Cannes continues on and yesterday saw the premiere the latest by the Dardenne Brothers, Lorna’s Silence. The brothers (to the right) from Belgium are best known for their realist and disorientating visions of working people:

Palme d’Or laureates for Rosetta in 1999 and L’Enfant (The Child) in 2005, Jean-Pierre and Luc Dardenne return to Festival Competition with Lorna’s Silence. The filmmaking brothers have also served as Presidents of the Cinéfondation and Short Films Juries (in 2000) and of the Caméra d’Or Jury in 2006. In their latest feature, they take another plunge into their hometown, Liège, Belgium, to explore the character of Lorna, a young Albanian woman drawn by love into a sordid plot. The predicament will quickly take on tragic proportions, and the weight of silence will become increasingly heavy to bear. [CANNES]

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One thing I’ve always had trouble with is my joint identity as a female and as a cinephile. Many films and directors I like, even love, often treat women in ways that either objectify them or seem to promote the mistreatment of them. But my anger at this is usually brought back down by the little voice inside my head screaming “but it’s such a good movie.”

On that note, yesterday, I noticed that Radar Online posted their take on the “decade’s most misogynistic movies.” Their picks ranged from Mona Lisa Smile and Wedding Crashers to She Hate Me and 13 Going on 30 and while in many cases I agree with their assessment, the list still troubles me. The fact is, despite their misogynistic nature, a lot of folks, women and men alike, went to see these films - and to me then, the questions becomes why? As long as people go to the theater, Hollywood will continue to make these films.

Of course, some might argue that people only see what’s put out there, what they have access to. With that, I present with an opposite list of sorts - “some of the decade’s more feminist movies” if you will - or to be less political about it all, films from this decade that portray real women, dealing with real issues, often showing how awesome, strong, complex and special women can be.

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