Raise the Hammer

Well, I'm afraid the women in them aren't especially strong or powerful, but a couple of films that might be good to watch with teens are "Me Without You" and "Sunday Bloody Sunday".

The first is an English effort written by Sandra Goldbacher. It follows two friends ( Anna Friel and Michelle Williams) from early adolescence through school, jobs and up to motherhood. When I was looking it up I thought the title was "No Me Without You", which is essentially the premise. The girls complete each other, but they are also rivals,and eventually one of the pair cruelly witholds some information from the other because she doesn't want to lose her importance in the other's life. Really interesting study of how the two enable each other to explore the world as they're young teenagers, but then one starts to keep the other back.

"Sunday Bloody Sunday" is from 1971 or so? Also English, set in London. I don't like to approach works of art as sociology articles but this one really is both. Perfectly cast with Glenda Jackson and Peter Finch both trying to get more of Murray Head, a younger artist who finally solves his romantic problem by leaving for New York. The script by Penelope Gilliat is fantastic because it manages to deal with twenty-seven things at once, but the action takes place over only a week or so. I saw this in the seventies when the Delta was a repertory cinema,and liked it a lot, and then again last week at home and admired it even more. (HPL has the Criterion re-issue.)

Head is the young, bisexual, handsome and charming centre, who fends off responsibility by telling his lovers that his credo is 'we're free to do what we want'. Of course what they want ( quite foolishly) is some kind of minimal commitment from him. Very simple story, much beautiful texture. Jackson babysits the children of friends for a weekend, and so you see the elder girl among the kids watching the behaviour of the adults as well...Great scenes between Jackson and her mother, and Finch and a female relative who can't quite seem to figure out why he is such a long-term bachelor...The film is well on its way to being a period piece, but it sets out many aspects of the so-called "sexual revolution" that was occurring when it was made that have become muddier now.