March 8th marks International Women’s Day. Celebrate the dedication of working women from a range of professions by adding these exceptional titles to your library shelves. Women's studies professors could use these films as a library resource for their classrooms. This International Women’s Day, commemorate the achievements of working women from around the world. They are the backbone of society just as much as men are.
Gold Diggers of 1933 (1933)
A group of young showgirls down on their luck during the Great Depression attempt to scheme, seduce, sing, and dance their way out of poverty in this pre-Hayes Code Hollywood classic. Bugsby Berkeley’s stunning stylized shots are accompanied by a cast of talented comediennes and heartfelt music. Made in 1933, this film’s rather frank treatment of sex, moral ambiguity, and female ferocity may come as a shock to some contemporary viewers. That’s exactly what makes it a wonderful educational tool for tackling the effects of censorship on cultural understandings of the past.
Erin Brockovich (2000)
Erin Brockovich is an unlikely heroine in this mostly true story: a single, uneducated mother of three living below the poverty line, desperate to stay afloat. After finding a job at a law firm, she discovers a cover-up of groundwater contamination that’s caused devastation amongst the local populace and becomes the passionate spearhead of a class-action lawsuit against PG&E.Erin’s commitment to finding justice for the forgotten people of Hinkley, even when staring in the face of one of America’s major energy corporations, makes this film a must-see for International Women’s Day.
Read our review of Erin Brockovich
Legally Blonde (2001)
A classic among female millennials: A platinum-blonde sorority girl successfully gets into Harvard Law School in an attempt to win back her ex-boyfriend. She discovers two things: first, that he’s already engaged and has no interest in taking her back; and two, that none of her peers in this new world she’s entered take her seriously. Thus, she reorients her trajectory and discovers her knack for litigation when she’s taken onto a high-profile murder case; all in stilettos. Reese Witherspoon’s Elle Woods is a deeply interesting and iconic modern heroine; a lone wolf that seeps optimism, drive, and a love for the world and for others in spite of its coldness and cruelty to her.
Read our review of Legally Blonde
Nausicaa of the Valley of the Wind (1984)
Nausicaa is a young princess in a post-apocalyptic world that finds herself caught up in the midst of a war with a neighboring kingdom. The conflict concerns a vast toxic jungle populated by giant insects perceived to be a danger to the remaining humans left on earth, and the opposition intends to destroy them all. Nausicaa, however, knows that this is not all as it seems, and embarks on a journey to stop the extermination and rescue her world. A beloved early creation by Hayao Miyazaki, who would later go on to found Studio Ghibli, this film also serves as an excellent example of how Eastern animation storytelling conventions differs from Western.
Silence of the Lambs (1991)
Based on the acclaimed Thomas Harris novel of the same name, this film is regarded by film critics, directors, and educators as one of few “perfect films.” Clarice Starling is a young FBI trainee that’s asked to interview notorious cannibal Hannibal Lecter. Although this is considered a fool’s task, Starling manages to forge a connection with Lecter, who assists her in finding a serial killer that abducts and skins women. Starling undoubtedly walked so that later, Olivia Benson of Law and Order: SVU could run. Like many similar heroines, Starling’s inability to truly integrate into the boy’s club of her chosen profession is what distinguishes her ability to think and see outside the box, and ultimately reach her goal.
Read our review of Silence of the Lambs
Mildred Pierce (1945)
After divorcing a well-off but unfaithful husband, Mildred Pierce attempts to support her two daughters on her own as a baker. Joan Crawford’s hardworking and honest Mildred clashes with her haughty, social-climbing daughter, Veda, played by Ann Blythe, who would rather seek her riches the old-fashioned way: seduction, dishonesty, and adultery. In spite of Mildred’s devotion to her daughter’s happiness, Ann’s materialism and thirst for a higher status in society spell trouble for everyone involved. Considered a classic film noir, Mildred Pierce is a wonderful educational film for examining how this genre, which surged in popularity following WW2, based its female archetypes around its contemporaneous fears and anxieties around women, work, marriage, and money.
The Devil Wears Prada (2006)
Another millennial classic: Based on Lauren Weisberger’s eponymous novel, this film concerns a recent journalism grad who lands herself an unlikely job as an assistant to the demanding Editor-in-Chief of a major New York City fashion magazine. Her sense of intellectual superiority over the fashion crowd is met harshly, and in time, she learns to acclimate to her glossy new world and must ultimately decide for herself what kind of a person she wants to be. As with many films in this 2000s girl-meets-world comedy-drama genre, our female lead finds that that which distinguishes her from her peers becomes her strength while we as audience members are asked to reconsider our ideas on feminine power as a whole.
Read our review of The Devil Wears Prada
Jeanne Dielman, 23 Commerce Quay, 1080 Brussels (1975)
Fascinating, frustrating, and dare one even say - boring at times. This widely acclaimed (and criticized) film is a challenge that any film student, educator, or aficionado must tackle at one point or another. Shot majorly in real-time, Jeanne Dielman depicts three days in the life of a widowed Belgian homemaker as the seams of her tranquil domestic life begin to unravel. With its prolonged sequences of Jeanne peeling potatoes and running errands for her son, and just bare teases of more cinematically conventional elements, such as violence and sex, this film asks the audience to reconsider what we believe to be worth documenting. Chantal Ackerman has described the film as one dedicated to her mother; “it gives recognition to that kind of woman.” Most certainly it does; Jeanne Dielman gives dignity, depth, and empathy to an archetypical feminine figure whose labors are often deemed invisible and otherwise unimportant.
Read our review of Jeanne Dielman, 23, quai du Commerce, 1080 Bruxelles
Jackie Brown (1997)
The inimitable, glass-shattering Pam Grier is cast in Quentin Tarantino’s homage to the very same blaxploitation films that had previously put Grier on the map. In Jackie Brown, Grier plays an aging flight attendant that smuggles money for a Lost Angeles drug dealer. Under scrutiny by the FBI, she hatches a plan to play double agent for both her employer and the authorities in an attempt to steal half a million dollars. Jackie Brown is a fascinating examination of how visibility, invisibility, partnerships, and the idea of personal fulfillment change as women age and pass their perceived “social prime.”
Read our review of Jackie Brown
Norma Rae (1979)
Sally Field plays Norma, a single mother of two and an uneducated factory worker in a North Carolina cotton mill where many of her family members also work. After her father dies of a preventable heart attack on the job, Norma is driven to unionize her workplace and improve working conditions. Met with severe backlash from the cotton mill, attacks on her personal character, threats of termination, and even arrest, Norma seeks to find justice for her community and her family while also tackling concerns of love and motherhood. Based on the true story of Crystal Lee Sutton, a North Carolina union organizer, this film echoes the types of female-driven workforce movements that resulted in the very invention of “International Women’s Day.”
Read our review of Norma Rae