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It's a few years since I last looked at the Bechdel test for women's roles in films,
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so now it is time to look at Hollywood
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and see if there have been significant improvements in the way women are prepared in a movie.
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One way to check this is to test all the nominees for the Academy Award for Best Film 2011
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since the Oscars are considered the year's major recognition, or at least
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the biggest cheers in the film industry.
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But before we get that far, I'll just remind you what the Bechdel test is and how it works.
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Bechdel test is a very simple method to measure women's relevance to the plot of a movie,
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and more generally, to assess the presence of women in Hollywood films.
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The test comes from Allison Bech First comic "Dykes to Watch Out For" from 1985.
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To pass the test, a film just live up to these three very simple criteria:
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There must be at least two named women in the film,
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they must talk to each other,
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and the conversation should be about something other than a man.
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Quite simple, is not it?
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It is the absolute lowest minimum one can have
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for significant female roles in movies.
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Let us remember that the test has emerged as a kind of joke that would make fun of
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the fact that there are being made so few films where women play important roles.
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The test has become so popular in recent years because
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it is actually a great help when you want to shed light on this continuing problem in the entertainment industry.
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Let us now look at the nominees for Best Film 2011
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and see how they stack up in the Bechdel test.
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The first film on the podium is The Descendants .
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A story about a father who leads his family through a crisis.
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Her mother is as good as put in the fridge even before the opening lyrics are scrolled across the screen,
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so she can act as a catalyst for farfigurens personal development.
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This film passes the test because of a handful of short conversations between women,
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including the two daughters Alex and Scotty.
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Moneyball tells of a professional baseball team with team manager Billy Beane in the center.
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It fails the test in a big way, as it has no conversations between women at all.
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Despite this, it is a surprisingly funny and poignant film.
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Tree of Life is an experimental film about a boy and his family.
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It consists not test because the only scene where two women talking together
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is a conversation about the family's deceased son.
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Although it is a film with minimal dialogue
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speaking father and son together several times.
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Hugo is a whimsical film about an orphan boy who tries to solve a mystery that his father left behind.
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Although there are two named women who talk in the movie,
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all their conversations always about a man
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apart from this 5-second scene as one of good will could let the film pass the test.
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Isabelle: Were you an actress? A real movie actress, it's so magical, mama!
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Mama: It was not like back then, we were not the stars as they are today.
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If you are in the darkness of the cinema lose your candy, and by bending to pick it up
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miss the only scene in the movie where two women actually talk to each other,
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then there is something wrong.
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Extremely Loud and Incredibly Close fails too.
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The film is about a boy who tries to come to terms with the loss of his father by 9/11.
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No conversation between two women is about more than the boy.
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In classic Woody Allen-style is Midnight in Paris of a man with an identity crisis
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