Sisters on screen

How many movies feature women talking to each other about topics other than men? That is the standard set by the "Bechdel test". Few films pass, but one of today's releases does – with honours, argues ANNA CAREY

Slumdog Millionaire?Fail. The Curious Case of Benjamin Button?Fail. Junopasses. Terminator Salvationfails. Coraline? Pass. The Dark Knight? Epic fail. Watchmenfails (although the original graphic novel doesn't). Star Trekpasses, but only just.

In fact, very few films pass the Bechdel test. Which is depressing, because the standards of the test are not very high. The Bechdel Test comes from a 1985 comic strip called The Ruleby the brilliant cartoonist and writer Alison Bechdel. In it, a woman declares that she will "only go to a movie if it satisfies three basic requirements". It has to have at least two women in it who "talk to each other about . . . something besides a man". Sounds simple, doesn't it? How hard can it be for film-makers to ensure that two female characters interact independently of men, just for one little scene?

Unfortunately, the answer seems to be "very difficult indeed". And what's even more depressing is that most people don't notice. Women sticking to the sidelines is taken for granted; we're so used to predominantly male casts that anything else is seen as somehow "girly". A male-centric story is seen as universal, but women's lives are somehow niche. If a mainstream film does have a female lead who is more than a love interest (such as The Internationalor Angels and Demons) she's paired with a male co-star. And most of the female-focused films that do get made concentrate on a stereotypical idea of what us ladies truly love (Abba songs, weddings and walk-in wardrobes, apparently).

Which is why Sunshine Cleaning, a likeable new comedy drama starring Amy Adams and Emily Blunt and released today, is so refreshing. It's the story of two sisters who start a crime scene cleaning business, and it's a genuine relief to see two women on the big screen joking, bickering and throwing blood-stained mattresses into dumpsters rather than mooning over boys. I particularly liked Blunt's punky, star-tattooed Norah; in most indie films, she'd be what the Onion memorably called the Manic Pixie Dream Girl, the cute kook who shakes up the life of the repressed indie boy. Here, she has her own life, and her own story.

It's not surprising that Sunshine Cleaningwas written by a woman, Megan Holley, and directed by another, Christine Jeffs. Unfortunately, it seems that some male screenwriters still view women as an alien species, with no interests of their own. There are plenty of male writers who can write convincing female characters, but they're the ones who acknowledge that men and women are not actually that different. Both Dan Clowes's original graphic novel and his script for the film of Ghost Worlddepicted snarky, pop culture-obsessed girls in an utterly convincing way – although at director Terry Zwigoff's request, the film version included Thora Birch's Enid getting together with a man she just guiltily mocks in the comic.

So why don’t more writers, both male and female, try harder? Maybe it’s because they’re not encouraged. Jennifer Kesler of the Hathor Legacy, a project that examines female characters, recently wrote of her experiences at the prestigious UCLA film school, where she was told by an embarrassed male tutor that “the audience doesn’t want to listen to a bunch of women talking about whatever it is women talk about.” Although students, both male and female, argued that younger audiences were used to blockbuster characters such as Ellen Ripley and Sarah Connor, they were told that audiences liked the films despite the charismatic women, not because of them.

Kesler eventually abandoned film school. “I concluded Hollywood was dominated by perpetual pre-adolescent boys making the movies they wanted to see, and using the ‘target audience’ – a construct based on partial truths and twisted math – to perpetuate their own desires. Having never grown up, they still saw women the way Peter Pan saw Wendy: a fascinating Other to be captured, treasured and stuffed into a gilded cage. Where we didn’t talk to each other about anything other than men.” Thinking of female characters in a new way is just too much work for the powers that be, it seems.

Going only to films that pass the Bechdel Test is too much of a challenge for most of us. But why not just bear it in mind at the cinema, and think about the way the women are presented on screen – and off, for that matter?

“For me, the is kind of like feminism in a bottle – applied theory, quick and easy,” Alison Bechdel recently said. “I think whatever name one gives it, the rule should be applied to everything everywhere – including real life.”

is released today

Girls on film: Five that pass the test

BABY MAMA

Slightly disappointing considering the usual brilliance of both Tina Fey and her friend Amy Poehler, Baby Mamawas a rare example of the female buddy movie.

LINDA, LINDA, LINDA

A wonderful film about a group of Japanese schoolgirls who persuade a Korean exchange student to join their band. Boys hover in the background, but the band is the focus of the girls' lives.

VOLVER

Pedro Almodovar has consistently given women fabulous roles, and Volver, a blackly comic story of betrayal, abuse and female solidarity, with an almost entirely female cast, is no exception.

JUNO

The wise-cracking was a bit much at times, but this quirkfest had some great female characters, especially Ellen Page as the eponymous pregnant teenager and Jennifer Garner as a would-be adoptive mum.

DRAG ME TO HELL

With some notable exceptions ( Ginger Snaps, The Descent), horror films are increasingly misogynistic. Not Sam Raimi's latest, in which a (female) banker battles a gypsy curse.

** Sunshine Cleaning