CineMata's Movie Madness
  • Homepage
  • Guest Reviews
    • Rhapsody in August
  • Cine's Closeup
    • The Pale Blue Eye
    • The Munsters 2022
    • Hello, My Name is Doris
    • In Praise of Family
    • Venom 2
    • Ophelia
    • Mank
    • Macbeth 2015
  • Pioneering Feministas
    • Janet Green: Tapping into the Dark Side
    • Women Make Film
    • Alice Guy-Blache
    • Auteur Directors
  • Star Spot
    • Juanita Moore
    • Raisin in the Sun 3
    • Cine's Walk of Fame Tour
  • The Woman's Voice
    • Blonde 2022
    • Women Warriors
    • The Divine Order
    • Twilight: A Primal Call for Patriarchal Dominance
    • The Fierce Women of Summer
    • Martha Fiennes' ONEGIN
    • The Dressmaker
    • Sofia Coppola and The Silent Woman
    • Thelma and Louise
    • Bridesmaids 2011
    • Mildred Pierce HBO
    • Dragonwyck
    • Cousin Bette
    • Stage Beauty
  • About Cine
  • Top Ten Faves
    • 'Tis the Season for Murder
    • 12 Days of Cinematic Christmas 2020
    • The Best Film Experiences of 2017
    • Female Villains to Die For
    • 10 Remakes to Remember
    • We Heart the Bad Boys
    • 12 Days of Cinematic Christmas 2014
    • Most Memorable Moms
    • Cult Film Faves
  • Contact Cine
  • Hollywood Notables
    • Fiona Shaw
    • Viola Davis
    • Elizabeth Banks
    • Shia LaBeouf
  • Rave Reviews
    • Best of Netflix 2017
    • Mayhem
    • Dave Made a Maze
    • Lavender
    • Hail Caesar!
    • Spy
    • Gravity
    • Inception 2010
    • Black Swan 2010
    • Flight
    • Moonrise Kingdom
    • Lincoln
    • Looper
    • Lawless
  • Telegenic Static
    • Wednesday
    • Cine's 2018/19 Seasonal Faves
    • The Highwaymen
    • Cine's New Year Resolution: Watch More Netflix!
    • TCM : A Class Act
    • Best of TV * 2017
    • Female Detectives on TV
    • Neo-Renaissance TV: Feud & Big Little Lies
    • True Detective Navigates Noirland
    • Texas Rising
    • 2014/2015 TV Season Highlights
    • 2013-2014 TV Favorites
  • British Film & TV
    • The Banshees of Inisherin
    • Doc Martin
    • Song of the Swan
    • Death in Paradise
    • Miss Scarlet and the Duke
    • The Stranger
    • Sanditon
    • Collateral
    • Handsome Devil
    • Love & Friendship
    • Victorian Slum House
    • 45 Years
    • Anonymous
    • Appropriate Adult
    • Sherlock Holmes: Many Faces
    • Philomena
    • British Feminista TV
    • Brassed Off
  • The Golden Age
    • Gone with the Wind
    • Cleopatra 1934
    • Elizabeth Taylor: The Passing of an Icon
  • Who You Callin' Crazy?!
    • Cine's Walk of Fame Tour
    • Count Bela: Nosferatu & Vampyr
    • Post Awards with Ida Lupino
    • The Duke: Cowboys/Aliens vs WWZ
    • Liberace Dishes
    • Elizabeth Taylor Visits Cine
  • Noir Greats
    • Nightmare Alley
    • The Big Heat
    • Femme Fatales: Crime is My Career
    • Femme Fatales: Honey, I'm Home!
    • Crime of Passion
    • The Loves of Carmen
    • The Many Faces of Noir
    • In Order of Disappearance
    • Boss - 2011/12 series
    • Pepe le Moko 1937
    • Mystery Street 1950
    • The Girl with the Dragon Tattoo
    • The Barefoot Contessa: A Noir Bridge to Nowhere
    • They Won't Believe Me
    • Dan Duryea Nails Noir
    • What Is Film Noir?
    • They Drive By Night
  • Commentaries
    • Award Season 2019 Redux
    • #OscarsSoTarnished
    • Orson Welles Independent Film Tribute
    • Oscar 2016: The Politics of Segregation
    • Hollywood Director's Club: For Men Only
    • Poliwood and the Hollywood Blacklist
    • Cine Mata's 2015 Picks and Pans
    • The Unbearable Whiteness of Emmy Hosting
    • Oscar's Dodge
  • Drive-By Reviews
    • Dark Phoenix
    • Nola Circus
    • Comfort
    • ATOMICA
    • Innuendo
    • My Big Fat Greek Wedding 2
    • Film Franchise Meltdown
    • The Woman in Black
    • Girls with Guns 3.0
    • Coriolanus
    • Lady Scarface 1941
  • International Films & TV
    • My Pandemic Marathon Diaries
    • The Twelve
    • Mr. Sunshine
    • The World of International Noir
    • Romance of Our Parents
    • The Grand Hotel Saga
    • Don't Be Bad
    • The Handmaiden
    • Caramel / Sukkar banat
    • Morning for the Osone Family 1946
    • Fritz Lang's M
    • La Bete Humaine
  • Political Rx
    • Rebellion
    • Women in the White House
    • The Ides of March
    • By The People: The Election of Barack Obama
  • Culture Centric Cinema
    • Horror Noire
    • Self Made
    • Little
    • Hidden Figures
    • Fences
    • #Whiterose: Identity, Secrecy & BD Wong
    • Imitation of Life 1934
    • Frazzled Hair Wars
    • Soul Men
  • Indie Films
    • Scotland, PA
    • Adrift in Soho
    • H4
    • Paint It Red
    • HAMLET in the Golden Vale
    • Trouble is My Business
    • The Browsing Effect
    • Indie Films 2018 >
      • Clara's Ghost
      • Cold War
      • To Dream
      • The New Romantic
      • Here and Now
      • Unlovable
      • The Landing
      • I CAN I WILL I DID
      • Choosing Signs
      • Iron Brothers
      • Across the River
      • Josephine Doe
      • Sunset
      • SUNSET: Interview
      • The Forgiven
      • Kill Order
      • Midnighters
      • Half Magic
      • Looking Glass
      • Entanglement
      • Crazy Famous
      • Stratton
      • As You Like It
      • Hunter
  • eau de cinematic clunker
    • The Irishman
    • Almost Friends
    • The Osiris Child
    • Bushwick
    • Pilgrimage
    • Fun Mom Dinner
    • Once Upon A Time in Venice
    • Aaron's Blood
    • Black Rose
    • Lucy 2014
    • Transcendence 2014
  • Book Reviews
    • Conversations with Ray Bradbury
    • A Woman's View
    • Dark Dames
    • Auntie Mame's Favorite Son: Patrick Dennis
    • I'm A Lebowski, You're A Lebowski
  • Documentary Picks & Pans
    • Black Ballerina
    • Leftover Women
    • Natalie Wood: What Remains Behind
    • Unrest
    • Be Natural
    • Farmsteaders
    • Bombshell : Hedy Lamarr
    • Jungle
    • Who the F**k is that Guy?
    • The Man in the Camo Jacket
    • Spirit Game: Pride of a Nation
    • Burlesque: Heart of the Glitter Tribe
    • Listen to Me Marlon
    • I Am Not Your Negro
    • The Girls in the Band
    • TCM's Trailblazing Women in Film
    • The Honor Diaries
    • Side By Side
    • American Masters : Salinger
    • The Story of Film
  • LGBTQ pov
    • Making Sweet Tea
    • Drag Queens & Trannies
    • Milk 2009
  • Silent Classics
    • Charles Epting: Silent Film Historian
    • Hollywood's Silent Film Grave Huntress
    • La Boheme 1926
    • The Blot 1921
    • Pandora's Box
    • Don Juan
  • Art House Flicks
    • Birth
    • I'm Not There
  • Kid's Korner
    • Pokemon Detective Pikachu
    • Hotel Transylvania 3 : Summer Vacation
    • The Incredibles 2
    • Sherlock Gnomes
    • Paddington 2
    • Lego Batman: A Super Hero in Crisis
    • SING: Cine's 2017 Oscar Pick
    • Summer Flicks 2016
    • Kung Fu Panda 3 / 2016
  • Cine's Friends
  • Hollywood Award Shows
    • Cine's Fantasy Golden Globes 2021
    • Oscar 2020
    • For Your Consideration 2018
    • For Your Consideration 2017
    • 50 Shades of Oscar 2016
    • 2016 Golden Globes
    • 2015 Emmys Redux
    • 2014 Oscars: Plantation Politics
    • 2014 Emmys : A Dash of Racism
    • 2013 Emmys : Hold the Mayo
  • Archives
Picture
45 Years: A Random Bechdal Test


2015


by Paulette Reynolds
May 2, 2017
Director: Andrew Haigh
Screenplay: Andrew Haigh


Starring Charlotte Rampling/Kate, Tom Courtenay/Geoff, Geraldine James/Lena

Picture
Charlotte Rampling, a jewel in England's cinematic crown, proves yet again that films about older women should never be missed.  She brings to life Andrew Haigh's 45 Years, a story about the choices we make in our youth coming back to haunt us.

Rampling plays Kate Mercer, a quiet, reserved British woman preparing a gala anniversary party to celebrate 45 years of marriage to Geoff (Tom Courtenay).  A retired teacher, she and Geoff find their well-ordered life of domesticity threatened by a trauma that occurred shortly before they began dating in the 1960s.
A letter arrives, announcing that the body of his former girlfriend, "my Katya", has been located in an ice bed on a rugged Swiss mountainside. This marks the beginning of a long week for the settled couple, who each react to the news in their own subdued way:  Geoff begins smoking again and becomes more preoccupied with the notion of returning to Switzerland to claim her remains; while Kate goes about her day seemingly concerned only about the approaching party.

45 Years becomes a claustrophobic examination of the Bechdal Test in action.  The Bechdal Test is a method of examining literary and media works of fiction, and requires two females (or more) to discuss a topic that has nothing to do with males (or males in the story).  This benchmark is used to decide whether the main female characters are actively empowered in the film or merely being used as window dressing to make the main male character(s) look good. * 
Picture
At first glance it would appear that the only test markers in 45 Years are the sporadic conversations between Kate and her long-time friend, Lena (Geraldine James).  Lena happily rattles on about Geoff, their marriage and the party, usually without pausing for breath.  Kate wonders aloud about the speech Geoff will make during the festivities, and Lena assures her that he'll be so emotionally invested that he'll cry, "like they all do".  These conversations indicate that 45 Years failed the Bechdal Test, as the women focus their attention on Geoff, the main male character.

The film continues to center around the week of the party, as Kate marks her days focusing on her rather boring husband, who spends his days dithering about looking helpless.  The week ends on Saturday, with the couple being feted at their 45th wedding celebration.  It's only at the very end of the film, when Kate yanks her hand away from Geoff, that  her story is revealed to us through our own internal recollections.
As I sat looking at the blank screen, I kept thinking, "Is this really all there is to this flat, one-dimensional story?" Then, as if I were watching the film in reverse, I began to see that the entire film was a Bechdal Test, but the two women having the conversation were Kate and myself, the viewer, about the choices married women make once they shake off the rice and pack up the wedding dress.

45 Years shows us a marriage only half realized, since Geoff is the only one who has a suitcase full of memories and life seems to revolved around him.  The love affair between himself and Katya ended on the day she fell to her death, but as Kate discovers, Katya was also pregnant.  Kate begins each day puttering around after Geoff, quietly inquiring about his needs.  They have no children, and the family dog is almost as silent as she is.  Walks with Geoff along the East Anglia countryside and her frequent trips into town bring her rather humdrum day to a close.  At night they share a few careful sentences that end with Geoff flatly stating "I'm tired" and then it's lights out. Even the late date for their anniversary party was changed, is due to Geoff's health, five years earlier.
Picture
Every time Geoff attempts to share something about Katya, Kate impatiently cuts him off.  We're left to wonder if it's because she's jealous of a ghost or if she's getting angry that she has nothing to share of her own.  When she goes upstairs into the cramped attic to pour over his suitcase of travel mementos and view old slides of a pregnant Katya, we begin to understand just how small this woman's life has become to her.

Kate finally confronts him about his plans to visit Switzerland after she discovers he's gone to a travel agency in town.  Geoff assures her that it was only a fool's errand and pledges to become more actively involved in their marriage.  As she gets ready for the big night, she discovers a necklace he's left for her as a present. After thanking him, she apologizes for not getting him anything, letting him know - almost as an afterthought - that she was considering a watch.  "I don't like to mark time", he shrugs - and here then is the first hint of what marriage for her has really been for Kate - marking time.
Picture
As the evening progresses we see Kate, dutifully beside her Geoff, yet it's clear she's becoming more uncomfortable with the passage of time.  During his sentimental speech he refers to the choices one makes when they're young as having important consequences, and yes, he predictably breaks down in tears.  No one expects Kate to make a speech, so all that's left for them to do is lead the first dance.  Now purged of his past sorrow, Geoff happily sings along with the strains of ‘their’ song, “Smoke Gets in Your Eyes”, and Kate looks like she has finally awakened from a long sleep, only to find - like the frozen Katya - that she's wasted 45 years of her life.

The last few frames of 45 Years tells a universal story of millions of women, past and present, who have looked up to realize that they've buried themselves alive in a relationship designed to make only one person happy.  Feeling Kate's discomfort and disillusionment brings home the message that our choices of how we want to live our lives is another sort of Bechdal Test, just waiting to happen.  

*  Also known as the Bechdel–Wallace test,[1] the test is named after the American cartoonist Alison Bechdel, in whose comic strip Dykes to Watch Out For it first appeared in 1985. Bechdel credited the idea to a friend, Liz Wallace, and to the writings of Virginia Woolf. After the test became more widely discussed in the 2000s, a number of variants and tests inspired by it have been introduced. The test is used as an indicator for the active presence of women in films and other fiction, and to call attention to gender inequality in fiction. 
​                                                             Wikipedia

Paulette Reynolds: 
​
@PG13Reynolds
@CinesMovieBlog

​p.reynolds@live.com


COPYRIGHT 2012/2017. Paulette Reynolds.  All CineMata Movie Madness blog articles, reviews, faux interviews, commentary, and the Cine Mata character are under the sole ownership of Paulette Reynolds.  All intellectual and creative rights reserved.  

Powered by Create your own unique website with customizable templates.