FemResThe Living Review

Media index

Body PoliticsFilms

06
items
01

Films · Sep 2024

The Substance

Coralie Fargeat

A body horror film directed by Coralie Fargeat, starring Demi Moore and Margaret Qualley. Following washed-up actress Elisabeth who, after being fired due to ageism, uses a mysterious drug to create a younger, perfect version of herself. Through extreme body horror aesthetics, the film deeply explores crucial issues including ageism, beauty standards, body politics, female self-hatred, and patriarchal control over women's bodies, becoming a representative work of contemporary feminist horror cinema.

02

Films · Aug 2023

Bottoms

Emma Seligman

A surreal campus comedy directed by Emma Seligman about two queer high school students who start an after-school fight club to win over their dream cheerleader crushes. This film explores themes of queer identity, female friendship, gender power subversion, and adolescent sexual awakening through extremely exaggerated techniques, becoming a representative work of new-era queer feminism.

03

Films · Feb 2009

The Milk of Sorrow

La teta asustadaClaudia Llosa

Through an Indigenous Peruvian woman living with inherited fear, the film examines how wartime sexual violence survives in bodies, households, music, and unequal relations of service.

04

Films · May 1975

Jeanne Dielman, 23, quai du Commerce, 1080 Bruxelles

Chantal Akerman

There's no rioting, protesting, or marching for civil rights here. Jeanne Dielman, single mother and sometime sex worker, has a simple life: laundry, dinner, the occasional john. The mundanity of being a housewife is on achingly tedious display for three-plus hours in Chantal Akerman's experimental film. And that's why it's brilliant.

05

Films · Dec 1966

Daisies

SedmikráskyVěra Chytilová

Věra Chytilová’s surrealist Czech New Wave masterpiece follows two teenage girls, both named Marie, who embark on a series of anarchic pranks and destructive games in a world going 'bad.' Through avant-garde experimentation and radical humor, the film critiques patriarchy, consumerism, and political stagnation.

06

Films · Apr 1962

Cléo from 5 to 7

Cléo de 5 à 7Agnès Varda

Agnès Varda's 1962 masterpiece uses real-time filming to depict the psychological journey of a young singer awaiting cancer diagnosis results over two hours, standing as a landmark of both French New Wave and feminist cinema.