Everything’s better in Sweden: the people are seriously quiche, there are entire museums devoted to ABBA, a body sheathed head-to-toe in Acne is desirable, Swedes speak better English than most Anglophiles I know and now movies screening in select cinemas need to pass a Bechdel Test instated to combat and highlight gender bias.
To achieve an A-rating in both screening and reviews, movies must satisfy the three criteria of the test so named for the cartoonist Alison Bechdel, whose 1985 comic Dykes To Look Out For established the widely-discussed rule; that is, a movie (or any work of fiction) must contain a scene wherein at least two named female characters talk to each other about something other than a man.
Ellen Telje, director of one of the four cinemas applying the Bechdel test to their marquees, notes in The Guardian that while “The entire Lord of the Rings trilogy, all Star Wars movies, The Social Network, Pulp Fiction and all but one of the Harry Potter movies fail this test,” there are a number of popular films, including The Hunger Games, that meet the necessary criteria.
Films of that ilk (like Blue Is The Warmest Colour) but not necessarily of the same quality (like Sharknado) will begin screening alongside a rating system in a growing number of cinemas with the support of the country’s Film Institute and on cable TV channel Viasat Film during A-rated only “Super Sundays”.
On Super Sundays they’ll wear pink.
via The Guardian, Bechdel Test
