top ten: international women’s day - an homage.

Many people have formed very strong opinions about the legitimacy of and necessity for International Women’s Day in this country. It is not my place to assess the various theoretical arguments for or against this event, but I will say that any day which offers us a single day to celebrate, speculate and commiserate the plight of women is certainly ok by me – particularly when it can lead to this month’s top ten! In honour of March 8th’s International Women’s Day, our Top Ten this month is an homage to the top ten fierce, feisty and fabulous female characters in the DS catalogue. You go girl.

10. “Noriko” – LATE SPRING, EARLY SUMMER, TOKYO STORY (Yasujiro Ozu)

Played by the radiant Setsuko Hara, Noriko is the gentle and kind heroine of Ozu’s loose “Noriko Trilogy”. A modern woman with ideas of her own, Noriko is as strong-willed about her refusal to be pushed into marriage as she is compassionate and caring about family – even if the family is not actually her own, as in Ozu’s masterpiece TOKYO STORY.

9. “Maria Braun” – THE MARRIAGE OF MARIA BRAUN (Rainer Werner Fassbinder)

Hard as nails and ruthlessly ambitious, Fassbinder’s muse Hanna Schygulla is perfect for the role of the titular heroine. In a devastated post-war Germany, the freshly-widowed Maria uses her sexual allure and sharp intelligence to become one of the country’s most wealthy and powerful women.

8. “Jane” – SUMMERTIME (David Lean)

The poster girl for strong women, Katharine Hepburn, plays Jane, in David Lean’s beautiful SUMMERTIME. Jane is an American woman who journeys alone to the city of her dreams, Venice, where she embarks upon an affair with the dashing Renato. Although things don’t turn out so well for Jane, the final shot in the film of the flinty Hepburn waving from the fast-departing train is hopeful: she’s learnt a lot, and she will survive.

7. “Mathilda” – LEON (Luc Besson)

Oscar®-winner Natalie Portman clearly immensely enjoyed her first starring role as the fierce and feisty Mathilda in Luc Besson’s LEON. Not content to simply sit back and accept the murder of her family, the tough-beyond-her-years Mathilda seeks help from  Leon, her loner immigrant neighbour who just happens to be a trained assassin.

6. “Gertrud” – GERTRUD (Carl Theodor Dreyer)

Dreyer’s strong-willed heroine Gertrud refuses to settle for anything below her high expectations – and why should she? After ending her marriage to Gustav, Gertrud takes up with the composer Erland Jansson. But he disappoints her too, so she decides to swear off men – in spite of the advances of Gabriel, with whom she had an affair years before. Why settle for anything less than perfection?

5. “Nikita” – LA FEMME NIKITA (Luc Besson)

The drug-addicted Nikita is one tough babe. After shooting a cop in a robbery gone wrong, she is sentenced to death. But behind prison walls she is given an ultimatum…After three years of martial arts, weapons and etiquette training she emerges, butterfly-like, as a deadly and ruthless assassin.

4. “Sweetie” – SWEETIE (Jane Campion)

Not only is the titular character of Campion’s first feature film a willful and determined female character (if not a little crazy) but director Jane Campion is a shining example of women’s triumph in a medium normally occupied by men. In 1994, Campion became only the second woman to be nominated for the  Best Director Oscar®.

3. “Sybylla” – MY BRILLIANT CAREER (Gillian Armstrong)

A strong-willed female character (Sybylla) played by a brilliant Aussie actress (Judy Davis) in a film directed with a powerful female voice (Gillian Armstrong). The International Women’s Day trifecta.

2. “Annie” – IMITATION OF LIFE (Douglas Sirk)

The late, great Juanita Moore is at her tear-jerking best as the beautiful (inside and out) Annie, a woman whose love for her daughter overpowers the pain she must feel after said daughter’s callous rejection. Annie is such a compassionate character that she never resents her selfish tart of a daughter – she is only saddened that Sara-Jane is so ashamed of her. The beauty of Annie’s character makes the film’s mournful final scene all the more heartbreaking.

1. “Phyllis” – DOUBLE INDEMNITY (Billy Wilder)

While Barbara Stanwyck’s malvolent Phyllis is hardly a female heroine to admire, she certainly knows what she wants – and how she can get it! The epitome of a strong-willed, ferociously feisty female character, Phyllis tops my list any day!