Reverse Bechdel Test?

[dreamshark]

Is there an equivalent for the male gender - a way of identifying movies where men never talk to each other (with one gender-stereotyped exception - maybe conversations about blowing stuff up?).

Admittedly, this test wouldn't be needed very often, but just for symmetry, y'know. Anyway, it occurs to me that Cold Comfort Farm might be one of those movies. Flora talks to every other character in the movie, male or female. In fact, that's pretty much what the movie is about - Flora talking to one person after another, trying to set things right in their lives. But offhand, I can't remember any scenes of two men talking to each other. There is one scene where Reverend Amos thunderously addresses the Quivering Brethren, but I wouldn't exactly call that a conversation. Significantly, the sermon is bracketed by two scenes where Amos is deep in conversation with Flora, in the second of which she makes the suggestion that transforms his life.

Comments

[barondave.livejournal.com]

Gone With the Wind? When Harry Met Sally? Terminator?

[thorintatge.livejournal.com]

Interesting notion, that test. I hadn't heard of it, though I've read some of the comic strip it originally came from. The Bechdel test doesn't sound very strict, but it looks like surprisingly many movies don't pass it.

As for Cold Comfort Farm--a very amusing movie--there is the movie producer, who exchanges a few words with other men at the ball and later talks with Seth when he recruits him. And I think some of the men in the family exchange a few words in the big gloomy family scenes. But it does come pretty close.