Sunday, December 3, 2017

Favorite Films of Mine take the Bechdel Test*



Amadeus—fails (I’m sure Constanza spoke with her mother—just not on screen.)
Ghostbusters—fails
The Princess Bride—fails
Bram Stoker’s Dracula—passes (Lucy talks to Mina about changing (“I can hear mice in the attic stomping like elephants.”))
Velvet Underground—fails
Dead Man Walking—passes (Sister Helen speaks with fellow sisters.)
Steel Magnolias—passes
The Little Mermaid—nope, but then again Arial can’t speak for most of the movie
The Downfall—passes
Le Comte De Monte Cristo—fails
The Prime of Miss Jean Brodie—passes
The Great Escape—fails. But it takes place in a POW camp, so maybe it doesn’t count?
Spirited Away—passes
Howl’s Moving Castle—passes (Sophie complains to the Witch of the Waste discuss the curse the Witch has put on Sophie)
Das Boot—Are you high?
Les Adieux à la Reine—passes
The Shadow of the Vampire—fails
All of the Lord of the Rings movies—fail, but that’s Tolkein’s fault
Charlie and the Chocolate Factory (Tim Burton version)—passes so long as we count girls as women.
Corpse Bride—passes
The Nightmare Before Christmas—on the fence—do two witches singing together count as “speaking with each other?”
Batman (Tim Burton)--dear me, no
Night Watch—fails
The Seventh Seal—Fails
Topsy Tury—passes. (The Three Little Maids speak with the costume designer.)
Antonia’s Line—passes
9 to 5--passes
Heathers—passes
Never-ending Story—fails
Coraline—passes
Lars and the Real Girl—passes
Amelie—passes
The Imitation Game—passes
The Wizard of Oz—passes
Dead Poet’s Society—why do you even ask?
Scrooge--passes (discussion of bed curtains)

Alien, as we all know,  passes

*https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Bechdel_test

Sunday, March 26, 2017

The Green and White Dress

My Granny* made me a green and white dress when I was a toddler. I remember the dress well, but not because I remember wearing it. I remember it because there were pictures of me wearing it, and because my younger sister wore  it (sadly I don't have a picture of her in the dress--although I'm sure there's one somewhere in my parents' house.)

 Until a few years ago I didn't know that Granny had made that dress. I was surprised to hear this--I knew that Granny had been a knitter (there were afghans and ski sweaters as evidence). However sewing a dress is another matter--one that was a surprise to me.

Most children's clothes take a beating, but "dressy" clothes for kids who are old enough not yak/pee on them don't get much wear. Perhaps this is why this dress is still in circulation. In any case, here is me wearing the dress at about age 2 (with my mom and my great aunt Lilian)..



Here is my niece wearing the dress at age 5(?) in any case, older than I was, wearing the same dress.


Finally, here is my cousin's daughter wearing the green and white dress in 2016 that my Granny made in 1977.















*My dad's mother