Women Make Film: A New Road Movie Through Cinema
As told through clips from 183 female directors, this epic history of the cinema focuses on women's integral role in the development of film art. Using almost a thousand film extracts from thirteen decades and five continents, Mark Cousins asks how films are made, shot and edited; how stories are shaped and how movies depict life, love, politics, humour and death, all through the compelling lens of some of the world's greatest filmmakers -- all of them women.
Sign in to add to your listWhat critics are saying
Verdicts use the same scale as your list: highly recommended through avoid — plus optional scores and blurbs.
Nobody on Critic, Sir! has logged a verdict for this title yet. The silence is either respectful or suspicious.
Sign in and use Add to My List below to share your own verdict.
Trailer
Women Make Film - Official Trailer
Where to Watch(AU)
Streaming data provided by JustWatch via TMDB.
Cast
Seasons
Five years in the making, this epic journey through film history is made up of forty "chapters" narrated by Tilda Swinton, Jane Fonda, Adjoa Andoh, Sharmila Tagore, Kerry Fox, Thandie Newton, and Debra Winger. The series follows in the footsteps of Mark Cousins's The Story of Film: An Odyssey to give us a guided tour of the art and craft of the movies. Using almost a thousand film extracts from thirteen decades and five continents, Cousins explores how films are made, shot, and edited; how stories are shaped; and how movies depict life, love, politics, humor, and death through the compelling lens of some of the world's greatest directors -- all of them women.
1.Openings, Tone
18-05-202063m"Openings". With examples from 1943 to 2013, from China to Iran, Australia to Finland, we look at how to open a film: from mysterious, direct, floating, foreboding beginnings to pl...
2.Believability, Introducing Character, Meet Cute
18-05-202063m"Believability". It's easy to spot, but not so easy to understand. Believability is about simple human stories, the truth about life, real emotions, and responding to the world. Ho...
3.Conversation, Framing, Tracking
18-05-202063m"Conversation". A basic human interaction -- how to make it cinematic? "Framing". Frames describe and paint the scenes. They shape the cinematic world. "Tracking". Tracking shots...
4.Staging, Journey, Discovery
18-05-202063m"Staging". Scene staging is an element of film form pointing clearly to cinema's origin: theater. "Journey". Movement is key to a motion picture, and journeys in film can be horiz...
5.Adult/Child, Economy, Editing
18-05-202063m"Adult/Child". Most famous movie genres -- war pictures, westerns, etc. -- are about adults, but in this chapter, Jane Fonda narrates the story of eighteen films about children, fr...
6.POV, Close-up, Dream
18-05-202063m"POV". Is cinema the art of point of view? Jocelyn Moorhouse, Ida Lupino, Edith Carlmar, Sofia Coppola, Liliana Cavani, Kelly Reichardt, Larisa Shepitko, Jennifer Kent, and other g...
7.Bodies, Sex
18-05-202063m"Bodies". Bodies in cinema can be enticing, athletic, or brutalized. Jane Fonda narrates this chapter about how some of the great directors -- including Agnès Varda, Andrea Arnold,...
8.Home, Religion, Work
18-05-202063m"Home". Refuge, shelter, or prison? Sharmila Tagore narrates the story of home on-screen in the great films of Edith Carlmar, Lynne Ramsay, Mai Zetterling, Liu Jiayin, Forough Farr...
9.Politics, Gear Change, Comedy
18-05-202061m"Politics". Another aspect of everyday life. From silent cinema to the twenty-first century, movies from the visually astonishing The Enchanted Desna to Divorce Iranian Style to St...
10.Melodrama, Sci-Fi, Horror & Hell
18-05-202062m"Melodrama". A genre as popular as comedy, but what are some of the great scenes in melodrama? Sharmila Tagore narrates a story that takes us from the silent American film Shoes to...
11.Tension, Stasis, Leave Out
18-05-202063m"Tension". Thrillers, and so much more. We look at gripping scenes in films as diverse as Joel DeMott's documentary Demon Lover Diary, Kathryn Bigelow's Blue Steel, Carol Morley's...
12.Reveal, Memory, Time
18-05-202063m"Reveal". How does Lynne Ramsay do a reveal, in Morvern Callar? How does the great actor-director Kinuyo Tanaka? Or Sarah Polley? Or Alice Rohrwacher? "Memory". As cinema is a kin...
13.Life Inside, The Meaning of Life, Love
18-05-202063m"Life Inside". Novels are great at describing thoughts, but how do films do so? In this chapter, we see how great directors from France, Ukraine, the UK, the U.S., New Zealand, and...
14.Death, Endings, Song and Dance
18-05-202064m"Death". The biggest subject in life, the most universal subject -- no wonder that Japan's Kinuyo Tanaka, Canada's Caroline Leaf, Spain's Ana Mariscal, Holland's Paula Van der Oest...
Watching Lists
Sign in to create and edit public lists.
Loading lists…
Purchase & Discovery
Find this title on Amazon
Digital
Prime Video & digitalAmazon mixes rent, buy, and Prime in one place — one search covers the usual options.
Physical edition
4K Blu-ray & physical releasesSearch on AmazonOfficial merchandise
Official-style merch searchApparel, collectibles, and moreAs an Amazon Associate, Critic, Sir! earns from qualifying purchases. Full disclosure