Blog | Ellen Cheshire

Sep 10, 2020
7 min

Operation Fascination: Diana Rigg

2020 is the 55th anniversary of Diana Rigg's first appearance as Emma Peel in the British TV show The Avengers. As a teen in the 1980s I watched The Avengers on Channel 4 and was hooked on both The Avengers and Diana Rigg. 20 years ago I wrote an article for the now defunct Classic Television about Diana Rigg and this culutral phenomena. It is therefore with a sad heart that I am updating this blog in light of Rigg's death aged 82. In recent years she had become associated w

Ellen Cheshire

Jun 27, 2020
7 min

A - Z of films Directed by Women

Following on from May's #30DayFilmChallenge where I enjoyed revisiting films in my collection which I'd not watched in some time, in June I gave myself another film watching challenge #AlphabetFilm. In June each day I would watch films beginning with a letter of the alphabet, to make it doubly-fun/challenging one of them was to be a directed by a woman. Finding films directed by chaps in my collection was easy, for those directed by women many where new to me. Between 1 - 26

#52FilmsByWomen - 5th Year of films Directed by Women

Ellen Cheshire

Jun 7, 2020
3 min

#52FilmsByWomen - 5th Year of films Directed by Women

Well the good news is that each 'year' it is getting easier to find films directed by women, on the down side they still only represent a small percentage of the films I watch. Read blogs for Year 1, Year 2, Year 3 and Year 4. This group of 52 spanning 101 years from 1919 - 2020 I watched between 15 October 2019 and 5 June 2020, and features so many great films. Some like Greta Gerwig’s Little Women and Autumn de Wilde’s Emma. were widely released and I managed to catch them

How Mira Nair's Mississippi Masala changed my life.

Ellen Cheshire

May 20, 2020
5 min

How Mira Nair's Mississippi Masala changed my life.

I've been doing a #30DayFilmChallenge, and day 20 is a 'Film that changed your life'. It was a tough one as I couldn't initially recall a pivotal film that in some way 'changed me'. So, I've been mulling over key moments or decisions in my life that were in some way linked to film, which led me to the films of Mira Nair. I was doing my A Level in Film Studies at Redbridge College (from 1991-1993), and one of the four pieces of coursework we had to submit was on an indpendent

#52FilmsByWomen - 4th Year of films Directed by Women

Ellen Cheshire

Oct 14, 2019
4 min

#52FilmsByWomen - 4th Year of films Directed by Women

The #52FilmsByWomen pledge was started in 2015 by Los Angeles’ Women in Film, an organisation dedicated to promoting equal opportunities for women in the film industry. Encouraging filmgoers to watch at least 52 films a year directed by a women, and to tweet using hashtag #52FilmsByWomen. This was one of the initiatives to raise the profile of women in film which I wrote about for an article in Chichester Cinema at New Park's Ruby Anniversary maagazine. In my 3rd year I fin

Leni Riefenstahl - documentary filmmaker or propagandist?

Ellen Cheshire

Aug 22, 2019
4 min

Leni Riefenstahl - documentary filmmaker or propagandist?

On this day, 22 August 1902, Leni Riefenstahl was born in Berlin. As you may have spotted from my writing and talks, I am very interested in women directors, and Leni Riefenstahl is an extraordinary filmmaker. In 2009 I wrote a chapter on German propaganda for Under Fire: a century of war movies (Ian Allen Publishing, 2009). The book is now out of print, but you can snap up secondhand copies on Amazon from 1p! Here's an extract from my chapter “Don't Come to Me with political

Ellen Cheshire

Aug 14, 2019
3 min

Marvellous Mira Nair

With the Chichester International Film Festival scheduling a screening of Monsoon Wedding on 20 August at 20.45 I thought I'd post a review of the film I wrote for the now defunct clickwalla.com website back in 2002 (I haven't re-edited it). You can read more about my love of Mira Nair's films in the blog 'How Mira Nair's Mississippi Masala Changed My Life' Monsoon Wedding (2001) Cast: Naseeruddin Shah, Lilette Dubey, Vasundhara Das, Parvin Dubas, Sameer Arya, Vijay Raaz and

Early Women Filmmakers: Films Directed by Women

Ellen Cheshire

Jun 10, 2019
1 min

Early Women Filmmakers: Films Directed by Women

Last night, or was it early morning I set my alarm for 0230 in order to do a radio interview with Paul Ross on his Late Late Early Early Show on TalkRADIO about women filmmakers who were working in the film industry from the birth of cinema in 1895 until the 1930s. You can listen to the interview here. The interview starts about 11 ½ minutes in, in the 0230- 0300 slot. This is the book we talked about... Three years ago I wrote a chapter for Supernova Book's Silent Women: Pio

Ellen Cheshire

May 6, 2019
1 min

Perfect Night In

Neil Perryman host of podcast Perfect Night In invited me to plan my perfect night of television for his Desert Island Disc-style show... You can listen or watch via vimeo to the podcast here. Here are some links to the shows we discuss, if you fancy watching any of them. Harold Lloyd's World of Comedy Paddington Goes to the Movies The Muppet Show - Alice Cooper Here's Lucy - Lucy Meets the Burtons An Audience with... Victoria Wood The Avengers - Look- (stop me if you've hear

Women in front of & behind the camera: an overview of films Directed by Women

Ellen Cheshire

Mar 29, 2019
1 min

Women in front of & behind the camera: an overview of films Directed by Women

This year the fabulous independent art house cinema in Chichester, the Chichester Cinema in New Park is celebrating its 40th Anniversary. As I was the General Manager there from 2003 - 2007, I was asked to write an article for their on-line magazine. As I have been writing about issues relating to women in front of and behind the camera, I thought I would offer an overview of current and recent movements and research in this area... You can read my article on current issues

Women on British Television: Top 10 Female Icons

Ellen Cheshire

Feb 1, 2019
19 min

Women on British Television: Top 10 Female Icons

This feature on iconic women from British TV was commissioned for Classic Television magazine in 2001. The publication sadly folded before it was used and the following year I published it on videovista.net, which now seems to have seems to have closed. So re-posting it here, so it once again has a home. I leave it here, as originally published in June 2002... Women on British Television: Top 10 Female Icons Any writer drawing up a ‘Top 10 list’ is always going to be subjecte

Directed by Women - Crucial 21st Century Cinema

Ellen Cheshire

Jan 24, 2019
1 min

Directed by Women - Crucial 21st Century Cinema

Crucial 21st Century Cinema #Crucial21DbW is #DirectedbyWomen's fantastic initiative for 2019. Every day they are publishing a blog post celebrating a film or TV show from the past 19 years directed by a woman. Each post has a maximum length of 365 words, so they won't take long to read! But these great daily blogs will offer you insights into some of this century's most interesting films. I've written a blog on Deniz Gamze Erguven's film Mustang - check it out. I have also w

Ellen Cheshire

Jan 3, 2019
2 min

My Top 10 Films of 2018

Narrowing down my top 10 films to just 10 was really tough. Could have easily been a top 20! And there's still some films that have been appearing on other people's lists which I've not yet see, these include Roma, Shoplifters. But from the films I've seen these are currently my top 10.... The Rider Directed by Chloe Zhao Watched this without knowing anything about the actors or how it was conceived etc and loved it, when I learnt about Brady Jandreau and his friends and fami

#52FilmsByWomen - 3rd Year of films Directed by Women

Ellen Cheshire

Dec 20, 2018
3 min

#52FilmsByWomen - 3rd Year of films Directed by Women

A few weeks ahead of schedule, I have completed my third year pledging to watch #52FilmsByWomen. Read blogs for Year 1 and Year 2. There were a couple of revisits… Mamma Mia! – sing-a-long version for Mother’s Day, Mustang at Lewes Depot as part of a day long Study Day for A level Studies and What Women Want, because this women wanted to! And although I only listed it once, I did see Jane Campion’s The Piano three times as part of its 25th anniversary re-release which coin

Ellen Cheshire

Nov 21, 2018
1 min

Blue Plaque for Margaret Lockwood

Margaret Lockwood was one of Britain’s biggest 1940s film stars. She was best known for her roles in The Lady Vanishes (1938) and The Wicked Lady (1945) but also enjoyed a successful stage and television career. Today (21 November 2018), she was commemorated with a blue plaque at her childhood home, 14 Highland Road in Upper Norwood. It was a great day! The star’s great granddaughter Martha Clark (left) unveiled the plaque, and there were representatives from taking Pictures

Ellen Cheshire

Nov 14, 2018
2 min

Jane Campion - 25th Anniversary

2018 saw the publication of my book In the Scene: Jane Campion (Supernova Books/Aurora Metro, 2018). A book that has been 25 years in the making, since I first saw The Piano on its original release in 1993. At that time I tracked down her previous films An Angel at My Table and Sweetie, and eagerly awaited her new releases. In 2000 when I was asked to write a book on Jane Campion for Pocket Essentials, I jumped at the chance and went in search of more difficult to find (espe

Ellen Cheshire

Apr 5, 2018
5 min

Remembering Gregory Peck

Just over a hundred years ago, on 5 April 1916 Eldred Peck was born in San Diego, California. After graduating from Berkeley with a BA degree in English, Peck dropped the name "Eldred" in favour of his middle name Gregory and headed to New York to embark on a stage career. Here I recall my favourite of his films.... Roman Holiday (1953) Cast: Gregory Peck (Joe Bradley), Audrey Hepburn (Princess Ann, aka Anya Smith), Eddie Albert (Irving Radovich), Hartley Power (Mr Hennessy),

Have the Oscars fallen out of love with the Bio-Pic?

Audrey Hepburn: Dutch in 7 Lessons (1948)

Ellen Cheshire

Jan 20, 2018
2 min

Audrey Hepburn: Dutch in 7 Lessons (1948)

On this day 25 years ago Audrey Hepburn sadly passed away. But let's not dwell on this sad end, as this year is the 70th anniversary of Audrey's first screen appearance. Yes, her first lead role was in Roman Holiday in 1953, but her first screen appearance was five years earlier in Nederlands in 7 Lessen/Dutch in 7 Lessons (1948) directed by Charles Huguenot van der Linden, produced by H M Josephson. The cast includes Koes Koen (Wam Heskes/George), A Viruly (Air Pilot) and A

#52FilmsbyWomen - 2nd year of films Directed by Women

Ellen Cheshire

Oct 2, 2017
3 min

#52FilmsbyWomen - 2nd year of films Directed by Women

In January 2016 I pledged to watch #52FilmsbyWomen, as the end of the year approached I had to cram in extra film screenings to meet my quota. Over that first year, I discovered many new names to add to the growing list of film directors to watch out for. So, I decided to continue this pledge in 2017, my New Year's Day viewing was a documentary on the film director Antonia Bird, directed by Susan Kemp. 52 films followed, and this year I finished 3 months ahead of schedule! S