#womeninfilm

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

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

Ellen Cheshire

Jan 3, 2017
1 min

My Top 10 Films of 2016

My Top 10 Films of 2016 were... Hail, Caesar! Written, produced, edited, and directed by Joel and Ethan Coen. Florence Foster Jenkins Directed by Stephen Frears A Bigger Splash Directed by Luca Guadagnino Mustang Directed by Deniz Gamze Ergüven You can read my blog on Mustang here Hunt for the Wilderpeople Directed by Taika Waititi The Neon Demon Directed by Nicolas Winding Refn Your Name Directed by Makoto Shinkai Eye in the Sky Directed by Gavin Hood 13th Directed by Ava Du

#52FilmsbyWomen - 1st year of films Directed by Women

Ellen Cheshire

Dec 31, 2016
3 min

#52FilmsbyWomen - 1st year of films Directed by Women

In 2015 I wrote a chapter on women working behind the camera in the silent film period for Silent Women: Pioneers of Cinema, published in March 2016. Therefore at the beginning of 2016 I was keen to take up Women in Film's pledge to watch 52 films directed by women over the next year. Well I made it! Watching my 52nd film directed by a woman on 29 December. I watched films from one hundred years of filmmaking, the earliest film was Lois Weber's 1916 films Shoes (which I actu

Ellen Cheshire

Jul 15, 2016
3 min

Iris Murdoch Remembered

Today (15 July) would have been Iris Murdoch's 97th Birthday. Born in 1919 she died aged 80 in 1999. In my book Bio-Pics: a life in pictures I explore four films about writers, one of which was Richard Eyre's 2001 film Iris. Here's an extract ... Screenwriters Eyre and Wood used John Bayley's 1998 and 1999 memoirs of his wife, Iris Murdoch (Elegy for Iris, Iris: A Memoir and Iris and Her Friends) as the source material for Iris. By using these first-hand accounts of Bayley’s

Ellen Cheshire

Feb 28, 2016
3 min

The Wachowskis: Bound (1996)

I had to do the maths twice for this, I just can't belive it is 19 years today since Bound (1996) was released in the UK. It was one of two films I wrote my undergraduate dissertation on at University - the other being Fatal Attraction (1987), yup 29 years ago! For fun, here's a little of what I wrote about Bound, I haven't edited hence the references to the Wachowski Brohters as they were known then. Bound was the film début of two brothers, Larry and Andy Wachowski who bot

Ellen Cheshire

Feb 27, 2016
2 min

Film-making & Husband-stalking!

This month (February 2016) saw the publication of Silent Women: Pioneers of Cinema by Supernova Books. I was thrilled to discover that the woman chosen for the cover was Margery Ordway, who I wrote about in my chapter on cinematogrpahers. Here's a short extract about Ordway from my chapter... During the early silent period, technology and film production roles were often shared. With film in its infancy, the creative person behind the camera was usually also the director, wi

Stories Women Tell: Films Directed by Women

Ellen Cheshire

Dec 21, 2015
1 min

Stories Women Tell: Films Directed by Women

There has been much written this year about women film directors and the lack of opportunities for them. So as people are pulling together their best films of 2015, I thought I'd pick 16 films, one from each year since 2000 directed by a woman. If you haven't seen any of them, do take the time to track them down. What films would you add? 2000 American Psycho, American-Canadian black comedy psychological horror directed by Mary Harron 2001 Monsoon Wedding, romantic drama in

Ellen Cheshire

Nov 3, 2015
5 min

Ageless Audrey Hepburn

There has been much written in the press recently about the age gap between male and female on-screen love pairings. When I was writing my book on Audrey Hepburn I noticed that she was frequently paired with much older actors. Here’s what I wrote about the topic for some of her key films... One Wild Oat (1951) The plot implies that the twenty-two year old Audrey is one of the many mistresses of Alfred Gilbey, played by the sixty-one year old Stanley Holloway. The next time th

Ellen Cheshire

Jun 2, 2015
3 min

Austen and Ang Lee

Ahead of Thursday's screening of Sense and Sensibilty as part of Worthing WOW's Jane Austen season here's an extract from the chapter on the film from my book on Ang Lee. Sense And Sensibility (1995) Director: Ang Lee. Screenplay: Emma Thompson. Based on the novel by Jane Austen. Editing: Tim Squyres. Cinematography: Michael Coulter. Costume Design: Jenny Bevan and John Bright. Production Design: Luciana Arrighi. Original Music: Patrick Doyle. Producers: Laurie Borg, Lindsay

A King Among Queens: Linda Thorson and The Avengers

Ellen Cheshire

Jun 1, 2015
3 min

A King Among Queens: Linda Thorson and The Avengers

A few years back Linda Thorson, who played Tara King in 33 episodes of The Avengers in 1968-69, very kindly responded to some email questions for an article I was writing for Classic Television. Here are her answers in full. EC: Of all the Avengers series, those in which you were involved were the most surreal – how did you find being entombed in a vat of butter and other extreme measures of confinement and bizarre plot lines. LT: Well, I found it very slippery, greasy and s

Ellen Cheshire

May 28, 2015
2 min

Everybody can Can-Can!

On Monday evening I was channel hopping and found Moulin Rouge had just started on Movie Mix, "I'll watch of bit of this" I thought - two hours later I'd been once again swept away by Baz Luhrmann's highly-theatrical film musical. The year is 1900, the setting Paris. Christian (MacGregor), a young Englishman newly arrived in Paris to pursue is dream of being a poet, becomes embroiled with Toulouse-Lautrec’s (Leguizamo) mad-cap scheme to create a Bohemian Revolutionary musica

Which Way? Alice in Wonderland film adaptations

Ellen Cheshire

May 21, 2015
2 min

Which Way? Alice in Wonderland film adaptations

150 years ago, people read for the first time Alice’s immortal line “And what is the use of a book, without pictures or conversation?” How she would have loved the movies! On Saturday 23 May 2015 I'll be giving a paper at the Wonderlands: Reading/Writing/Telling Fairy Tales and Fantasy symposium at University of Chichester, organised by the Sussex Centre of Folklore, Fairy Tale and Fantasy.You can see all the presentations from the Wonderlands conference here. I'll be talkin

Ellen Cheshire

May 4, 2015
2 min

Esther Williams: Million Dollar Mermaid

I have always had a soft spot for the MGM musical extravaganzas of the 1950s, particularly those starring Esther Williams, the swimming superstar. Reading her autobiography reveals a fascinating story of heartache and triumph behind the fabulous smile. The Million Dollar Mermaid by Esther Williams and Digby Dell Published by Pocket Books, 2000 Esther Williams, the million-dollar mermaid, made a number of great films for MGM. The swimming sensation and founder of water ballet

Ellen Cheshire

May 4, 2015
6 min

Happy Birthday Audrey Hepburn

A few years ago I had what for many people would be THE perfect job. I had to watch every single film Audrey Hepburn had ever made, for a book I had to be asked to write the Pocket Essential Audrey Hepburn. Imagine my delight, when caught curled up on the sofa watching Audrey Hepburn and Gregory Peck riding around Rome on a vespa for the umpteenth time I could exclaim – “it’s research – I have to watch it!” You can snap up copies of my book on Audrey Hepburn on Amazon in kin

Not so Silent Women: Films Directed by Women

Ellen Cheshire

May 4, 2015
1 min

Not so Silent Women: Films Directed by Women

Recently I've been working on a chapter for Aurora Metro's forthcoming Silent Women: Pioneers of Cinema (exploring women’s contribution behind the camera in these early days of cinema. The focus of my research was female cinematographers, and was astonished by the misogyny of the male writers of the time. Some choice quotes! A. J. Dixon writing in Picture-Play Magazine January 1916, described his initial reaction to hearing of Grace Davison’s work behind the camera “I conclu