Bechdel Test Movie List

"Housekeeping" is a film based on the award-winning (and ironically named) novel of the same name by Marilynn Robinson. On the face of it, it's a tale of two young girls whose mother commits suicide. Now orphans, the girls are raised by relatives: first by two reluctant great-aunts, then by their aunt Sophie, a strange and dreamy vagabond who may or may not drift out of their lives again, as everyone else has done.

The film, which like the novel is both dryly humorous and very poignant, obviously posed a dilemma for the studio, which ultimately decided to market it as a "wacky comedy". This trivialized both the message of the film, which dealt with the real cost of both conformity and non-conformity, and the nuanced acting by the then largely-unknown cast.

The reason "Housekeeping" merits special mention here is that it passes the Bechdel Test more blazingly than any other film I've seen. Its major characters are all female; and virtually every minor character is female, too (there are two very minor roles that are male). The girls and women in this film speak to each other about myriad things, but almost never about men.

In other words, if there were a reverse-Bechdel Test ("It has at least two men in it... and they talk to each other... about something besides a woman"), "Housekeeping" would fail gloriously.

Sadly, this may go some way to explaining why this luminous film has never been released as a DVD. I'm still waiting, Sony...

This is one of those rare movies in which Women are People whose lives merit attention. Watching it made me feel like I'd been released from prison, or taken a shower after a long, gritty, dirty day.

I'm hoping that, one day soon, this movie will be recognized as an early example of what will be a flourishing genre. I'm imagining the sequels, with all the places those trains and bridges will take Sylvie and Ruthie. I'm dreaming, I know.