As they tour Sweden in a theatrical production of "Lysistrata", performing to often uncomprehending audiences, three women find their own lives and marriages mirrored in Aristophanes’s play. Soon, onstage drama, offstage reality, and surrealist fantasies begin to collide.
Näyttelijättäret, Les filles, Τα κορίτσια, Le ragazze, Dziewczeta, As Raparigas, Девушки, Die Mädchen, 女伶们, Les Filles, Dziewczęta, Les noies, Τα Κορίτσια του Θεάτρου, Fetele, 걸스
Romania15 
Sweden11 
12 Romania Sweden
Knowing that all the white male film critics in Sweden in 1968 completely despised this film just made me love it even more
A combative yet playful work interested in praxis, not theory. Political films, especially arthouse films, speak to the converted (primarily). At worst, they do politics for us and thus disincentive actual action; actually, at worst they foster hypocrisy: people happy to appreciate political statements in art while actually not upholding those principles through their actions.
This last point can be shown through many male characters in this film, who celebrate a feminist play but actively uphold the patriarchy. The intersection of the literary, or the fictive/theoretical, and reality is the core of this film. It uses Aristophanes’ Lysistrata to push this — the film being built around a troupe touring the play. A lesser film would merely use this play,…
With a sparkling cast and wry narrative invention, life and art merge seamlessly in Mai Zetterling's ingenious dive into gender relations. It works both as a feminist tome and a salty comedic farce as duel narratives intertwine, an ancient Greek play transformed into chic helvetica cool.
"Actors are always quoting lines, confusing theater and reality."
Women Film Editors #52: Wic Kjellin
AKA Men Ain't Shit: The Movie.
After two decades of experience in front of the camera, Swedish actress Mai Zetterling turned to screenwriting and directing in the early 1960s, putting her personal touch on stories focused on girls and women. When the Manhattan arthouse theater Film Forum showed a retrospective of her work this past May, Zetterling's career was summed up thusly: "Born to a working-class family in Västerås, Sweden, MAI ZETTERLING (1925-1994) first came to international attention as the 'sweet, blonde, and defenseless' (Leif Furhammar) star in post-war Swedish, British, and Hollywood movies. But she made her mark in the 1960s as the director…
canonize this.
This one’s going out for Mai Elisabeth Zetterling, born May 24, 1925.
“It’s up to us women to do something about the world.”
The Girls, the fourth feature directed by Zetterling, is occasionally boring and lacking in subtlety, but there was nothing else like it in 1968. Liz (Bibi Andersson), Marianne (Harriet Andersson), and Gunilla (Gunnel Lindblom) star in a production of Lysistrata touring the north of Sweden. Their characters in the play overlap with their real and fantasy selves as they consider how they are taken seriously only as wives, lovers, and mothers. As Aristophanes’ women assert themselves, the actresses try to do the same in their personal and professional lives with mixed results, the film ending with distorted…
Alternating between Grecian theatrics and dreamlike wanderings, Mai Zetterling's take on Lysistrata is a frank, funny, and introspective glimpse into the lives of three actresses, whose romantic experiences intersect with the themes of the play as they are performing it on tour. Through internal monologues, fanciful dream sequences, readings from the text, and slice of life moments, the film expounds upon its themes of patriarchal traditions in the supposedly "modern" age as well as the idea of ive vs active consumption of culture. It's not exactly subtle in its gender politics but the earnest performances, stylish visuals, and almost playful construction made for an enjoyable and thought-provoking watch. I think I loved it. No wait: I did!
Good lord, where has this been hiding? Both dramatic and experimental, chic but also kinda punk, baldly and bleakly political but so much fun — I'm a little shocked this doesn't occupy a more prominent position in "cinephile" culture. Even in books and essays and overviews specifically about films by women, I feel like I've rarely come across any writing about this. Maybe I've just been reading the wrong books?
Anyway, Zetterling really goes all out here just in of the variety of film language and technique she employs — so many different kinds of shots and cuts; different styles of music used in usual and unusual ways; multi-character voiceover; flashbacks, dream sequences, and pieces of Lysistrata all seamlessly…
And the Oscar for Casting in an International Masterpiece goes to…
It just doesn’t get much better than this, with a plethora of 60s Swedish powerhouses pushing the fantastic script along.
A film based on a Greek play and the three women that are caught up in its mesmerisingly unrelatable web, ‘Flickorna‘ is another Mai Zetterling stunner.
Bergman just called. He wants his leading ladies back. Oh, wait. He can't. Because he's already overworking Liv Ullmann.
Women in Cinema Pt. III
40/50
The division between reality and fantasy is blurred to great effect with this criminally underseen film by Mai Zetterling. You could call this a surreal comedy, though to me the comedy was more stupefying than funny. There are a lot of WTF moments that add to the tone of the film, and it's quite visually striking as well!
this kind of made the perfect accidental double feature with MARIE ANTOINETTE as that movie is all about a woman whose useless husband refuses to fuck her and this movie is all about women who refuse to fuck their useless husbands. highly recommend!
