyle in which she must learn to negotiate domestic life and motherhood.
Directors: Laura Mulvey, Peter Wollen | Stars: Dinah Stabb, Merdelle Jordine, Rhiannon Tise, Clive Merrison
Votes: 315
33. One Way or Another (1977)
78 min | Drama, Romance
In Miraflores, Cuba, the growing romance between Mario, a factory worker, and Yolanda, a schoolteacher, throws into relief the differences in their perspectives and values in Revolutionary Cuba.
Director: Sara Gómez | Stars: Mario Balmaseda, Yolanda Cuéllar, Mario Limonta, Isaura Mendoza
Votes: 645
34. Head in the Clouds (2004)
R | 132 min | Drama, Romance, War
From the roaring 1920s to the ruinous Spanish Civil War and Adolf Hitler's rise into power, the lives of an Irish schoolteacher, a provocative heiress and her Spanish muse are intricately interlaced, sharing the same destiny and passion.
Director: John Duigan | Stars: Charlize Theron, Stuart Townsend, Penélope Cruz, Thomas Kretschmann
Votes: 15,778 | Gross: $0.40M
35. Atomic Blonde (2017)
R | 115 min | Action, Thriller
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.
Director: David Leitch | Stars: Charlize Theron, James McAvoy, John Goodman, Eddie Marsan
Votes: 206,395 | Gross: $51.69M
36. Hustlers (2019)
R | 110 min | Comedy, Crime, Drama
Inspired by the viral New York Magazine article, Hustlers follows a crew of savvy former strip club employees who band together to turn the tables on their Wall Street clients.
Director: Lorene Scafaria | Stars: Constance Wu, Jennifer Lopez, Julia Stiles, Mette Narrative
Votes: 107,546 | Gross: $104.96M
37. Little Women (1933)
Passed | 115 min | Drama, Family, Romance
A chronicle of the lives of sisters growing up in 19th-century New England.
Director: George Cukor | Stars: Katharine Hepburn, Joan Bennett, Paul Lukas, Edna May Oliver
Votes: 7,932 | Gross: $4.58M
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