P2 - Sapphic Movies | Girl Friends of Dorothy

Sapphic Movies: I've Heard the Mermaids Singing

1987 - I've Heard the Mermaids Singing

Scatty art gallery secretary aspires to be a professional photographer. She becomes jealous when her art gallery owner rekindles a sapphic relationship with her old flame...

Wow, it won a Cannes Film Festival Foreign Film Award of the Youth. Certainly, I didn't hear the mermaids singing.

Dir: Patricia Rozema | Sheila McCarthy & Paule Baillargeon

Sapphic Movies: Oranges Are Not the Only Fruit

1989 - Oranges Are Not the Only Fruit

Adopted and brought up, North, as one of God's elect, zealous Orange is destined for life as a missionary. Holy Moly, then she falls for one of her converts...

Jeanette Winterson wrote the screenplay of her semi-autobiographical novel of the same name (1985). The TV series caused controversy due to the lesbian sex scenes (even though it excluded the underage love-making featured in the book) and its portrayal of the Elim Pentecostal faith. To dour for me.

Dir: Beeban Kidron | Charlotte Coleman

1991 - Fried Green Tomatoes

Unhappy housewife befriends an old lady in a nursing home and is enthralled by the tales she tells of a 1920's tomboy beecharmer and her life long "friendship" with a preacher's daughter who ope up the Whistle Stop cafe serving the best Fried Green Tomatoes.

Again, the book is explicit about the sexual relationship but the film isn't. Still ace!

Dir: Jon Avnet | Stars: Mary Stuart Masterson & Mary‑Louise Parker

1991 - Salmonberries

Ambiguous Eskimo goes to the public library, in Alaska, to try and find out who her parents were. She pee's off Librarian Woman, an East German immigrant but wears her down by her repeated research visits. They discover they share a love of salmonberries...

Adlon wrote the Salmonberries script especially for k.d lang, after she had asked him to direct a music video for her song "So in Love" on the AIDS-benefit compilation album "Red Hot + Blue". Icy!

Dir: Percy Adlon | k.d. lang & Rosel Zech

1992 - Claire of the Moon

Female authors gather at a small northern coastal retreat to work on their writing skills. A first-time guest who lives for the moment finds herself struggling with her attraction to her roommate after discovering she is a lesbian...

Cringeville city!

Dir: Nicole Conn | Trisha Todd & Faith McDevitt

1992 - Orlando

Dashing nobleman Orlando is commanded by Queen Elizabeth I to stay forever young. He lives through several centuries experiencing a variety of lives, relationships and, gender changes.

Watch-out: during each new incarnation Orlando's eye colour changes.

Dir: Sally Potter | Stars: Tilda Swinton & Charlotte Valandrey

1993 - Desperate Remedies

Hammy dress designer, in 19th century New Zealand, hires hunk to use his charm to stop a marriage between her sister and her sis's no-good suitor. He agrees as he harbours a hidden, burning love for her but she has a secret lover...

Gorgeously and shamelessly camp! So Hammy - I must see!

Dir: Stewart Main & Peter Wells | Stars: Jennifer Ward‑Leal & Lisa Chappell

1994 - Go Fish

Hip Chicago girl is having trouble finding love (tell me about it!). Go between sets her up with a frumpy, homely, and older girl. Does trendy girl find love with hippy girl?

Groundbreaking, hip, low-budget indie comedy. Always keep fingernails trimmed.

Dir: Rose Troche | Stars: Guinevere Turner & V.S. Brodie

1994 - Heavenly Creatures

Two girls meet at school in 1950s, Christchurch, New Zealand. They bond extraordinarily and vow to never be apart. Their parents become concerned by their intense friendship...

Based on the real 1954 Parker–Hulme murder case in Christchurch, New Zealand. Was nominated for a Best Original Screenplay Academy Award.

Dir: Peter Jackson | Kate Winslet & Melanie Lynskey

1994 - The Brookside Kiss

Best friends in a Manchester cul de sac bond..

The kiss between between Beth Jordache and Margaret Clemence in Channel 4's Brookside, in 1994, is heralded as the UK's 's first pre-watershed (9 pm) television lesbian kiss. The first ever lesbian kiss on UK television, however, was broadcast in 1974, 20 years earlier, during BBC's half-hour drama, Girl. The first gay kiss between two men was broadcast on BBC1 in the drama Coming Out was five years later, in 1979. Go girls! Or, is it that it would be more titillating to male viewers to see two cute girlies snogging?

Dir: Anna Friel & Nicola Stephenson

1995 - Boys on the Side

Sassy Nightclub Singer (just broken up with her girlfriend) answers an ad from Square Girl who is seeking a cross-country travel partner for a road trip from NYC to LA. On route they pick up Nightclub Singer's girl friend who is escaping...

Sweet girlsown road movie. The film's soundtrack is made up entirely of female and lesbian pop / rock artists. Cute Mary-Louise Parker also starred in Fried Green Tomatoes.

Dir: Herbert Ross | Whoopi Goldberg, Mary-Louise Parker & Drew Barrymore

1995 - When Night Is Falling

One day, Conservative prof finds her beloved runaway dog, dead on the street and ends up crying in a laundromat. Enter free-spirit girl who comforts her. At home she discovers her laundry was mixed up with free-spirit girl's, but there is a circus performer card, so she goes to her trailer...

Yeh, movies date and some are schmaltzy but don't dis this movie. At the time, it was rare to see a movie of two cute girls... dating and... K.I.S.S.I.N.G!

Dir: Patricia Rozema | Pascale Bussières & Rachael Crawford

1996 - Bound

Ex-con girl mends the plumbing of a flat and has an affair with a crooked neighbour's girlfriend. They scheme to steal millions of stashed mob money and pin it on the girlfriend's boyfriend.

Some studio executives told the Wachowskis to change Corky to a man. The Wachowskis declined and made the movie :) Lana Wachowski was formerly known as Larry and Lilly Wachowski was formerly known as Andy (the creators of the The Matrix (franchise)) - both are now trans women.

Dir: Lana Wachowski & Lilly Wachowski | Stars: Gina Gershon & Jennifer Tilly

1996 - Set It Off

Bank teller is fired after a robbery and starts working at a janitorial service with her three girl friends. Fed-up of working in low-paying jobs, they decide to start, robbing banks...

Cleo Sims character is a sassy lesbian which got Queen Latifah one Acapulco Black Film Festival Best Actress award and two nominations for best actress.

Dir: F. Gary Gray | Queen Latifah

1996 - The Watermelon Woman

Young black film buff works in a Philadelphia video store and earns extra cash, with her friend, by making professional home videos. She notices that Black actresses are often not credited in early films but in one, there is a credit to "The Watermelon Woman". She wants to find out more and make a documentary...

Though the lead's character is autobiographical, the historical references to the Watermelon Woman are fictional - it was a means to highlight the rude lack of crediting black actresses and the roles they were designated.

Dir: Cheryl Dunye | Cheryl Dunye & Guinevere Turner

1997 - Alien Resurrection

Ripley is cloned, 200 years after her death, and an Alien Queen is removed from her body in order to breed Aliens for research. Space pirates, delivering kidnapped humans to be used as alien hosts, arrive with a waifish girl who has been sent to kill Ripley. Then the aliens escape...

Though teasing us at not a coupling, it's a mighty fine, screen doubling :)

Dir: Jean-Pierre Jeunet | Sigourney Weaver & Winona Ryder

1997 - Chasing Amy

Comic book and lifelong best boy friends meet pretty comic book artist at a comic book convention in NYC. One of them falls for her but soon discovers that she is a lessa.

Inspired by a Go Fish scene, in which one of the lesbian characters imagines her friends dissing her for "selling out" by sleeping with a man. Why, did I watch it?

Dir: Kevin Smith | Joey Lauren Adams

1997 - It's in the Water

Unhappily married woman is asked to volunteer at an AIDS hospice that recently opened in her home town. At the annual Azalea Ball, her gay friend drunkenly says the town's water supply is what made him gay. Residents go into a panic...

Cheesy but sweet.

Dir: Kelli Herd | Keri Jo Chapman & Teresa Garrett

1997 - All Over Me

Budding riot grrl and lessa, discovers a gay musician who had just moved into her apartment building, has been stabbed to death in a hate crime and, her best girl friend saw it...

The soundtrack features songs from several indie and riot grrl bands including The Murmurs (Leisha Hailey of the L-word).

Dir: Alex Sichel | Alison Folland & Tara Subkoff

1998 - Gia

Stunning school drop-out arrives in NYC, in the '70s, and soon she becomes cover girl for America's top-selling fashion mags. After the death of her agent she experiments with heavy drugs and starts a passionate affair with a make-up artist...

Based on one of the first supermodels, Gia Marie Carangi who appeared in multiple editions of e.g. Vogue and Cosmopolitan, and appeared in advertising campaigns for iconic fashion ateliers such as Armani, Dior, Versace, Yves Saint Laurent... Say no to, drugs!

Dir: Michael Cristofer | Angelina Jolie & Elizabeth Mitchell

Sapphic Movies: Show Me Love (Fucking Åmål)

1998 - Fucking Åmål (Show Me Love)

Reclusive girl, in a small, dull Swedish town, is in love with popular girl, her classmate but is too shy act on it. Against her wishes, her sweet mother throws a 16th birthday party for her. Popular girl ends up as the only guest...

Hold your horses, the Swedish title is derived from a qoute "Varför måste vi bo i fucking jävla kuk-Åmål?", which roughly translates to "why do we have to live in fucking bloody cock-Åmål?" (a small town in Västra Götaland County, western Sweden). So wished this film came out on my 16th birthday!

Dir: Lukas Moodysson | Alexandra Dahlström & Rebecka Liljeberg

1999 - Aimée & Jaguar

Nazi officer's wife meets and starts a passionate affair with a Jewish woman who lives under a false name and belongs to an underground organisation, in 1943 Berlin.

Based on Erica Fischer's book "Aimée & Jaguaron", and the real lives of Lilly Wust and Felice Schragenheim.

Dir: Max Färberböck | Maria Schrader & Juliane Köhler

1999 - Boys Don't Cry

Popular new guy hangs out with the boys in a tiny Nebraska town. Starts dating the hometown beauty. Life cool. A secret discovered leads to despicable consequences.

Based on the true story of Brandon Teena and his fatal Christmas of 1993. Haunting.

Dir: Kimberly Peirce | Hilary Swank & Chloë Sevigny

1999 - But, I’m a Cheerleader

All-American girl, aceing it at school and cheerleading, and dating a handsome football-buck, yet she aint keen kissing her beau, listens to Melissa Etheridge... Parents send her to a boot camp to straighten her out. There, she meets out n proud teen lezzer...

According to Babbit, her elevator pitch was "Two high-school girls fall in love at a reparative therapy camp."

Dir: Jamie Babbit | Natasha Lyonne & Clea DuVall

Sapphic Movies: Set Me Free (Emporte Moi)

1999 - Emporte Moi (Set Me Free)

Tomboyish teen hitting puberty in Montreal's 60s seeks escapism from her unhappy family life through Jean-Luc Godard's French new-wave movie Vivre Sa Vie. She develops a crush on her female teacher and...

Award wins include Berlin International Film Festival's Special Prize of the Ecumenical Jury

Dir: Léa Pool | Karine Vanasse & Pascale Bussières

Sapphic Movies: If These Walls Could Talk 2

2000 - If These Walls Could Talk 2

1961 - Lifelong partners sit in a cinema watching "The Children's Hour". In disgust a hetty couple walk out at the movie and kids laugh disparagingly when they see the two ladies holding hands. Later at the home one of the ladies falls from a ladder and in hospital is diagnosed as having had a stroke...

Vanessa Redgrave won an Emmy Award and Golden Globe Award for Supporting Actress, and a Screen Actors Guild Award Outstanding Performance by a Female Actor in a Television Movie or Miniseries.

Dir: Jane Anderson? | Vanessa Redgrave & Marian Seldes

2001 - Kissing Jessica Stein

Attractive, Jewish copy editor's brother has just gotten engaged, her best friend is pregnant, and her mother is worried that she will end up on the shelf! A personal ad that includes her favourite quote arouse her interest. But, it is in the "Women Seeking Women" section. Mustletoff she answers the ad...

Inspired by a scene from an '97 off-Broadway play by Westfeldt and Juergensen who star in the movie. The play comprised of vignettes exploring "dating hell". "We had an idea for a skit - two Laura Ashley-clad 'girly-girls' meet at a day spa to negotiate how to become lesbians." Lipschtick!

Dir: Charles Herman-Wurmfeld | Jennifer Westfeldt & Heather Juergense

2001 - Lost and Delirious

Shy newcomer to a posh girls' boarding school is taken under the wing by her two senior roommates. She discovers they are lovers and keeps schtum. One morning, a sister and friends rush into the room to wake-up the older girls and see the lovers lying in the same bed, clearly topless...

Loosely based on the novel "The Wives of Bath" by Susan Swan. Lush!

Dir: Léa Pool | Piper Perabo & Jessica Paré

2001 - Mulholland Drive

Amnesiac car-crash survivor stumbles into an empty Hollywood apartment. Hollywood-hopeful enters and discovers her. Neo-noir, in her purse they find thousands of dollars and a blue key...

David Lynch has refused to comment on Mulholland Drive's meaning or symbolism. Eerie!

Dir: David Lynch | Stars: Naomi Watts & Laura Harring

2002 - Bend It Like Beckham

Daughter of traditional Indian parents, in London, isn't allowed to play football. Her dream is to play football professionally like her idol David Beckham. Playing kick-about in a park, she is spotted by X, who talks her into to playing for her semi-pro team...

Bending the rules? Rumours abound that originally, by the end of the movie, the girls would become an item. Not. Shame!

Dir: Gurinder Chadha | Keira Knightley & Parminder Nagra

2002 - The Hours

On a single day, living in three different decades, three women's stories intertwine, and finally come together through a surprising link...

"The Hours" was the working title of Virginia Woolf's novel "Mrs. Dalloway" and in the movie each house features a different colour of flowers: red, yellow, and blue - Woolf's trademark. Heavy!

Dir: Stephen Daldry | Nicole Kidman, Julianne Moore & Meryl Streep

2002 - Tipping the Velvet

Victorian young seaside waitress falls in love with charming music hall male impersonator. They move to London, waitress joins the act- happy. Then cheated upon (of-course), but new loves...

In the days when there was no iplayer... my Mummy was so happy that I was up visiting her she INSISTED I watch my "programme" downstairs and not upstairs, in my bedroom. Unexpectedly it was the episode of the... DILDO! Traumatised but utterly stellar!

Dir: Geoffrey Sax | Stars: Rachael Stirling & Keeley Hawes

Slick Sapphic Movies