March is Women’s History month, and our members have voted for two excellent (and very different) films to watch and discuss, each celebrating women in cinema. The first selection will be The Trouble with Angels (1966), directed by Ida Lupino and written by Blanche Hanalis. Lupino was notably the first woman to direct a film noir (The Hitch-Hiker), as well as the first woman to star and direct in a film (The Bigamist). The Trouble With Angels is a charming and fun coming-of-age story of two girls, Mary Clancy (Hayley Mills) and Rachel Devery (June Harding), who are students at a Catholic boarding school. There are pranks aplenty, but also unexpected revelations and plenty of heart.

We look forward to a rich discussion around Lupino’s pioneering prominence in the Hollywood studio system, the representation of women in her film, how the roles of women in the industry have changed in front of and behind the camera, and much more.

La Haine (Hate) is a film about three young men from the banlieue or housing projects on the outskirts of Paris. Said, Vinz, and Hubert are three young men navigating a world that is socially, economically and geographically isolated from French society. They spend a Homeric day encountering police brutality, violence, crime and drugs while burdened by the frustration bred by poverty and stagnation of the projects. Photographed in black and white and taking place over a single 19-hour period, the film is a gritty look at civil disenfranchisement in modern France.