Kino Lorber continues their ongoing series devoted to marginalized early filmmakers with CINEMA’S FIRST NASTY WOMEN. Earlier titles in this series were PIONEERS: AFRICAN AMERICAN CINEMA (2016) and PIONEERS: FIRST WOMEN FILMMAKERS (2018). The title for this December 2022 release is a direct reference to Donald Trump’s calling Hillary Clinton a “nasty woman” during the 2016 presidential campaign. NASTY WOMEN expands on FIRST WOMEN FILMMAKERS by focusing not only on women filmmakers but themes including early feminist protest, slapstick female rebellion, and gender reversal. The 99 short films, compiled on four discs, were collected from various U.S. and European archives and date from 1898 thru 1926. For the most part they are in pristine condition and all are accompanied by brand new musical scores.
Disc 1, DISASTROUS DOMESTICS & ANARCHIC TOMBOYS, introduces us to the hitherto unknown characters LEONTINE and LEA. Leontine is a French version of the comic strip character Little Iodine except she’s older and her intentional misdeeds go unpunished. Lea hails from Italy and is an amiable klutz. Their films date from 1910-1912. The other two segments on Disc 1, CATASTROPHE IN THE KITCHEN and CATASTROPHE BEYOND THE KITCHEN, titles self-explanatory, date from 1899-1911 and are mostly American and French. All are comedic in nature with the exception of one Danish offering, FEMALE RIVALS (1906), which is deadly serious.
Disc 2, QUEENS OF DESTRUCTION, contains 34 films. The majority of these are French and focus on CUNEGONDE (a female Inspector Clouseau), and two other characters, ROSALIE and PETRONILLE. Among the U.S. offerings is a rare Fatty Arbuckle two reel comedy FATTY & MINNIE HE-HAW (1914) featuring Native American performer Minnie Devereaux who matches Arbuckle scene for scene. This film is from the TYRANNY AT HOME segment which also includes Vitagraph star Florence Turner in one of her British films DAISY DOODAD’S DIAL from 1914 (“Dial” being Brit slang for “face” and the film is about a face-making competition) as well as a 1911 Vitagraph comedy HYPNOTIZING THE HYPNOTIST satirizing the popular melodrama, SVENGALI.
Disc 3 focuses on GENDER FRONTIERS and starts off with three NAN, THE GIRL SPY films from 1910-11. These tell the tales of a Southern belle who uses manly disguises to assist the Confederates in battling the Union army which isn’t exactly a politically correct theme these days. This is followed by four D.W. Griffith shorts starring Edna “Billy” Foster, a young girl performer who always played a boy. Closing out the disc are a number of films with a Western setting. Many of these deal with Native Americans and come tagged with a warning that they contain “racist images.” Two of the films have had objectionable titles changed in the listings, but not in the original credits, as the presenters claim they don’t wish to “whitewash history”.
Disc 4, FEMALE TRICKSTERS, features American films. The chapters on this disc are titled DON’T BELIEVE YOUR EYES, ROMANCE IN DISGUISE, and TOPSY-TURVY GENDER MADNESS. The films, produced between 1908 and 1926, include such offerings as THE BOY DETECTIVE, PHIL FOR SHORT, SHE’S A PRINCE and WHAT’S THE WORLD COMING TO. The entire CFNW collection runs 875 minutes and also features 11 short documentaries. There is a 114 page booklet available, but only with the Blu-Ray set. Those who purchase the DVDs will have to use an enclosed QR code to access the information in the booklet. This set is worthy and worth purchasing, however the “woke” POV expressed in the commentaries and the warnings, may not be to everyone’s taste.
The Capsule Critic 