First film: "Malena".
A little summary of the movie
The story is told by Renato (Giuseppe Sulfaro), who as the movie opens is admitted
to the local fraternity of girl-watchers. They use Malena as subject matter for their
autoerotic pastimes, but for Renato, she is more like a dream, like a heroine, like a
woman he wants to protect from herself--with his bare hands, hopefully. The film
torturously tries to transform this theme in scenes of comedy, nostalgia and
bittersweet regret, but somehow we doubt its sincerity.
To begin with, I can already say that this film did not pass the Bechdel test at all.
Why you may ask yourself and the reason is that she never speaks at any moment
and if she does it is very few times in the film. I chose this film because some time
ago I saw a video that left me literally crying with impotence, it is such a simple
scene but with so much impact (although the whole film it is) in the scene you see
Malena (secondary character) walking through the middle of the village but
revolutionising everyone by her change of hair colour (which at that time in the 20th
century was very "frowned upon") everyone stares at her, especially the women who
speak badly of her and refer to her in a derogatory way, she arrives at a place where
there are tables and chairs, she sits down and takes out a cigarette while looking for
her lighter but cannot find it, at that moment all the men surround her with either their
lighters or matches and that is when she cries a tear.
My helplessness comes from before where she is shown trying to change her person
to stop attracting attention and to be left alone, since it is known that her husband
died as well as her father, they do not stop harassing her.
The other scene that impacted me the most and the one I suffered the most was the
one where all the women start attacking and insulting her, blaming her for everything
and that it was her fault if their husbands persecuted her and that she was
responsible for everything that happened to her.
For me it is shocking because the lack of sorority among women towards Malena is
enormous, I understand that it was inspired by a time when it was frowned upon to
see single women without children, especially because of Malena's age. That scene
hurts me a lot for that reason, I am sure that you should have seen this film because
it is a film with a lot of impact.
Although in this one it doesn't show much, besides that everything is seen from the
film of Renato, who was just starting his "teenage life", although it shows more of
him, one already understands the rest and the background is not unnoticed.
Second Film: “Moxie”
A little summary of the movie:
The coming-of-age film is about Vivian, an aimless high schooler who stumbles upon
sexist behaviours in her school and inspired by her mother's riot grrrl days, starts a
feminist movement. Much has been lauded about this film, mostly for its depiction of
female bonding in the context of teen activism.
This second film almost passed the test but they did talk about men, but let's be
honest this is what feminism or a part of it is about, as this motif is driven by gender
inequality.The film is a bit of a cliche as I assumed the end and development of the
film, but well.
At the beginning of the film we are introduced to the main protagonist returning to
school and talking to her best friend about the list that goes out every holiday where
girls are put on it and a "nickname" or "achievement" is added to it. She starts to
question the list after seeing how one of the most popular boys harassed the new girl
and the new girl didn't keep quiet and talked back, the new girl goes to the principal
but the principal doesn't pay attention to her because the boy is the football captain
and she couldn't imagine him doing those things and told her that she was making a
big deal out of it.
Vivian after seeing how they did not give a solution to it decided to create a poster
where she exposed the children and made known her displeasure towards it and
motivated them to make stars and hearts in their hands to recognise each other and
to know that everyone supported each other.
The part where you start to see the stars and hearts in the form of support, it's very
nice and it feels very good because they are literally supporting each other.
