50 Greatest Female Movie Characters

Filmsite.org’s Tim Dirks looks at 50 female movie characters. From vamps and tramps to supermoms and women warriors: characters like Scarlett O’Hara, Holly Golightly, and Nurse Ratched keep us coming back for more.

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1Scarlett O’Hara (Gone With the Wind)
Vivien Leigh bested dozens of the best actresses of her day playing the belle and put some steel in Scarlett's spine.13243052THANKS

2Ripley (Alien Series)
Sigourney Weaver's Ripley is tough enough to take on the baddest extraterrestrial and doesn't care who knows she's soft on kitties.4791657

3Clarice Starling (The Silence of the Lambs)
Brilliant, ambitious, and vulnerable, Jodie Foster's Clarice goes will to will with Dr. Lecter and succeeds where others failed.4681540

4The Bride (Kill Bill: Vol. 1 and Kill Bill: Vol. 2)
Uma Thurman's Bride emerges from a five-year coma and slaughters her way to self-discovery and the daughter she didn't know she had.3731515THANKS

5Princess Leia Organa (Star Wars Series)
Carrie Fisher's Leia is a sci-fi geek's dream, the hottie who can slaughter a super-slug while dressed in a bikini.3671511THANKS

6Dorothy Gale (The Wizard of Oz)
Judy Garland's Dorothy befriends misfits and defies bullies, proving that loyalty and pluck trump witchery and wickedness.3641640

7Mary Poppins (Mary Poppins)
Forget today's super-nannies: Julie Andrews's Poppins was strict and fun, and she also could fly.3531193

8Sarah Connor (The Terminator)
Targeted by an assassin from the future, Linda Hamilton's Sarah channels her Mama Grizzly to save her unborn child and the world.2601200THANKS

9Marge Gunderson (Fargo)
By virtue of brains, determination, and patience, Frances McDormand's Gunderson unravels a crime without letting its darkness rub off on her.183927

10Holly Golightly (Breakfast at Tiffany’s)
The patron saint of self-reinvention, Audrey Hepburn's Holly flees to New York and becomes a party girl with a heart of gold.1561014

11Miss Gulch / The Wicked Witch of the West (The Wizard of Oz)
Margaret Hamilton's witch is so wicked she threatens pup Toto. But who remembers the good witch, Glinda?120890

12Carrie White (Carrie)
Browbeaten by her religious mother and shunned by classmates, Sissy Spacek turns her gift -- telekinesis -- against her tormenters.117861

13Marion Ravenwood (Raiders of the Lost Ark)
Karen Allen plays the daughter of Indy's mentor, and she's pretty, tough, and more than a match for the swashbuckling archaeologist.113861

14Bonnie Parker (Bonnie and Clyde)
The moll to Warren Beatty's Clyde, Faye Dunaway's Bonnie was equal parts sensuality and ruthlessness.110750

15Ilsa Lund (Casablanca)
Torn between her husband and her great love, Rick, Ingrid Bergman's Ilsa brings out the best in both.109869

16Juno MacGuff (Juno)
Smart, funky, and pregnant, 16-year-old Juno, played by Ellen Page, upends stereotypes and embodies empowerment.106992

17Nurse Ratched (One Flew Over the Cuckoo’s Nest)
Strict, self-important, and sneaky, Louise Fletcher's nurse is every child's nightmare: you can defy her, but you'll be sorry you did.103835

18Annie Wilkes (Misery)
Kathy Bates plays a writer's nightmare, willing to make the novelist who killed off her favorite character, Misery Chastain, wish he were dead.87763

19Erin Brockovich (Erin Brockovich)
Julia Roberts's single mom spearheads a successful lawsuit against a group of corporate polluters.78874

20Jessica Rabbit (Who Framed Roger Rabbit)
Jessica wasn't born bad; she was drawn that way. Kathleen Turner's voice is the icing on the sequins.69897

21Blanche DuBois (A Streetcar Named Desire)
Vivien Leigh's southern belle flees scandal at home only to have her brother-in-law destroy her veneer of gentility.68712

22Mrs. Robinson (The Graduate)
A cougar before the term existed, Anne Bancroft's Robinson doesn't so much seduce Benjamin Braddock as bend him to her will.55761

23Sugar Kane Kowalczyk (Some Like It Hot)
Sugar, played by Marilyn Monroe, is sweet and sexy, too kind to be a gold digger and too guileless to realize her pals are guys in drag.37707

24Norma Desmond (Sunset Blvd.)
Casting Gloria Swanson gave a jolt of reality to the role of a diva whose dreams of a comeback cost a screenwriter his life.29617

25Elizabeth Swann (Pirates of the Caribbean Series)
Keira Knightley's Swann looks like a lady, but her inner hellion is tough enough to best pirates, monsters, and suitors.231049

26Annie Hall (Annie Hall)
The shiksa of Jewish New Yorkers' dreams, Diane Keaton's Annie reveals that Connecticut Wasps have their tsuris, too.8692

27Margo (All About Eve)
Bette Davis's Broadway star mistakes a she wolf in lamb's clothing for a fan, losing her husband and career.0622

28Martha (Who’s Afraid of Virginia Woolf?)
Love is a battlefield, and Elizabeth Taylor's performance as a harridan was a revelation back when movie goddesses didn't drab down.-15621

29Eve (All About Eve)
Anne Baxter's Eve so loves Broadway star Margot Channing that she wants to be her and hijacks her husband, friends, and career.-45571

30Hermione Granger (Harry Potter Series)
Emma Watson's Hermione loves classmates Harry and Ron dearly while not at all suffering fools.-472961

31Regan MacNeil (The Exorcist)
Linda Blair's Regan is sweet until the Devil turns her into a vessel for provocation. Pea soup never looked the same.-64620

32Madeleine Elster / Judy Barton (Vertigo)
Kim Novak's Madeleine may be insane. Judy is a party girl. They're two sides of one plot, and the same man loves both.-69571

33Hildy Johnson (His Girl Friday)
Ex-reporter Hildy, played by Rosalind Russell, thinks she wants to be a housewife, but one hot story and she's off like a shot.-70554

34Mildred Pierce (Mildred Pierce)
Joan Crawford's Mildred pulls herself out of poverty for the sake of daughter Veda, who repays her mom by stealing her man.-72522

35Joan Crawford (Mommie Dearest)
Faye Dunaway played the star -- a control freak -- as a gargoyle in designer duds, providing drag queens with material.-74576

36Phyllis Dietrichson (Double Indemnity)
A social climber masquerading as an abused wife, Barbara Stanwyck's Phyllis almost gets away with having a swain kill her husband.-74522

37Sally Bowles (Cabaret)
Liza Minnelli, as the Berliner Bowles, hides her vulnerability, distracting herself with parties, men, and a cabaret as the Nazis come to power.-79549

38Mary Wollstonecraft Shelley / The Monster’s Bride (Bride of Frankenstein)
Elsa Lanchester's screamer with lightning-bolt hair is born with a mind of her own: no one can make her marry a monster.-79505

39Susan Vance (Bringing Up Baby)
When Katharine Hepburn's Susan sets her sights on something -- a paleontologist, a leopard -- she gets it in her own way.-81527

40Bridget Jones (Bridget Jones’s Diary)
Does Renee Zellweger's Bridget want a career, a thin figure, love, or marriage? Dear reader, she wants it all.-90762

41Alex Forrest (Fatal Attraction)
Dumped by her lover, Glenn Close's she devil turns her fury on his wife and daughter and the family bunny. Hell hath no fury!-93581

42Mrs. Danvers (Rebecca)
When a widower remarries, the devotion of his housekeeper, played by Judith Anderson, to his late wife means trouble for her successor.-101483

43Mrs. Eleanor Shaw Iselin (The Manchurian Candidate)
Angela Lansbury, as Eleanor, engineers her husband's political rise and nearly manipulates her son into becoming an assassin.-103485

44Catherine Tramell (Basic Instinct)
Sharon Stone plays a killer beauty -- literally -- who knows what men want and how to reach her amoral ends.-112604

45Matty Walker (Body Heat)
"You're not too bright. I like that in a man," purrs Kathleen Turner's Matty to saps who realize why only after the trap is sprang.-154482

46Vicki Lester / Esther Blodgett (A Star Is Born)
Judy Garland poured 25 years of Hollywood unhappiness into playing a singer-actress whose star is rising as her husband's falls.-167475

47Carmen Jones (Carmen Jones)
Shaped by circumstance, Dorothy Dandridge's Carmen lives every moment like her last and destroys the men drawn to her.-173491

48Emma “Billie” Dawn (Born Yesterday)
Educated in the school of hard knocks, Judy Holliday's Billie blossoms after her boyfriend hires a tutor to give her couth.-198480

49Miss Giddens (The Innocents)
Deborah Kerr's governess believes her charges are possessed. Is she right or deluded by her inner demons?-199463

50Baby Doll Meighan (Baby Doll)
A nymphet with an iron will, Carroll Baker's Baby Doll is no match for the seducer who succeeds where others failed.

Conquerers of the Golden City

Conquerors of the Golden City

January 28, 2007 at 12:26 am | Posted in Uncategorized | Leave a comment 

A long while ago, I saw a movie called The Conquerors of the Golden City on television.  That must have either been a Turkish or Iranian Production and it told the moving story of a family consisting of brothers and a sister migrating from village to the city with visions of plenty and prosperity, and it turned out that city life dealt them a raw deal, particularly crushing on the girl.  I do not remember the end of the story. The family might have returned to their village a dejected lot or slogged on and braved their new miserable life in the city.

I saw a Movie made in Tamil which was almost the exact replica of this movie, at least in content.  Though I don’t readily recall the name of the movie just this moment, I presume it had something to do with a city or ‘Pattanam’ as the rurals call a city in their slang.  This was directed by a famous Tamil Movie Director, S. Balachandar.  I feel more movie ideas can be copied if they can be presented fittingly with the local flavour so that new awareness is created among people. 

If I remember right, more movies on the same strain have been made in Tamil; one with the famous comedian Nagesh in the lead role, as a rural fisherman visiting Madras for the first time and his hilarious encournters there.  There was this very tragic movie whose diagues and story were penned by the literateur-Chief Minister M. Karunanidhi of Tamil Nadu.  This concerned the story of a family which split in their infancy and meet in the city under tragic circumstances in the city.  There is also a humorous episode about a musical group visiting Madras from a famous Tamil movie on the lives of a Nagaswara Vidhwan and a Bharata Natyam Dancer.  My treacherous memory is not helping me recall the title of the movie.  I will come up with it in due course.

In all these movies, Madras is the Golden City which lured people from the villages to come and be bedraggled in the city.

Madras is not that bad really.  The beauty of a thing is in the eyes of the discerner.  Madras is not bad at all.  Madras is the cultural and Carnatic Macca for all Tamilians.  Tamilians from all over want to spend their retiring years in Chennai.  The Chennai Marina still holds its sway over beaches all over the world.   December Music Season in Chennai attracts music lovers from all over the world.  Chennai is still the centre of learning in all of Tamil Nadu.  Though life styles are changing in Chennai as a result of the IT boom, the common man still finds Chennai affordable, and you still get a good cup of tea and hot bajjis in the tea shops, you get a cone icecream still for Five Rupees, and gingery, lemony sugarcane juice is still available on the streets of Chennai.  You get good Madras Meals for affordable rates in Chennai Udipi and Brahmin Hotels and mess rooms.  Chennai is the haven for textiles and gold ornaments, terracotta artefacts.  You witness creativity and beauty in the Government Fine Arts and Crafts College, and the Cholamandalam Artists’ Village.  Chennai still holds annual exhibitions of handloom fabrics, industrial exhibitions,housing exhibitions, Job Melas.  Elecion time is gala time for people to get confused with the promises of politicians, and there are political meetings on street corners.  Though I heard that they have stopped issuing permission for holding public meetings on the Marina.  Marina is also getting a facelift, litterfree sandy expanses of beaches.  If you wish to have a few minutes of peace, quiet and tranquillity, go to any temple on lean days.  Not only will the visit rest your mind, it will also rest your eyes on the exquisite temple sculpture.  You can go to the Ramakrishna Mutt and meditate in silence.

 P.S:  I conclude with a postscript. Just yesterdeay. Madras Government fixed auto fares minimum at 14 rupees, with the meter hurtling at Rs.2/- for every additional kilometer over the minimum fare distance.  Do you think the auto meters will start functioning at least now, or will the automen revert to their old ways of demanding contract rates .

NAGARAME NANNI 1967

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Morality tale The film was hailed as a realistic breakthrough

Prem Nazir, Madhu, K. P. Ummer, P. J. Antony, Sukumari, Usha Nandini, Jyothilakshmi, Adoor Bhasi etc

‘Nagarame Nanni,' released in 1967, can be easily considered one of the best social movies produced in Malayalam. The film represents an impressive attempt at realism that began in Malayalam cinema with ‘Neelakuyil' and which attained more attention by the mid-60s. Most of the earlier social movies in the language were a far cry from reality, with unusual twists and turns.

Produced by Shobhana Parameswaran Nair under the banner of Roopavani, the film was directed by A.Vincent. A. Venkit handled the camera for the film that was shot partly outdoors, in Madras and at Satya, Prasad and Vikram Studios.

The story, script and dialogues were by M. T. Vasudevan Nair. In fact, this was a story written specially for the film. Most of the other films of this writer were based on his already published literary works. The dialogues had a strong Valluvanadan flavour and this was one of its attractions.

The star cast included noted stars of that time like Prem Nazir, Madhu, K. P. Ummer, P. J. Antony, Sukumari etc. in main roles. The lyrics by P. Bhaskaran were set to tune by K. Raghavan. Dances choreographed by P. S. Gopalakrishnana also impressed.

The film told of the tensions between tradition and the culture of the city, in the form of a morality tale, the story of a family that migrates from a village to the city of Madras in search of a better life. In the city some of the family members succumb to depravity and vice. In spite of the high melodrama the film was hailed as a realistic breakthrough. The dialogues penned by MT was perhaps one reason for this. This film is considered one of MT's best contributions to Malayalam cinema.

In the words of one of the characters, the city is a ‘concrete jungle lit up with neon lamps,' where humanity has no value. It may be purely accidental perhaps, but the film closely resembles two films that were shown in India at some film festivals during that period. One is ‘The Conquerors of the Golden City' (1965) directed by Getin Gurtop and the other is ‘Birds of Exile' (‘Gurbet Kuslari' in Turkish - 1964) directed by the noted Turkish film director Halit Refig. K. Balachander's Tamil film ‘Pattina Pravesham' (1977) also was based on the same theme and closely resembled these foreign films.

Madhavankutty( Prem Nazir) is from a rich aristocratic family in a remote village in Kerala that was reduced to penury due to his spendthrift father, whose extravaganza in conducting temple festivals took away the wealth of the family. After the death of the father Madhavankutty's family consisting of his mother (Bharathi Menon), sister Kunhilakshmi (Jyothilakshmi) and brother Unnikrishnan depend on their rich aunt's family. Madhavankutty leaves home in search of a job and reaches Madras. Raghavan (Madhu) gives him shelter in his small room where he lives with some of his friends who have small jobs in the city. With the help of Anandan Pillai (P J Antony), Madhavankutty gets the job of a driver. Anandan Pillai's daughter Bharathi (Usha Nandini) falls in love with Madhavankutty and Madhavankutty begins dreaming of a happy life. Madhavankutty brings his mother and younger ones to Madras. Kunhilakshmi joins tailoring classes and Unnikrishnan joins a Polytechnic. But the cruel hands of the city do not let the family lead a happy life. Kunhilakshmi falls in to the trap of Mrs. Mudaliar (Sukumari) and Captain Das ( K P Ummer) and ends up as a call girl. Raghavan tries to correct her but in vain. Madhavankutty meets with an accident. Except Raghavan nobody helps him in the hospital. One night Madhavnkutty chases the taxi in which Kunhilakshmi was travelling and his car crashes. He dies. Madhavankutty's mother returns to the village with her daughter and son.

Prem Nazir excelled in his role of the dutiful son in the family and so did Madhu as the good friend of Madhavankutty.

Jyothilakshmi as the innocent village girl in the begining and as the call girl did her role in an impressive manner. The villainous roles handled by K P Ummer and Sukumari also impressed the audience. In contrast to the Malayalam cinema's archetypes, the film offered some well drawn and realistic characters, which one could find aroundThe four songs penned by P Bhaskaran were tuned by K. Raghavan. All the four songs became instant hits. S Janaki sang the romantic hit, ‘Manjani poonilavu Peraattin Kadavingal.....' The song describing the city life, ‘Nagaram Nagaram Mahasagaram....." (Yesudas) remains one of the best in Malayalam cinema. The dance number, sung by L.R. Easwari, ‘Mullappoo Maala vilkum .....' also became a hit and stood the test of time.

Why remembered: As one of the best social movies and for the excellent music.

B. VIJAYAKUMAR

Getin Gurtop Director

Halit Refiğ (5 March 1934, İzmir – 11 October 2009, İstanbul) was a Turkish film director, film producer, screenwriter and writer. He made around sixty films, including feature films, documentaries and TV serials. He is considered to be the pioneer of the National Cinema movement and the initiator of the production of TV serials in Turkey.^[1][2][3]