BASIC REPRESENTATION SCORE: 0
FEMALE AGENCY/POWER/AUTHORITY SCORE: 0
[no significant representation of women in authority]
THE MALE GAZE SCORE: 0
[no issues]
GENDER/SEXUALITY SCORE: 0
[no issues]
WILDCARD SCORE: 0
Is there anything either positive or negative in the film’s representation of women not already accounted for here? (points will vary)
No.
TOTAL SCORE: 0
IS THE FILM’S DIRECTOR FEMALE? No (does not impact scoring)
IS THE FILM’S SCREENWRITER FEMALE? Yes, one of two credited (Clara Royer) (does not impact scoring)
BOTTOM LINE: Women are almost entirely absent from this film. We glimpse anonymous, terrified women in the concentration camp “showers,” and we glimpse female prisoners during a brief foray to the women’s side of the camp where this story is set, but not even a single female character figures into the story in any way at all. But this is okay, since the story is mostly set within a plausible all-male environment.
Click here for the ongoing ranking of 2015’s films for female representation.
Click here for the ranking of 2015’s Oscar-nominated films for female representation.
NOTE: This is not a “review” of Son of Saul! It is simply an examination of how well or how poorly it represents women. (A movie that represents women well can still be a terrible film; a movie that represents women poorly can still be a great film.) Read my review of Son of Saul.
See the full rating criteria. (Criteria that do not apply to this film have been deleted in this rating for maximum readability.)
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