It sure is lonely all by yourself.

Weekly Directed By Women Viewing Guide

Renata Litvinova in Kira Muratova’s Eternal Homecoming

This week I am recommending films playing at this year’s Cannes Film Festival, a Kira Muratova retrospective, the Restored and Rediscovered festival at the Jacob Burns, one of my fave docs from last year playing at the Gene Siskel, a 90s classic on the big screen, and a short film by Annmarie Jacir. But first, a reminder of some upcoming Cinema Her Way screenings.

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Sally Potter and Pablo Verón in Potter’s film The Tango Lesson

Although I had to cancel my appearances at the remaining dates of my book tour, several of the screenings are still taking place over the next few weeks, including two this week. At Doc Films in Chicago on Saturday, May 17th at 7:30pm, there will be a 35mm screening of Sally Potter’s The Tango Lesson, a film I love deeply. Here’s a little bit about the film from my conversation with Potter in my book Cinema Her Way:

Rage was originally a full-length feature film that I wrote and then rejected. It was almost ready to be funded as a big production detective story—not at all how it finally appeared. I rejected it, and then decided to include that process of rejection in The Tango Lesson. It was kind of quotation of the character, this version of myself that I was playing, who was rejecting her filmic idea in favor of dance. Or, rather, in favor of a study of this great art form in Argentina: social dancing as art. Not the glamorized, glitzy kind of stuff that now masquerades as the real thing. Tango is a meditation for two. Very austere, very simple and very beautiful. I learned about it in Buenos Aires where they referred to the stereotypical sleazy tango as ‘tango for export.’

If you can’t make it out to the screening, the film is also available to rent on most digital services.

John Malkcovich in Susan Seidelman’s Making Mr. Right

Then up in Minneapolis at the Trylon on Thursday, May 22nd at 7:00pm Archives On Screen will be hosting a 35mm screening of Susan Seidelman’s Making Mr. Right, a film I have featured on this newsletter several times now. I spoke to Seidelman about this film in both my book and for IndieWire a few years ago during 80s Week. Here’s an excerpt that latter converstation the didn’t make the article:

Since I had already made some movies in Manhattan, I was looking to go to another place, especially a place that had an interesting design aesthetic. I thought Florida would be cool because the space program is there, but also Miami is so colorful and it also has that great retro feel with all the art deco hotels and the interesting colors that the buildings were painted. So it had a lot of elements that I thought would be fun to play with.

You can get tickets to the Docs Films screening here and Trylon screening here. You can also stream the film now on Tubi.

Yui Suzuki in Chie Hayakawa’s Renoir, which is competing for the Palme d’Or at Cannes

I have yet to walk the croisette at the Cannes Film Festival, but I hope to make it out there someday. Especially given their ever-growing focus on programming films directed by women. The new festival president Iris Knobloch had much more encouraging words than her predecessors, telling Variety:

Yes and these seven by female filmmakers playing in competition represent one third of the selected films. This aligns closely with the overall submissions: women directed 28% of the films submitted, and they account for 25.1% of the Official Selection. We can only select from what is submitted to us but what’s especially encouraging is that the proportion of female-directed films is even higher among short films and first features. It’s a very positive trend, but one that requires continued vigilance to ensure it doesn’t stall. I also sense a growing confidence and boldness among female filmmakers and, just as importantly, a greater willingness to entrust them with ambitious projects. More women are submitting films, and what strikes me is the fortunate sequence of events: Justine Triet’s Palme d’Or win, which shone a global spotlight on female directors, followed by Coralie Fargeat’s breakthrough success after last year’s edition.

For the sake of awareness, I want to share all the feature films, to the best of my knowledge, directed by women that will be screening the various sections at this year’s festival. The following are the films directed by women will screen at this year’s festival in competition for the Palme d’Or: Julia Ducournau’s Alpha (here’s my interview with her about Titane), Lynne Ramsay’s Die, My Love, Hafsia Herzi’s The Little Sister, Kelly Reichardt’s The Mastermind (here’s my interview with her about Showing Up), Chie Hayakawa’s Renoir (This is the Cannes film I am looking forward to the most because I loved her film Plan 75 so damn much), Carla Simón’s Romería, and Mascha Schilinski’s Sound of Falling.

The following films are scheduled to screen in the Un Certain Regard selection: Zuzana Kirchnerová’s Karavan, Kristen Stewart’s The Choronolgy of Water, Scarlett Johansson’s Eleanor The Great, Anna Cazenave Cambet’s Love Me Tender, and Erige Sehiri’s Promised Sky (here’s my interview with her for Under The Fig Trees). French directors Amélie Bonnin’s Leave One Day and Rebecca Zlotowski’s A Private Life will both play out of competition slots, while Lisa Akoko and Romane Gueret’s Summer Beats will play in the premieres section and Maïlys Vallade and Liane-Cho Han’s Little Amélie or the Character of Rain and Joséphine Japy’s The Wonderers will screen in the special screenings section.

In terms of parallel sections, Critics' Week will include Alexe Poukine’s Kika, Shih-Ching Tsou’s Left-Handed Girl, Pauline Locques’ Nino, Laura Wandel’s Adam's Interest, Momoko Seto’s Planètes (Dandelion's Odyssey), and Alice Douard’s Love Letters. Directors' Fortnight will include Louise Hémon’s The Girl in the Snow, Prïncia Car’s The Girls We Want, Julia Kowalski’s Her Will Be Done, Yelizaveta Smith, Alina Gorlova, and Simon Mozgovyi’s Militantropos, Anne Émond’s Peak Everything, Eva Victor’s Sorry, Baby, and Valéry Carnoy’s Wild Foxes. The ACID section this year will include Sophie Letourneur’s L'aventura and Sepideh Farsi’s Put Your Soul on Your Hand and Walk.

There will also be dozens of short films screened, as well as the many filmmakers hoping to secure financing for projects in various stages of production.

Zinaida Sharko in Kira Muratova’s The Long Farewell