I have a big appetite!

It’s the first line pronounced by the main character of Paula Delsol’s The Drift. The phrase summarizes, literally and metaphorically, what drives the female protagonists between their desires and their inspirations in these unique œuvres made between 1946 and 1979…by women!

WHO Gilda Abreu

COUNTRY Brazil

BRIEF BIO Gilda Abreu (1904-1979) was an actress, singer, screenwriter and one of the country’s first women to direct a film.

FILM The Drunkard (1946). A decent man who hits rock bottom pretends he is dead, only to wander around the city as an inebriated vagrant. The story is based on the song “O Ébrio,” performed by Vicente Celestino, who was Gilda Abreu’s spouse and played the film’s leading man. This début work brought Abreu fame and fortune. It was also the first talkie directed by a woman! The musical drama, a huge hit that received wide public and critical acclaim, is indicative of the romantic soul and powerful voice of a melancholic and profound Brazilian spirit.

WHO María Plytá

COUNTRY Greece

BRIEF BIO María Plytá (1915–2006) was a writer and the first female filmmaker in the history of Greek cinema, directing seventeen films between 1950 and 1972.

FILM Eva (1953) is a modern, feminist portrait of a free-spirited young woman who comes up against the elements of nature and her own desire; she is married yet engages in an extramarital affair. The ode to the beauty of youth was inspired by the sensuality of bodies sunbathing during the 1950s, a time when women were still highly limited. The leading role was played by Nina Sgouridou, an actress with round, voluptuous cheeks reminiscent of Sylvana Mangano. With an audacity unusual for the era, Plytá films a young man’s languid body lying on a bed in such an alluring way that this single shot infuses the entire magnificent work with sexual tension.

WHO Wendy Toye

COUNTRY England

BRIEF BIO Wendy Toye (1917-2010) started out as a dancer before becoming a choreographer and actress. She worked with directors Carol Reed and Jean Cocteau before directing the short The Stranger Left No Card (1952), awarded at the Cannes Film Festival.

FILM The Teckman Mystery (1954) is Toye’s first feature, a crime flick and spy comedy centered on an epicurean hero who discovers love. It is also an adaptation of a six-episode BBC television miniseries of the same name broadcast in 1953. With a playful sense of freedom, Toye films scenes brimming with unexpected details!

QUI Paula Delsol

PAYS France

BIO Paula Delsol (1923-2015) was a novelist, screenwriter and director who made her first film in 1962, released two years later, The Drift.

FILM The Drift (1964) is a portrait of Jacqueline, 20 years old, who has a keen desire for adventure and spends a summer meandering around the south of France. With a sharp sense of dialogue, Delsol explores the impetus behind a restless young woman with unbridled freedom, a character who prioritizes fun above all else and deliberately declares her preference for “small talk over boredom.” This delightful road movie puts experimentation on the forefront, filming the streets and beyond, in the tradition of cinéma vérité. It serves as a counterpart to Jacques Rozier’s Adieu Philippine, which premiered in Cannes in 1962.

WHO T’ang Shushuen

COUNTRY China – Hong Kong

BRIEF BIO Born in 1941, Tang Shu Shuen is a screenwriter and became Hong Kong’s first woman filmmaker in 1968.

FILM The Arch, Tang Shu Shuen’s first foray into directing, is one of history’s first ever Hong Kong art-house films. The historical romantic drama, based on a Chinese folk tale, tells the story of a young widow who falls in love in the 17th century, but sacrifices her own happiness for the sake of her daughter. Filmed in black and white, this edifying tale about the misleading power of appearances versus values of integrity and virtue reveal how the status of women at that time was not a subject to be breached. 

WHO Elaine May

COUNTRY United States

BRIEF BIO Elaine May, born in 1932, is an actress, screenwriter (she penned Sydney Pollack’s Tootsie!) and director. A longtime collaborator of legendary director Mike Nichols, she became the first female filmmaker in Hollywood, following in the footsteps of Ida Lupino in 1971.  

FILM Mikey and Nicky (1976) follows two misfits in the city at night. A magnificent hymn to friendship, as well as life and death, it features two real friends off-screen: John Cassavetes and Peter Falk. One is uncontrollable, while the other tries to keep him in line. They discuss the fear of dying, their mothers and their worries. In this urban road movie, the duo of outsiders is endearing, full of tenderness and good intentions. As one of them says, “I do what I can.”

WHO Márta Mészáros

COUNTRY Hongrie

BRIEF BIO Première réalisatrice lauréate du Grand Prix à Cannes, Ours d'or à Berlin, Márta Mészáros est née en 1931. Elle commence par le documentaire avant de réaliser 25 longs-métrages entre 1968 et 2017 ! 

FILM Chemins croisés (1979) suit l’odyssée de Barbara, mère de famille en Hongrie qui vit un amour intense avec un acteur. Ce portrait d’une femme est porté autant par l’éperdue Delphine Seyrig, que par la réalisation de Mészáros. La cinéaste déploie ses grands thèmes : la vie quotidienne au cœur du bloc de l’est, la condition féminine, la beauté et la violence du sentiment amoureux. 

Virginie Apiou

On The Move (1979) © DR - Eva  (1953) © DR - The Arch  (1968) © Pierre-e Gougelet - The Drunkard (1946) © DR - The Drift (1964) © Succession Del sol - The Teckman Mystery  (1954) © DR - Mikey and Nicky  (1976) © DR