The Bechdel-Wallace Test

The Bechdel-Wallace test is - you know what? I'm just going to quote from TV Tropes here;

The Bechdel Test or the Bechdel-Wallace Test is a sort of litmus test for female presence in movies and TV. In order to pass, the film or show must meet the following criteria:

1. it includes at least two women,
   
2. who have at least one conversation alone
   
3. about something other than a man or men.

Now, by limiting yourself to shows/movies that pass the test, you'd be cutting out a lot of otherwise-worthy entertainment; indeed, a fair number of top-notch works have legitimate reasons for including no women (e.g. ones set in a men's prison or on a military submarine or with no conversations at all or with only one character). You may even be cutting out a lot of works that have a feminist tone. But that's the point: too little fiction created today, particularly in TV and movies, has independent female characters. Things have improved since the test was first formulated (the strip in which it was originally suggested was written in 1985), but Hollywood still needs to be prodded to put in someone other than The Chick.

The Bechdel test, or Bechdel-Wallace was first suggested in the webcomic Dykes to Watch Out For, and you can see the specific strip here.

After reading that page, a question began to torment me. Just how many of my movies (as in, the ones I own on DVD) pass?

Well, let's see. Below is a list of the movies I own - in alphabetical order, because that's how I role - with comments as to how well they do on the Bechdel-Wallace test. What I'm going to do is, watch all of these films over again, in alphabetical order, and add in comments as I do (I have a lot of knitting/rugmaking/studying to get done, and movies help a lot). Fail will be a sharp red colour, while a pass will be green.  When the film only just scrapes through, it will be a lilac-y blue shade.  I generally include conversations about children as being "about men", but I'll normally note when I've done this.  If you disagree, comment, and we can discuss it.

I did not realise that I owned this many films. This isn't even including TV series'.

Title	Comments	Pass/Fail
10 Things I Hate About You	Passes within the first ten minutes, when Kat and the guidance counsellor talk about Kat's attitude.  If that's not enough, Bianca and her friend manage a talk about being "whelmed" before Joey interrupts. Later, Kat and Bianca have a talk about their respective attitudes and their mother.
17 Again	Failed miserably. No, wait! I just remembered that little conversation at the beginning, with the girls congratulating Wendy on her promotion! Half-pass, since they weren't main characters and Mike was standing just behind them.
America's Sweethearts	I was only half paying attention, but I'm pretty sure this failed, unless you want to count Kiki haranguing the waitress about butter (she doesn't reply, so it's not really conversation).
American Pie	Well, Vicky and her friend do talk about orgasms, but they're also talking about Kevin, so I'm going to call it a fail.
American Pie 2	---	---
American Pie 3	---	---
American Beauty	---	---
Anastasia	---	---
Another Cinderella Story	---	---
Battle Royale	---	---
Battle Royale II: Requim	---	---
Before Sunrise	---	---
Big Daddy	---	---
Bridge to Terabithia	---	---
Bruce Almighty	---	---
The Butcher's Wife	---	---
Children of Men	---	---
Cruel Intentions	---	---
The Dark Crystal	---	---
Definitely, Maybe	---	---
The Devil Wears Prada	---	---
The Doll Master	---	---
Drop Dead Gorgeous	---	---
East is East	---	---
Enchanted	---	---
Evan Almighty	---	---
Final Fantasy VII: Advent Children	---	---
The Ghost	---	---
The Girl Who Leapt Through Time	---	---
The Handmaid's Tale	---	---
Happy-Go-Lucky	---	---
Hard Candy	Hailey calls her friend to discuss plans for after her "date".  Although she does mention Jeff in that conversation, it may just scrape through.
He Loves Me, He Loves Me Not	---	---
Heathers	---	---
Howl's Moving Castle	---	---
Into the Mirror	---	---
Juno	---	---
The Lake House	---	---
Legally Blonde	---	---
Life or Something Like It	---	---
Love Me If You Dare	---	---
Mr Magorium's Wonder Emporium	---	---
Mean Girls	---	---
Memoirs of a Geisha	---	---
Minority Report	---	---
The Mummy	---	---
The Mummy Returns	---	---
The Mummy: Tomb of the Dragon Emperor	---	---
Mona Lisa Smile	---	---
Not Another Teen Movie	---	---
The Orphanage	---	---
The Other Boleyn Girl	---	---
The Others	---	---
The Parent Trap	---	---
Persepolis	---	---
Priscilla	---	---
Saved!	---	---
The Shawshank Redemption	Instant fail - there aren't two female characters.
Shrek	---	---
Shrek 2	---	---
Shrek the Third	---	---
Sister Act	---	---
Sky High	---	---
Sliding Doors	---	---
Slumdog Millionaire	---	---
South Park	---	---
Son of Rambow	---	---
Strings	---	---
The Swan Princess	---	---
The Truman Show	---	---
A Very Long Engagement	---	---
Where the Heart Is	Passes when Sister and Novalee talk outside the Walmart.

I Want DVDs

I found a leaflet stuck in one of my magazines, which admittedly, isn't usually a newsworthy occurance. They tend to be about tigers, and I would like to adopt one, but it wouldn't fit in my bedroom.

Anyway, this leaflet advertised a new site - iwantdvd.co.uk. The basic idea behind it is very interesting. Their advertising claims;

Unlike other DVD stores, www.iwantdvd.com has been specially designed to make online shopping more fun. Rather than finding yourself surfing through ten million DVDs waiting for a title to catch your eye, you can simply use the website's DVD selector to narrow down the search!

First, you need to put in who the DVD is for, with choices including everybody from yourself to your parents, siblings, children, best mate or other half. Then refine your quest by putting in the recipients age, film preference (comedy, horror, drama, etc) and details about their personality (are they funny? Romantic? Stylish?). The DVD selector will then use this information to rummage through the websites extensive library of content, choosing suitable DVDs to fit your criteria. You can also watch trailers and read information on its choices before you decide to buy them or not - perfect! Why waste time when www.iwantdvd.com can do all the hard work for you?

...well, because they've mistyped their own website address twice would be a good reason.

Ignoring that embarrassing error, the copy does look interesting, but I'll admit to having doubts as to how well it works. Sites like Amazon and LoveFilm, among others, also feature a recommendation feature, but this is based on votes given by their customers, and your history with the company. Anyone who uses Amazon regularly will generally be able to find a good choice or two among its many, many recomendations - and the fact that, at times, it's only batting 1/10 doesn't matter, since that feature isn't Amazon's main selling point (the books are). So far, LoveFilm's recommendations have only served to remind me to watch the next season of a series, but I remain in hope. After all, I've already got 300+ films on my list, so it's not like they've got many to choose from. And again, since that isn't the company's main selling point, it simply serves as a rather nice bonus.

But, iwantDVD is going beyond that. Rather than simply having the feature, they've decided it to make it their main selling point against the many, many other DVD sites out there. And how do they do it?

They could hook into a larger database, like that of IMDB, and use their long history of user ratings to sort films. Or they could categorise the films by themselves - say, have a given film score highly for a gift for a grandchild, and lower for one for a girlfriend (I'm assuming the film is Happy Feet, or Igor, or something). Give it a higher score for the younger age groups, and lower for older groups. Higher for people who are funny and like comedies. Then, when someone inputs the options, find the film which scores highest overall.

The problem with that system is the lack of user feedback. Sure, the system can be tweaked as the site grows, and people actually buy the DVDs, but during its delicate time, while the system is still finding its feet, that's not going to help. Honestly, I'm not holding out a fantastic amount of hope for this site.

So, I decided to test it, with my boyfriend. The objective was simple try to find a film which one of us owns, or at least wants to own, without actually lying about any details.

The first option you need to input is the recipients relationship to you, and there are quite a lot of options to choose from - dad, mum, brother, sister, son, daughter, me, girlfriend, boyfriend, best mate, husband, wife, evil twin, mistress, friend, partner, the ex, grandfather, grandmother, grandkid, cousin, aunt, uncle, mother-in-law, father in law, family pet, neighbour, nanny, teacher, boss, bribe, room mate, imaginary friend, secret santa, charity, arch enemy, and other. I think someone was having a lot of fun with this. I also think it would make more sense to have a separate 'gender' option, so they could cut a few options off this list, but that's just me.

Then age; 0-6, 6-12, 12-15, 15-18, 18-35, 35-55, 55+. These categories are much broader, and have some overlaps. I think that's a bad sign. Maybe whoever wrote the options was having slightly less fun at this point.

I also think that more weight should be given to age, rather than relationship. Or even to any of the later options, the next of which is which genre they prefer - action, classic, comedy, rom-coms, drama, family, horror, musical, romance, seasonal, sci-fi, suspense, or television.

I don't think I need to point out that television isn't a genre, do I? They're also missing indie, among others (I noticed that one, because I had a go at making it show Juno). Fantasy, too.

You can't tell, but I have my sad face on right about now.

The final option is for personality type, and I truly doubt the legitimacy of that option. Firstly, why would a funny person want to watch a comedy (which is what the system is going to find, if you say that)? They're already funny.

The options are also quite limited, when compared to the vast range of humanity; neurotic, observant, spontaneous, misunderstood, funny, romantic, stylish, flirty, strict, popular, stressed out, workaholic, loyal, outrageous, charistmatic, optimistic, charitable, laid back, streetwise, paranoid, troublemaker, hard to please, sympathetic, moody, gossip, player, smart arse, arrogant, or chilled out.

I'm not entirely sure why any of those - particularly stressed out and chilled out, which are temporary states - would effect one's choice in films. I also think that they should allow one to choose three or so of these, since I'm guessing they're using it to establish themes within the chosen genre.

Now, my boyfriend the horror fan, can be quite neurotic, but that doesn't mean he likes The Butterfly Effect (I do, because of the chaos theory, and because I don't like horror films and this isn't one). He didn't think much of Gremlins either, when I focused on him being misunderstood. The set of "six iconic films" was really cheating, but since he only liked one of them, it didn't do them much good (True Romance).

For me, the site suggested Micky Blue Eyes, Miss Congeniality, Dave and Doc Hollywood. I've only seen two of those (the same two I've heard of), and neither was on my list of "DVDs I want for Christmas" (which included Persepolis, Juno, Happy Go Lucky and the second season of Green Wing). I do like Miss Congeniality - it's one of those happy, witty little films that one can watch over and over (well, this one can). However, if I were going to get one of those on DVD (and I should), I'd be going for Legally Blonde or The Devil Wears Prada.

The site then, with a tweak of options, suggested The Batman Legacy for him and The Prestige for me - both of which were met with a resounding 'meh'. And not the positive kind.

I did manage to find one that he owned by claiming he liked sci-fi and was misunderstood - The Matrix Reloaded. Unfortunately, that film also got a 'meh', since he's now sick of it. To be fair though, the site didn't know how long he'd owned it, or even that he did. Action and neurotic came up with The Batman Legacy again, which he's sure that he wouldn't like (I double-checked).

All in all, not a fantastic start. It might work better if one could input a few films that the recepient already owns and likes, to help narrow it down a little. In fairness, I'm not a member of the site, and it may allow you to do that if you are - at least with your own films. There might even be a user-feedback system. This site could be fun for finding films you wouldn't have considered otherwise, but the choices are far too mainstream for that to really be an option.

Anyway, in conclusion, I'd say that if you're going to use this to actually help choose a present, don't use it for someone you're quite close to without double-checking their choices. On that note, my six-year-old arch enemy (who is hard to please and likes musicals) would, apparently, like a box-set of Elvis films. Funny, I thought she might prefer Igor.

Of Cinema Tickets, Downloading and DVDs

I watch a lot of movies. That may or may not be obvious.

Mostly, I watch films at the cinema. I have an Unlimited card, which is actually a pretty good deal. £11.99 a month, and I can see as many movies as I like for free. Considering that, some weeks, I watch three or four, and the prices range from £4 to £7.80 (3D movie, Saturday evening), they're definitely making a loss on this deal.

I really like going to the cinema. It doesn't have the strange feeling of a special event any more, but it's a nice place, and I know my local cinema as intimately as one can who doesn't work there. It's nice. I like the smell of popcorn (although I never buy any), I like the trailers (although I avoid the first ten minutes of adverts as often as possible), and I like the fact that it's on my way home from work, or ten minutes away from here by bus.

That 'on the way home from work' thing isn't as helpful as you might think. I work odd hours, which mean that I cannot see films, on days when I'm working, which start after 11:30am or before 10pm. This limits my options somewhat. Fortunately, sometimes I have three or four days off in a row, which allows me to get my fix of movies (although I am fully capable of watching three in one day).

I don't just watch new films; I also rent films and, more often, TV series. I have an account with LoveFilm if anyone's wondering. Might not be the best deal out there, but I like them, and they tend to be punctual and helpful. Only problem with their site is the fact that it can be a little tricky to move movies from one list to another when you have as many on there as I do (341 at last count). You have to dig right through the list to find it - if you use the search function, it will tell you that it's on your list, but won't allow you to move it to another one. But, to be fair, the list feature in general is excellent.

My collection of DVDs is relatively small, which may be surprising. I have a long list of DVDs that I want to own, but I rarely get around to buying them (Waterstones is right next to HMV, and it always distracts me on the way there). I have a few unusual things that I really love, like the first season of the Twilight Zone and the two animated series' of Discworld, and a few foreign films, which are difficult to find to rent, but I would say that I don't own more than twenty or so DVDs. I rarely download movies either - the last one would be Flower Drum Song, which I can't find to rent or buy anywhere (except as a region 1 disc, which wouldn't play on my PS2). I also download the odd foreign film which has no plans for a European release. Generally speaking, though, I prefer to rent, buy, or watch films at the cinema. I just think they seem more special that way.

I am sorely tempted to break this personal guideline in certain other cases, though. Like for A Muppet Christmas Carol. Although the VHS version, which I owned as a child, has the full movie, all DVD releases have a key scene missing. I refuse to buy a dvd with part of the film missing, but my VCR is long gone, and I have a tradition of watching the movie every Christmas.

Bartelmy