As we know, 8 March is International Women's Rights Day. Of the greatest enemies of this date is undoubtedly the cliché, which can belittle the social achievements laboriously obtained by the gentle sex. Among these stereotypes, there is certainly the one that associates women with poor car driving skills. Well aware of the poor foundation of this equation in real life.That's why we wanted to draw up a list of 5 movies that depicted a female person able to make the plot take an interesting twist also and above all thanks to its relationship with the car. These women share an unparalleled independence and emancipation. At the wheel they are confident and determined. And they are ready to do anything to defend their condition.
1.UMA THURMAN IN "KILL BILL VOL.2"Iconic, aboard her Volkswagen Karmann Ghia - based entirely on the Volkswagen chassis and engine of the Beetle 1200 - the character of the Bride (played by Uma Thurman) is the anti-heroine par excellence. His gaze - in black and white - towards the road aboard the convertible will remain in the history of cinema. An anecdote is linked to it, well witnessed by a video that documents the incident: the actress, during the filming of this scene, was the victim of a car crash, being seriously injured. In fact, at the insistence of director Quentin Tarantino (who, following the incident, regretted it) the presence of a stunt woman was not expected. We cannot, watching this movie, not become attached to his character and his thirst for revenge, designed in detail. The Bride is ticking off the list all her enemies (guilty of having shot her in the head on her wedding day, resulting in a hospital coma and loss of the child she had in her womb) and her anger is palpable, piercing the screen. The character of the Bride, along with that of Mia Wallace in "Pulp Fiction" (also by Tarantino) is perhaps among the most remembered, among those played by Uma Thurman. For this role, in both chapters of the saga, she was nominated for a Golden Globe.
2. GEENA DAVIS E SUSAN SARANDON IN “THELMA E LOUISE”To escape from their boring daily lives, Thelma (Geena Davis) and Louise (Susan Sarandon) decide to spend a weekend in a mountain house, aboard an amazing Ford Thunderbird, without informing their spouses. The journey will take several unexpected turns and culminate in a final decision (those who know the movie know what we are referring to) as sad as it is spectacular. Geena Davis and Susan Sarandon embody in this movie the ideal of the woman who opposes a homely and conformist life. He does it in a way that is certainly not easy, killing a man in self-defense and fleeing from the police. But free from any rules. The Ford Thunderbird became, thanks to this movie, a synonym of freedom and rebellion, imposing itself as one of the most iconic cars in Hollywood, thanks above all to the reckless driving of the two protagonists of the movie.
3. SERENA GRANDI IN "TERESA"Probably not everyone is witnessing a chase between two trucks in the middle of the highway. It is with this scene that an unknown movie opens, but able to provide an insight into the hectic life of truck drivers. We are talking about "Teresa" (1987), directed by Dino Risi. The protagonist is the Romagna Teresa, played by Serena Grandi, a cult actress of the Italian 80s who, once widowed, is forced to pay off a debt of 80 million lire by mid-August of the following year. To succeed, he began to personally transport goods from Germany to Sicily, dodging a long list of admirers. On board a Scania 142, the busty Teresa is most likely a more unique than rare case in Italian cinema: it is in fact rare that women driving the truck are portrayed in the vast filmography of this country. In itself, already starting from this professional role, the movie is a complete outsider. Serena Grandi's magnetic interpretation can only further enhance everything.
4. THE STUNT WOMEN IN "DEATH PROOF" (GRINDHOUSE)Stuntman Mike (Kurt Russell) is a retired stunt double. He has a peculiarity: he loves to kill his victims with a rigged car, a 1970 Chevrolet Nova SS. In his crosshairs enter Abernathy, make-up artist / hairstylist, Kim, stuntwoman, Lee, actress, and Zoë, also stuntwoman. And it is immediately clear that for Stuntman Mike there is no way to carry out his "mission": in a breathtaking chase between the girls aboard a 1970 Dodge Challenger who perform a very risky action number (one of the girls is lying on the hood of the car, tied only thanks to two belts) and Mike on his Chevrolet, The latter will be heavily avenged. "Death Proof" is part of the "Grindhouse" project shared between Quentin Tarantino and director Robert Rodriguez. The movie is inspired by the slasher, a subgenre of horror film in which the main antagonist is a homicidal maniac (often masked) who hunts down a group of people. Here this model is subverted: the female protagonists will in fact prevail.
5. VALERIA BRUNI TEDESCHI AND MICAELA RAMAZZOTTI IN "LA PAZZA GIOIA"There are those who have labeled these two protagonists "the Thelma and Louise Italian style". In fact, it is not very far as a comparison: Beatrice (Valeria Bruni Tedeschi) and Donatella (Micaela Ramazzotti) escape from a community for women suffering from mental disorders. They end up around Italy and among the many places there is also the beautiful villa of Beatrice's mother where a movie is being shot: here the two fugitives manage to pretend to be extras and get on the wonderful Lancia Appia Convertibile, a car that still makes fans of historic cars dream. This car becomes a "historical" witness of the escape of the two protagonists, providing the movie with a further touch of elegance.
