THE FILM ATLAS

Issue 1: Women on Screen

The Film Atlas’s inaugural issue focuses on women on screen (and those behind the scenes too). We’re writing about the ladies who break conventions as well as the depictions we want to see more of. This issue shares perspectives from academics, journalists, and industry professionals. Flip through our pages by clicking on the stills below.

 
"I don't think there are any tricks to portraying females, I just want to portray them honestly." — Director Emma Higgins

"I don't think there are any tricks to portraying females, I just want to portray them honestly."
— Director Emma Higgins

"Gender may not be 'real,' but the experience of being treated 'female' in a society that declares us several degrees of inferior is hyper-real, vivid, visceral." — Sophia Larigakis

"Gender may not be 'real,' but the experience of being treated 'female' in a society that declares us several degrees of inferior is hyper-real, vivid, visceral."
— Sophia Larigakis

"Her expression is serious, almost gaunt, and her hair is much darker and cropped. Her posture is uncomfortable displayed against the austere background where she has been placed. At times, Knox is wary of the camera, regarding it tentatively or str…

"Her expression is serious, almost gaunt, and her hair is much darker and cropped. Her posture is uncomfortable displayed against the austere background where she has been placed. At times, Knox is wary of the camera, regarding it tentatively or struggling for words. At other times, she is deliberate, almost exasperated, as she articulates her story."
— Katie Elder

“Archer’s Malory is the antidote to the ‘femme fatale turned femme ordinary’ characters of these romantic comedies. Malory refuses to beg pardon for her behaviour and allows herself to be driven by her needs, desires, and neurosis.” — Genevieve Cit…

“Archer’s Malory is the antidote to the ‘femme fatale turned femme ordinary’ characters of these romantic comedies. Malory refuses to beg pardon for her behaviour and allows herself to be driven by her needs, desires, and neurosis.”
— Genevieve Citron

"If you take your doses of 1930s cinema intravenously and have a frenzied addiction to hardcore glamour, you'll know who actress Kay Francis is." — Meghan King

"If you take your doses of 1930s cinema intravenously and have a frenzied addiction to hardcore glamour, you'll know who actress Kay Francis is."
— Meghan King

“And as women, we have to be aware of anything that can make us seem insane, even if it is completely 100% justified, because it can and will be used against us, and fused to our reputation for the rest of our psychotic, period bearing lives.” — Sa…

“And as women, we have to be aware of anything that can make us seem insane, even if it is completely 100% justified, because it can and will be used against us, and fused to our reputation for the rest of our psychotic, period bearing lives.”
— Sam Doll

“Virginia’s limiting and even complete removal of player control in its pervasive use of filmic language disarm the player […] supporting the subaltern character’s autonomy. This is perhaps Virginia’s greatest subversion of hegemony: rendering the p…

“Virginia’s limiting and even complete removal of player control in its pervasive use of filmic language disarm the player […] supporting the subaltern character’s autonomy. This is perhaps Virginia’s greatest subversion of hegemony: rendering the player subordinate to the character — the control of which they may take for granted.”
— David Leblanc

“Here, Tarantino perpetuates a problem endemic to our own cultural understanding of violence against women; that if perpetrated by a ‘redeemable’ man, an assault is not an intrinsically immoral act, but rather, a misstep.” — Keara Campos

“Here, Tarantino perpetuates a problem endemic to our own cultural understanding of violence against women; that if perpetrated by a ‘redeemable’ man, an assault is not an intrinsically immoral act, but rather, a misstep.”
— Keara Campos

"The film oscillates between positioning Amy as a victim and as a conniving and malicious partner. Initially depicted as the 'cool girl' who is smart, sexually adventurous, and relaxed in her marriage to Nick, Amy is transformed -- in a sense tamed …

"The film oscillates between positioning Amy as a victim and as a conniving and malicious partner. Initially depicted as the 'cool girl' who is smart, sexually adventurous, and relaxed in her marriage to Nick, Amy is transformed -- in a sense tamed -- into a submissive and needy wife."
— Pam Austin

“In a triumphant conclusion, the woman dances swiftly across the frame. Ikwé’s final sequence releases its subject to move beyond the limits of her own singular form, as her ‘real’ body is trailed by the unified specters of her ancestral collective …

“In a triumphant conclusion, the woman dances swiftly across the frame. Ikwé’s final sequence releases its subject to move beyond the limits of her own singular form, as her ‘real’ body is trailed by the unified specters of her ancestral collective memory.”
— Jacqueline Halloran Cooper

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Courtesy of The Film Atlas staff.