email print share on Facebook share on Twitter share on LinkedIn share on reddit pin on Pinterest

RELEASES Sweden

It’s a good film if two women are talking about something else than a man

by 

- Four Swedish independent cinemas have introduced a new ‘A’ rating – ‘approved’ - for films, which have passed the feminist Bechdel test. The instigator of the check has reservations

It’s a good film if two women are talking about something else than a man
Alison Bechdel

Four Swedish independent cinemas – the Bio Rio in Stockholm, the Roy in Göteborg, the Spegeln in Malmö and the Röda Kvarn in Helsingborg – have introduced the feminist Bechdel test for new releases: if they pass, an ‘A’ (for ‘approved’) will be printed in their ads, posters and programmes.

It was worldwide news, when US cartoonist Alison Bechdel’s requirements for cinema: a film should have 1) at least two women in it, 2) who talk to each other, 3) about something besides a man – which she published in her comic strip Dykes to Watch Out For in 1985 – were revived by the Swedish theatres.

(The article continues below - Commercial information)

Managing director Ellen Telje, of the Bio Rio in Stockholm, told local press that she learned about the test four years ago and was shocked to find out how few films can actually get through the test, even in 2013. The new rating should encourage distributors to offer more ‘approved’ films as well as inform feminist consumers.

Bechdel has herself commented on the Swedish initiative on her regular website: “There has (recently) been some hubbub about the test, because a chain of movie theatres in Sweden just launched a rating system based on the idea, which I stole from my friend Liz Wallace, who – I am pretty certain – stole it from Virginia Woolf, who wrote about it in 1926.”

“I have got a lot of requests from the media, but I am ignoring them. I feel bad about this. There seems to be something fundamentally wrong about not seizing every chance for publicity—if not for myself, then for the brave Swedish cinema consortium, not to mention the cause of women everywhere. Inevitably, in these interviews, I say simplistic things, or find myself defending absurd accusations - like the formal application of the test by a movie theatre is somehow censorious. I have always felt ambivalent about how the test got attached to my name and went viral,” Bechdel concluded.

(The article continues below - Commercial information)

Did you enjoy reading this article? Please subscribe to our newsletter to receive more stories like this directly in your inbox.

Privacy Policy