By Women about Women
by Becky Tan

The good news is that women directors are coming to the forefront. The bad news is that they are not always successful. Yelling to the Sky by American Victoria Mahoney appeared in the Competition category and should have stayed in Queens, New York.

Also, why did we have to watch Brownian Movement (showed in the Forum Category)? Here a nice-looking, young woman rents an apartment for her trysts with lovers whom she meets at work. This is a secret second life, hidden from her nice husband and their child. A fourth of the film is dedicated to her sexual escapades; a fourth to her husband discovering and coping with his wife’s secret; for the remaining half, the wife stares into space. Is she thinking? Sinking? The film might get interesting, if we knew what she was thinking about, even if it were, “What’s for dinner?” Why was there so much hype about the Dutch director Nanouk Leopold gearing up for her third film and actually receiving financial aid? Why was the film at the Berlinale? Perhaps because the beautiful lead actress is German Sandra Hüller who won best actress in 2006 and this year also appeared in a film Über uns das All (Above Us only Sky) in the Panorama category.

On the other hand, a good, light-weight film, also in the Forum category is E-Love about 50-year-old Paule, a successful associate professor of philosophy, by French director Anne Villacèque. Paule’s husband moves out to be with his new love, a student. Their 15-year-old daughter is casual about the new situation. In this comedy Paule copes first by discussing it with her sister, then by learning how to go online to dating websites. She meets men: good-looking, hopeless, dangerous, good in bed, tied to their mothers, and helpful. Once she mistakenly books two at the same café simultaneously. For some reason I always like the first film I see at a festival and this time it was E-Love.